Hmmm......

The week leading up to our travels was very busy with packing, class parties, wrapping presents and organizing the house so it isn't a wreck when we get home!  I also had a visit to the eye doctor since my arthritis flared up (I just had to write something about how good it had been in my Christmas letter...go figure).
Friday morning everything went very smoothly, Ryan even got to sit down and watch a little t.v. before we went to get the kids from school.  We arrived at the airport, checked our bags and went right to the  gate.  Ryan noticed that the flight time had changed from 5:05 to 7, so I asked and they said they plane was coming from the east coast and had weather delays.  GREAT!!!  3 kids at the airport for an extra 2 hours :o(.  Not only that, but we were going to arrive at the lake right around bedtime, but that was blown out of the water too!  They finally started sending texts about the delays and it kept getting worse and worse.  The plane finally arrived at 7:45, but they had sent a crew member on another flight, so they had to find a replacement.  That took another hour!!!  So, we ended up finally getting on the plane at 8:45 and spent 5 hours at the airport and Reggie was ready to just go home.  K doesn't do that well with so much stimulation, so he was a bit of a challenge and decided to go find me all by himself when he was several gates away.  Very scary and we had some serious talks about strangers and the importance of staying right next to us.  There was also a fire in the next terminal, so they routed many of those flights to where we were, making it especially busy.  Hard to find a time-out place at the airport!
We were very happy to get on the plane and the kids just watched a show and looked out the window.  We had a little bit of ear pain because K and Ainsley have a cold, but they did a good job of powering through.

Notice my nice big red eye due to my dilated pupil...

The plane landed close to 11 and the airport was a madhouse.  It was pouring down rain and Uncle Rich brought us the truck, but it was so busy, he was 3 lanes over.  In the process of wrapping the luggage in plastic, installing the car seats and getting the kids in the car, we left K's suitcase in the middle of the road, but we didn't realize until we'd driven over an hour to mom and dad's.  The kids fell asleep in the car and we stayed up until 2 trying to track down the bag.  It was nowhere to be found.
They were up bright and early the next day and the Liha, mom and I went shopping for some clothes for K.  The kids had a fun time playing and sledding on the packed snow/ice.  By 3:30, I hit my wall and was ready for bed, but my sister really wanted to head back to town to get Santa pictures.  We had an early dinner and gave it a go.  The line was about an hour and a half long and given the state of our family, we bailed.  We did take some pictures by the Santa backdrop and Uncle Wade is going to work on superimposing Santa!

Not quite the start to our trip we were hoping for, but we're here and had a very nice day today :o).  Ryan being a good sport.  Ainsley painted my nails too and they turned out great.

Enjoying putting together foam kits yesterday: