No Flights Out of Yuma

I thoroughly enjoyed our holiday in Arizona. We left Portland really early and had a long lay-over in LA, so we were pretty tired when got to Yuma Christmas Eve. But my mother-in-law took the boys to church, and Monkey Man and I managed to get all our presents wrapped before falling asleep amid the ribbons.

Now for a little bragging... I scored this Johnathon Adler book, this amazing journaling book which I've barely dipped into, three (!) of these fabulous scarves, and this manicure kit which I'm hoping to try out today (because we woke up to snow, and coffee and a manicure is my idea of a perfect way to spend a snow day). I also made over a dozen of these headbands for one of my nieces, and frankly, almost an entire day spent absorbed in craft project with no interruption from children is a little slice of heaven.

Maybe all that Christmas goodness should have been a warning...

Monkey Man had intended to take the boys to the sand dunes, but my step mother-in-law got sick (and is still not well, good thoughts are greatly appreciated) so the usual New Year's trip fell through. Monkey Man is not so good with the sitting around and being lazy thing. He got bored, called the airline, and switched our tickets so we could leave a day early.

Maybe I should have told him not to break his mother's heart...

It was getting late when got to the Yuma airport that Friday night; we wouldn't land in Portland until after midnight. We hoped the boys would sleep most of the way and hoped we might actually get some sleep since Monkey Man got us upgraded to first class. But when we tried to check in, the attendant told us the flight from Yuma was delayed 1.5 hours - we probably wouldn't make our connection in LA. I laughed a little at Monkey Man. All the drama of getting ready to leave a day early was all for naught. We rescheduled back to our original plans.

Maybe I shouldn't have laughed...

It was late again Saturday night - same flight, different day. My mother-in-law had put noise makers and shiny party hats in my backpack so we could celebrate the New Year even if we were 30,000 feet in the air. Yuma, perhaps it goes without saying, is a small airport. They don't put you through security until they're almost ready to load the plane. We got through security, bought a couple of waters from the vending machine, and made faces at my mother-in-law through the glass because she was waiting until the last moment to leave. And thank goodness she did because just as the bags were being loaded into the belly of the plane, the flight was canceled.

And there were no available seats to leave Yuma until Monday.

At this point it was already feeling like a Stephen King miniseries. But it wasn't over yet.

Because when we got to the airport on Monday morning, that flight was canceled too.

And there were no more available seats to leave Yuma until... Thursday.

I know I've read too many horror novels because I couldn't help thinking, "This is how it starts."

We did manage to leave Yuma on Monday, but it required my aunt-in-law borrowing my mother-in-law's truck to take us to San Diego where we all spent the night in a hotel so we could catch an early morning flight from there, and from San Diego we flew to Denver before finally getting back to Portland.

I can't remember ever being so happy to finally be home...