Moving right along...

Okay, this is taking way too long and probably not really THAT interesting to other people!

After the family time at the restaurant, we headed back to Grandpa's house and did some more sorting, packing, donating and dealing with all that comes with a death in the family.

Saturday night Dad, Tori & I said goodbye to Joanie, Chad, Jonathan, Kristen and William. Then we headed to dinner, came back for a good night's sleep and got up early Sunday morning to drive the four hours from Tulare to the Sacramento Airport. All was going well until about 7:30 AM when my cell phone rang and it was Mark. A raging snow & ice storm had gone through the northwest and all flights into Seattle & Portland were cancelled. As in, I wasn't going to get home Sunday afterall!

I started out by calling one of my best friends, Miriam. She and her family recently moved from Las Vegas to Sacramento (how convenient!!) and I knew she would have mercy on Tori & I. Sure enough, she was more than happy to pick us up and take us home. BUT...we had to get a new flight booked before we could leave the airport.

We stood in line for four hours and spent another two and a half hours at the front counter working with the ticketing agents. Tori played with her carseat, ate her snacks, read her books, stripped all her clothes off (TWICE!) and informed me, while I was standing at the front counter with no place to go, that her diaper was yucky. So, I did what any good airline passenger would do: I put her blankey down on the checked luggage scale and changed her diaper. No way was I giving up my place in line and leaving my luggage to go change her diaper in the bathroom!

After lots of negotiating with other airlines, Alaska Airlines got me a guaranteed flight the next day from Sacramento to Los Angeles to stay with my brother until Portland thawed out. The best they could do was to get me into Portland Christmas Day at 4:30 PM (weather permitting). My other option was to fly to Reno to stay with my dad and stepmom until New Years Eve. Or I could stay in Sacramento at the airport and fly standy-by until December 28th.

We took the LA flight and headed to Miriam's for the night.

Miriam's two year old daughter shared her toys with Tori and they had a ball. Miriam and I took advantage of our unexpected time together and caught up on our girl-talk. We got the kiddos to sleep, ate snacks, drank rum & cokes and stayed up late.

The next morning, she took us BACK to the Sacramento airport and we hitched our ride to LA. Jonathan picked us up at the airport and took us to his and Kristen's apartment where Tori and Will looked a little confused. They had just seen eachother and said goodbye two days ago. And here they were again. Hmmm...

We stayed all week with them. I checked the stand-by list every day to see what our wait would be like to try and get home. Tuesday all flights were still cancelled. Wednesday I called at 8:30 in the morning and I was number 86 on the stand-by list. Wednesday I was number 97. Thursday, we opened Christmas presents with my brother, sister in law, nephew, cousin and auntie and then headed to the airport. I overheard a couple get on the stand-by list as passengers 107 and 108. They were told they would be better off going home and booking new flights for about three days out. I was thanking God for taking such good care of us all that week. I was blessed with people to stay with, a warm shower every day, clean clothes and good company the entire time I had been "stranded" in California.

We went through security and headed to our gate.

Our flight was delayed.
We went and got lunch.
It was delayed again.
And then we boarded. And then we were off!

We made it home that night. And did Christmas as a family Saturday morning. Yay for unexpected family time and a Christmas we won't forget!