What May or May NOT Happen When You Fly on an Airplane

I want to start off by saying that my trip to Jamaica was AMAZING!!!  I loved every minute of it from the 30 degree weather, to the waterpark, to the horseback riding on the beach and into the ocean with my girlies, to the hiking up Dunns River Falls and going Tubing down the river, to the family dinners and the playing on the beach.  It was the best vacation I could hope for.  I only wished that I could have gotten there a bit sooner.  But, alas, it was not meant to be. 
Because of my facebook statuses while I was going through the nightmare of trying to get to Jamaica, I have had a lot of requests to expand on my journey and give out more details.  Be careful what you wish for. . . you are in for quite a ride. . . as we were!!!

DECEMBER 26, 2009
- new security measures
- every passenger can only bring 1 carry-on piece of luggage
- each passenger (even Lee) is completely body searched and patted down by a guard
- each person's one carry-on is opened and completely searched
- takes 3 1/2 hours to board the plane
-arrive in Houston 20 minutes after connecting flight leaves
- miss connecting flight from Houston to Miami (where we are supposed to connect through a different airline to Jamaica)
- are told that my brother can get a flight out of there on Sunday, my parents on Monday morning and my family on Monday morning
- are told we can also try to go on stand-by
- decide to try stand-by
- arrange with other airline to rebook our connecting tickets to Jamaica in case we miss our flight
- stand-by flight comes and only 5 people can go
- my brother and his wife and baby and my sister and her husband and baby get on the flight
- Mom, Dad, Jenna, Kristin and my family are all stuck in Houston
- make arrangements to go on Sunday morning on Standby, my parents and sisters are on standby to go through Miami and my family is on Standby to go directly to Jamaica
- baggage is all sent to Miami
- get overnight kits from airport as we now have no luggage as our second carry-on bag which held all of our spare clothes in case anything like this happened is now in Miami
- stay at the beautiful Marriott hotel in Houston
- put kids to bed in underwear and wash all of their clothes in the sink so they will be clean for the next day

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27
- wake up and realize that Lee is gone
- frantically search hotel room, hallways, pool area and etc looking for him
- call front desk to alert security
- informed that front desk has Lee and that he had wandered out at about 3:30 in the morning in just a diaper and a bottle
- Otto convinces police he is not negligent and we get Lee back
- Parents and sisters get on early standby flight (later we find out that we could have gotten on that one too)
- not enough room on our standby flight for us
- try two more standby flights before giving up and sending Otto and kids back to the hotel
- I get boarding passes for direct flight to Jamaica from Houston
- talk to other airline and find out that my ticket has been cancelled because I didn't make the original flight
- convince them to reinstate the ticket so that I can get home from Jamaica when my vacation is over
- get another overnight kit from the airline because bags are still in Miami and they won't send them back to Houston because I am leaving the next day
- get back to hotel and am told there is another situation involving Lee
- Dustin has completely locked Lee inside the room while Lee is napping and there is no way to get to him.
- Engineering department from the hotel come and take off one of the doors so we can get to Lee
- Lee sleeps through the whole thing
- take kids to the mall for something to do and buy them another set of clothing
- go to sleep, excited to finally be on our way

MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2009
- get up, feed kids, go to airport
- go through security
- check in at gate
- get called up and told there is a problem with the tickets
- find out that the second airline wouldn't release their portion of the ticket to the first airline and unless they do this, we can't board the plane
- wait anxiously while an angel named Nicole works her magic
- finds out that the other airline cancelled my ticket again even though I had already talked to them about it
- this causes major problems and the second airline won't release the ticket
- finally get the airline to release the ticket just as they close the door to the airplane
- we are denied access to the airplane even though they just barely closed the door and the jetway is still connected
- all 7 of us cry as we realize we will be in Houston another day
- try to cheer up all 5 of the kids while we make arrangements to stay in Houston for yet another day with the airline paying for our accomodations
- my angel Nicole takes me around the airport to make sure that everything is in order for the next day
- get stopped by at least 6 employees of the airline amazed that we are still stuck in the airport
- all arrangements are made to get on the plane the next morning
- talk to baggage department and they will not send baggage on to Jamaica ahead of us and they will not send the baggage directly to Jamaica at all
- arrange to have baggage sent back to Houston and then onto Jamaica on Wednesday
- pick up some more overnight kits
- take kids to see a movie to raise their spirits
- find a laundry facility in the hotel and am able to wash clothes while my family sits in their underwear in the hotel room
- talk to other employees of the airline while doing laundry and they are shocked that we weren't allowed to get on the plane.  They inform me that they reopen the doors all the time in situations like this.
- this makes me mad agan!
- have sleepless night

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29
- get up, go to airport, go through security
- go to gate check-in extremely early to double and triple check that there are no problems with tickets
- everything is good
- we fly to Jamaica
- lots more boring things happen but we don't care. . . we are there
- no bags, so we make arrangements to have them sent to us when they arrive
- my family greets the bus as we pull into the resort
- I have never been so glad to see them
- have an amazing night and the kids are ecstatic to be there
- glad that my 4 days in the Houston airport are over


So now you know.  This was our airplane ride from H-E-double hockey sticks.  I was so relieved to see my family at the resort and I had such an amazing time in Jamaica once we got there.  My next post will have pictures.
Even though my family and I were going through this airplane nightmare, I know that God was watching us.  He seemed to send me some angels every time I felt completely overwhelmed.  I will forever be grateful for Nicole and all of the help that she gave me.
I didn't think that the incident at the airport affected me very much, but ever since I have gotten home, I have not been able to sleep because I have been having nightmares about it.  Hopefully the next time I travel I will have a better experience and that will calm me down a bit.
So there you have it.  Our adventure on the way to Jamaica.  I really hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else.