Several months ago, Ethan and Rebecca invited John and me to join them for a trip to Denver, Colorado. It was within driving distance for them, and thankfully tickets were very inexpensive (and direct) for us. I must admit that I wasn't too thrilled about Denver itself having been there before, but something about us Kennedys is that we can always make it a party no matter the location, right?
After getting home late the night before from Mackinac Island, we were up at 5 a.m. to catch our 8 a.m. flight out of Detroit. Glo was a champ, agreeing to drive us to the airport before she had to go to church. We got to the airport right on time, and having flown Spirit airlines before, I now know to NOT pay for a checked bag even though it is cheaper than the carry-on fee. We avoided the lines to "tag your bag" and just walked through security. All seemed perfect until the flight attendant came over the speaker and told us that our flight was delayed two hours.
Oh my gosh, that's two hours of sleep we could have had (not to mention sleep Glo could have had)!
I bought myself some McDonald's for breakfast, and we waited.
I hate flying Spirit airlines. Agreed, you can't beat their prices, but I hate the fact that they don't even serve complimentary water. And the seats are super tight. However, we arrived safely...but two hours late.
We were supposed to go to church with Ethan and Rebecca at 10 a.m., but that plan was obviously scrapped when we didn't even land until 11:00. Then, I had found a place that would rent us a van for a good price, but as it turns out, it wasn't in the terminal, or at the rental building via the terminal shuttle. It was 15 minutes off airport with it's own shuttle that just came at random times. So after a two hour flight delay and exhaustion already setting in, we were standing outside in 90-degree heat waiting for a shuttle we were unsure of would even come. And of course no person would answer any of the phone numbers I was given.
It finally came though. And once we were at the rental place, it was a good 45 minutes to get the actual van.
So we canceled lunch at Qdoba with Ethan and Rebecca and met them at 1:00 church just minutes before it started.
I honestly could have cared less about what was happening in that ward (there was a speaker who went on for a good half hour about his multitude of health problems)--we just wanted to see our little family.
I kid you not--everytime I see Ethan, Rebecca, Baby and Brother, my heart grows two more sizes. Just when I think I can't love them enough, I feel more love for them.
So we still needed to eat, seeing as John hadn't eaten anything that day except an apple, and it was 4 p.m. our time (makes you wonder why we didn't just fast, doesn't it?). We thought Applebee's would be easy and fast, and it would have been if we hadn't had a toddler who didn't want to go there, a hungry baby, a son who receives a phone call about a job he's considering, and a table that wobbled every time we even touched it!
After horking down some food (can't even remember what I ordered), we headed to our Airbnb rental. It wasn't looking good when we were set to arrive in just one minute, and there was garbage in the streets, bars on the windows and doors and groups of shady-looking men standing on corners. And let's not forget the potent aroma of marijuana floating down the street. We unloaded our cars, double (and triple) checked that we locked them tight and headed in. The house inside however was beautiful, but very, VERY warm. It was 83 degrees, so we cranked up the air conditioning. And in an hour, it was up another two degrees. John and I took the basement bedroom, but it was even too warm to sleep down there (yes, we tried to take a short nap). We figured something might be wrong.
So several calls were placed to the owner, and we finally received a text back, telling us that he had discovered that the a/c wasn't working...the day before--and that he was working on getting someone out the following week.
We proceeded to spend the next three or four hours getting a refund on our rental and finding a new one. I have the funniest picture in my mind of Ethan, Rebecca and John, sitting around on a computer and phones, trying to make new arrangements, and Baby, Brother and I entertaining ourselves, all while sweating through our clothes. Seriously, it was so dang hot.
Because we got a $200 coupon on a future rental because of our trouble, we were able to upgrade our rental to a nicer house in a hip Denver neighborhood. I've seriously never been so happy to crawl into a rental bed as I was that night.
After getting home late the night before from Mackinac Island, we were up at 5 a.m. to catch our 8 a.m. flight out of Detroit. Glo was a champ, agreeing to drive us to the airport before she had to go to church. We got to the airport right on time, and having flown Spirit airlines before, I now know to NOT pay for a checked bag even though it is cheaper than the carry-on fee. We avoided the lines to "tag your bag" and just walked through security. All seemed perfect until the flight attendant came over the speaker and told us that our flight was delayed two hours.
Oh my gosh, that's two hours of sleep we could have had (not to mention sleep Glo could have had)!
I bought myself some McDonald's for breakfast, and we waited.
I hate flying Spirit airlines. Agreed, you can't beat their prices, but I hate the fact that they don't even serve complimentary water. And the seats are super tight. However, we arrived safely...but two hours late.
We were supposed to go to church with Ethan and Rebecca at 10 a.m., but that plan was obviously scrapped when we didn't even land until 11:00. Then, I had found a place that would rent us a van for a good price, but as it turns out, it wasn't in the terminal, or at the rental building via the terminal shuttle. It was 15 minutes off airport with it's own shuttle that just came at random times. So after a two hour flight delay and exhaustion already setting in, we were standing outside in 90-degree heat waiting for a shuttle we were unsure of would even come. And of course no person would answer any of the phone numbers I was given.
It finally came though. And once we were at the rental place, it was a good 45 minutes to get the actual van.
So we canceled lunch at Qdoba with Ethan and Rebecca and met them at 1:00 church just minutes before it started.
I honestly could have cared less about what was happening in that ward (there was a speaker who went on for a good half hour about his multitude of health problems)--we just wanted to see our little family.
I kid you not--everytime I see Ethan, Rebecca, Baby and Brother, my heart grows two more sizes. Just when I think I can't love them enough, I feel more love for them.
So we still needed to eat, seeing as John hadn't eaten anything that day except an apple, and it was 4 p.m. our time (makes you wonder why we didn't just fast, doesn't it?). We thought Applebee's would be easy and fast, and it would have been if we hadn't had a toddler who didn't want to go there, a hungry baby, a son who receives a phone call about a job he's considering, and a table that wobbled every time we even touched it!
After horking down some food (can't even remember what I ordered), we headed to our Airbnb rental. It wasn't looking good when we were set to arrive in just one minute, and there was garbage in the streets, bars on the windows and doors and groups of shady-looking men standing on corners. And let's not forget the potent aroma of marijuana floating down the street. We unloaded our cars, double (and triple) checked that we locked them tight and headed in. The house inside however was beautiful, but very, VERY warm. It was 83 degrees, so we cranked up the air conditioning. And in an hour, it was up another two degrees. John and I took the basement bedroom, but it was even too warm to sleep down there (yes, we tried to take a short nap). We figured something might be wrong.
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| We were stripped down to the least amount of clothes possible! |
We proceeded to spend the next three or four hours getting a refund on our rental and finding a new one. I have the funniest picture in my mind of Ethan, Rebecca and John, sitting around on a computer and phones, trying to make new arrangements, and Baby, Brother and I entertaining ourselves, all while sweating through our clothes. Seriously, it was so dang hot.
 |
| The ONE time I don't bring my laptop on a trip! Notice all the phones?? |
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Because we got a $200 coupon on a future rental because of our trouble, we were able to upgrade our rental to a nicer house in a hip Denver neighborhood. I've seriously never been so happy to crawl into a rental bed as I was that night.
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