A peachy place to be...

Our trip started out quite smoothly with getting all our family and luggage into the Bangor airport in one trip. We got to the check-in counter, gave our last name, and the lady read off my name and the girls..."and Matthew", I said...a moment of panic when she didn't reply back as she looked at the screen, but then she found him under his own name, separate from the rest of us. We got our luggage checked in with no problems and we headed upstairs to wait for our flight to be announced to board. The kids had a great time playing in the children's area, excitement was in the air. Things are going great...and then our boarding gets delayed. We wait another hour and then we get to board the plane. While waiting in line to board, Eleanor asks in surprise, "Are all of these people going to Grandma & Grandpa's too?!" The kids watched movies during the flight, Zach took a nap and then wandered from Matt to me, me to Matt (we were in different rows), we ate snacks, and had a good flight.


We get to Atlanta (hoping our next flight was delayed as well), show the connection information lady our ticket and she sends us to gate A10, so we go from concourse C to concourse A on a train, after going down an escalator, only to see that this gate was boarding to Tampa...not what we want. Matt talks to the guy at the counter, who gives us encouraging news...it is going to be nearly impossible to get a flight to Salt Lake City...and he sends us to a gate in concourse B. Escalator, train, concourse B, get on standby list, wait, plane leaves full of passengers without us, we head to concourse A...escalator, train, I'm carrying Eleanor at this point and losing my energy, and we plop ourselves down to wait again. We put in movies for the kids and wait...

...the plane leaves full without us again and we mentally prepare ourselves to spend the night in the Atlanta airport. Matt goes to see if we can get on a different flight the next day and the kids and I wait. It is about 10pm now and we are all hungry at this point and tired of course. The girls and I are snacking on disgusting fries and imitation burgers. Matt comes back with good news...we are booked on a flight...but not until Sunday, Christmas Eve. We find an empty gate to get comfortable in (Zach and Eleanor are already asleep at this point), Zoe and Emily watch a movie. At midnight, all the kids are asleep, either on the floor or on a chair.


I lay down on the chairs around 12:30 and sleep on and off until 3:30. Zach wakes up at this point, so we put a movie in for him. We watch people work and walk by, listen to the announcements over the loudspeaker over and over again. The first flight to leave for Salt Lake in the morning was leaving at 7:00, so when the time finally came to go watch the standby list, we did. It didn't look hopeful. When the plane was mostly boarded, the guy at the counter started calling out standby names, but the majority of the standby people weren't there, so we heard him say, "Erickon". We are ready to split up if we need to, so Zach and I are ready to board the plane. We wait to see if any other seats will be available and there is one. So Eleanor, Zach, and I say goodbye to Matt, Zoe and Emily and we board the plane. Eleanor sits in 30A, near the window next to a couple who have a little boy, probably a little younger than Zach and I sit in 39B, hoping that Eleanor is going to be alright by herself. Zach falls asleep during take-off, so I wait for him to wake up before I go check on Eleanor. It is a long flight, but I am happy to be on it. Eleanor does great. The mom next to Eleanor said she entertained them and was very good. I was relieved. I have never been so happy on a trip to Utah to land in Utah! Matt's dad, brother, and niece were at the airport to meet us. I didn't expect to see our luggage for at least a few days, but thanks to Matt's brother's flying expertise, he managed to get all of our bags. Yay! When I boarded the plane in Atlanta, Matt and I were very hopeful that he and the girls would be able to catch the next flight out to Salt Lake, but it didn't happen. They didn't get on any of the flights that day, so they stayed in a hotel and waited for their Christmas Eve flight to San Diego and then to Salt Lake. We would see them around 4:30pm on Christmas Eve. I was an emotional wreck on Christmas Eve! I talked with Matt in the morning and I couldn't stop crying after that. It wasn't until after Matt and the girls arrived and Matt and I talked that I was able to stop crying. We went over to Matt's brother's home (a different brother) to have Christmas Eve dinner. It was nice to be together as a family, eat a delicious meal, be surrounded by extended family, and be in a home that was beautifully decorated for Christmas. It felt good. Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor LOVE playing with their cousins. They play like they see each other all the time.

It was really a miracle that Eleanor, Zach, and I were able to get to Salt Lake on Saturday. I was able to do our last minute Christmas shopping and wrap the gifts that evening, which was part of the original plan.

We had a very nice Christmas with Matt's parents. It was fun to watch the girls open their gifts. Zach was never interested in opening his gifts, but he liked playing with them after someone else opened them.

The stockings were hung with care...

Zoe and Emily received the American Girl dolls they wanted from Santa, and Santa brought Eleanor a doll named Amanda, but Eleanor calls her Sarah...

Zach loves his magnetic toy that Santa brought, and everyone else likes to play with it, too!...

Zoe and Emily each received their favorite toy from the magazine they looked at over and over again...


Matt's brothers and sister and their families came over to visit throughout the day, which was fun. The girls played with their cousins, and the older cousins were all happy to play American Girl dolls together.

Matt, Zoe, and Emily gave me this magnet for Christmas...

Maybe someday our family will have the same opinion.