Four days after getting back from Idaho we
boarded a plane to take a vacation to Florida with the whole Willis family.
We got on our airplane at 7:40am. At 12:20, over 4 1/2 hours later, we landed in...
LAS VEGAS!
Here's how that happened...
Boarded at 7:40am. We sat for an hour before an announcement was made that there was trouble with communication equipment in the cockpit. So we sat while they worked... and worked... and got new parts... and worked...
Elise being her pleasant self through the whole ordeal.
Isis happily entertaining herself.
Two hours later they finally got the
equipment fixed but reported that all air traffic was "frozen" until Air Force One took off. (Add it to the list of why Obama sucks.) So we had to wait for Air Force One and then all the backed up plane traffic, another hour.
Little girls can only last for so long.
Okay, so that was pretty crappy but now we were on our way. We took off. We might be able to make our connecting flight in Dallas by the skin of our teeth. Then there was a clunk sound... but we were still flying. Within two minutes there was an announcement,
"Ladies and gentlemen, there is some trouble with the landing equipment. We are going to turn around and fly low by the flight tower. They should be able to see and tell us if there is a problem."
So we did. And there was.
But could we land right then? Oh no because the plane had been filled with fuel to get us to Dallas and now we were too heavy to land. So we CIRCLED LAS VEGAS for an HOUR and a HALF!!! Holy freakin' cow!!! The flight to Dallas was only TWO hours!!! We could have burned off the fuel going to there!!! AHHHH!!!
While we circled I got to do something I never have in a plane (and that's saying something). We prepared for an emergency landing. Put your head to your knees and hold under your knees/thighs. Isis was perfect for it since she can bend right in half. Jeremy had a little trouble convincing Elise that this was how she needed to stay for an extended period of time. But we all managed.
So, after being in this ridiculously hot plane longer than the entire plane time to Florida would have been - we "emergency" landed back in Las Vegas. (Can it really be an emergency if it took an hour and a half?)
Our oh-so-special plane was greeted with these:
Clark County Fire trucks
This time they actually let us get off the plane while they "fixed" it. I said there was no way in hell I was getting back on that plane anyway. So I went to find a new flight.
Instead of trying to do this all over again, I opted not to go home and just get a flight to Dallas, where they would put us in a hotel until the flight to Florida the next day.
We waited another 3 hours at the airport for the next flight.
(But we got a free lunch.)
The flight to Dallas went smoothly, aside from the fact that I was freaking out because I had enough formula with me for 24 hours... you know, just in case something happened. Obviously it did. I just didn't anticipate it taking more than 24 hours. There is no formula in the
Las Vegas airport, no formula in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, and I had no way of obtaining formula at the hotel in Dallas (though they did call the gas station across the street... which didn't have any). So Elise drank the last of our formula at about 10pm, we managed to get the girls to sleep, and we crashed around midnight.
We woke up about 4:30 to Isis coughing, then puking... everywhere. "Convenient" timing since we had to leave the hotel at 5am to get the shuttle to get to the airport on time. We bathed Isis, packed up our pajamas, left a tip and apology for the cleaning lady, and rushed out the door.
We asked any and everyone in the airport that had a baby if they had extra formula. We received some sympathetic but mostly surprised/crazy looks. We got our tickets, got to security, and the agent said that Elise wasn't listed as a lap child so we had to go get new tickets. Are you freakin' kidding me?? Then Isis puked on the floor at the lady's feet. Oh well, we had to go get new tickets.
Somehow after another 45 minute delay and some more Isis vomit, we got on the plane, flew to Florida, (more Isis puke), picked up our rental car and drove to the house we were staying at. I don't know how Elise lasted so long without a bottle but she was awesome and that was our own little miracle.
So now we were in Florida... and ready to be finished with our vacation.
Jumping water is always fun.
Gwin family at Epcot
fiber optic sidewalk - cool
It looked way more cared for when we lived there. It was also brand new then.
The swamp at the end of the neighborhood that had alligators that lived there. We also went canoeing in it with my dad.
The "forest" we were walking in when one of my friends who was casualy kicking rocks, kicked one into my head and I was bleeding profusely and when I took a bath all the water turned red and later my friend didn't want to talk to me because he felt so bad. -Straight from my 7 year old memory.
Playing around a "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" set
And the look on her face when she met Minnie - priceless. She was so happy.
Isis and Elise enthralled with Beauty and the Beast - in real life! :).JPG)
Flying a dinosaur with Grandpa and her uncles.
Elise keeping cool with drool and a fan.
Jeremy rockin' out. Disney's even for big kids.
Elise had a special bond with Uncle Stephen.
Petting goats (when they were off their playground)
You know you have a good uncle if he feeds you to a hippo.
Wednesday we stopped at the Orlando Temple then went to Cocoa Beach.
.JPG)
