hello. please be prepared for my saddest blog ever... you may want to have kleenexes ready (especially if you are beamee or aunt elaina). below you will find pictures of our aforementioned trip to what i was told would be indiana. you will notice a conspicuous void of lehman family members in these pictures. our story follows...
that was me, bright and early thursday morning (7:30a to be exact). i had been awoken from my warm, cozy bed at 5:15a in order to make it to the airport on time, which i was actually fine with, since i knew we would be going to see lehman family members and friends in indiana. our first flight was scheduled to stop in dallas, where we would change planes and then head to indianapolis. the plane had a few open seats, and so i got to sit by myself (instead of in mommy's lap), which was awesome. i also had one of daddy's work id lanyards to play with, which i thought was the greatest toy ever. i really enjoyed opening and closing the clasp, and this kept me entertained for quite a while...
there was bad weather in dallas, so our plane had to circle around various parts of texas to wait for it to clear so we could land. what was supposed to be a 50-minute flight turned into a 2.5 hour plane ride that ended when we landed in tulsa, oklahoma. although this was definitely not a planned stop on our itinerary, i suppose it was better than running out of gas in mid-air while waiting for better weather in dallas, which is what otherwise would have happened. luckily, i was in a great mood throughout the flight and managed to keep us all entertained...
once we landed in tulsa, it was a slightly different story... i started to get a feeling that this might not turn out well...
it's hard to say exactly how long we were in tulsa, but it was several hours. luckily, hundreds of other people were unintentionally there too. and by luckily, i mean, unluckily, because chaos ensued as all these stranded travelers wondered when and how they would get to their destinations. thankfully, i still had my trusty landyard to get me through the hard times, and so i remained calm...
at some point in the early afternoon, we were told that our plane would be flying to houston, in the hopes of having more opportunities for travelers to get to places besides tulsa. daddy and mommy noted that houston was in quite the opposite direction of indianapolis. it was at this point that we tried to rent a car and just get ourselves to the midwest on our own, but apparently many other people had this idea too and so there were no cars available in the whole town. after much deliberation, we decided that houston was slightly better than tulsa, and we decided to at least stick with our luggage, so on to houston we went... and by this time, things were getting a little crazy...
i had abandoned my lanyard in favor of my thumb, and decided to stick with this for the remainder of the trip. my blankie was also a source of much comfort, and i continued to play it cool...
upon arriving in houston, still with some hope in the air, i enjoyed myself in the airport, climbing on things, making friends with the other stranded travelers, and just being a good boy in general...
however, as the afternoon wore on and hope faded more and more, i started to give in... although there was much flying about and playing in airports, there had not yet been a nap, and it was starting to hit me...
sometime around 6:00p, after missing yet another flight to any city within a 3-hour radius of indy because we were now standby passengers, we made a family decision to give in. we were tired, we were smelly, we were only 3 hours from home - and like a million hours from indy. we were told there were no seats on any flights the rest of thursday or even all day friday. our trip was clearly doomed and not meant to happen. we rented a car, and headed home. i couldn't even stay awake on the airport shuttle to our rental car!
somewhere outside of houston we dined at a lovely chick-fil-a, where i had an accident and had to get my diaper changed in the back of the car, which actually was slightly more pleasant than the airport 'strooms endured during the day...
and finally, we were on the home stretch... i slept nearly the whole way, even through the torrential downpour and thunderstorms that we encountered the last 30 minutes of the drive. mommy and daddy spent that time contemplating the events of the day, trying to deal with the sadness and disappointment, and then figuring out when we would get to try this trip again. it was hard to understand why God did not want us in indiana on this weekend, but He did not, and so we will try, try again...
in the meantime, we are enjoying our free weekend back at home as a little family. on friday, we went to lunch at the restaurant with a playground in the back, so that was fun. and then i got a balloon from the grocery store. all in all, it wasn't a bad weekend because i was such a good boy traveling on thursday and had fun on our little adventure, and balloons really make almost anything okay again...
i'm sorry we didn't get to see our relatives and friends this weekend, but it wasn't meant to be, and now we get to look forward to another trip to indiana real soon! bye!