Heading to the US!

We love Mexico, but the kids and I were excited to be heading back to the US for a month of visiting family and friends. Jessie and I planned her trip to visit us, so she could fly back to Chicago with me and the kids. I'm so glad that we did that because the trip was definitely not smooth sailing!

We had to get the kids up to leave around 5:45 in the morning. The boys were good sports, but Lydia complained the last hour of our hour and a half drive to Leon. Poor Jaime (the Kellogg's driver) had to listen to her scream and cry right behind him...the speed of the car definitely quickened as the screaming continued!

We got to Leon in plenty of time, got some doughnuts, and then headed to our gate to find out that our flight was delayed. Only about 20 minutes, but we didn't have a lot of time to spare in Houston (especially with going through customs).

When I travel with Lydia, I use the go go babyz travelmate that makes the carseat (that I'm bringing on the plane anyway) a stroller. I absolutely love it, but the plane from Leon to Houston was a puddle jumper, so they make you gate-check all bigger carry-ons. It usually works out fine because they have the gate-checked items waiting for you when you get off the plane. Well, it was storming in Houston, so they decided to send all gate-checked items to the belt with all of the luggage. Seriously??

SOO, I ended up having to carry the carseat through the airport and through customs with Lydia walking...thank goodness for Jess being there! If you've ever walked the (probably over)1/2 mile walk to get from the plane to customs in Houston, you know it SUCKED!! Of course we were at the end of the line in customs and had to wait a long time while my two youngest were walking all around the roped area.

By the time we got through customs, picked up our luggage and put it back on the belt, and went through security again (I hate that about international travel!), it was after 1:00 and our flight was at 1:15. Luckily, when we looked at the monitor, our flight was delayed about 20 minutes. Since Houston is huge, Jessie and Nolan ran ahead while I got situated after security. By the time we all got to the gate, they were boarding the plane. At this point, we had only had a doughnut and muffin on the first plane, but we figured some kind of meal would be served, so we weren't too concerned.

Somehow, the seat arrangements that I had set up on the computer got messed up and we only had two seats that were even near each other. With two adults and three kids under 7, that does not work. So, when we got on the plane, we had to stand at the front while they asked people to move so we could have three seats and two seats together. Lydia, Nolan, and I ended up at the front of the plane and Jess and Ethan ended up at the back of the plane.

Everyone was finally in and situated and we were on our way...or so we thought. We ended up sitting on the runway for just under 2 hours while the pilot came on the intercom about 5 different times, "looks like we have an opening, get ready for take-off" and five minutes later, "well, folks, looks like we'll be sitting here a little longer." Seems like every time I got the DVD player out for the kids, I'd have to put it away again for "take-off." Luckily, all of the kids were SO well-behaved. The bad news? All we were served on the plane were pretzels! You're not allowed to take food on the plane in Mexico, so I didn't have anything (except a couple of smuggled fruit snacks) in my backpack. Poor kids!!

The flight was scheduled to get in before 4 and we didn't get in until after 7:00 and they "lost" my sister's luggage which happened to be missing a bottle of Kahlua (which is super cheap here, by the way) when she got it the next day.

All in all, an eventful day, but we made it and headed to Portillo's with my Dad and Anna for a late dinner.