1st airplane ride for Brooks, Reese and Sloane

Steve had a work conference in San Francisco during the week, so I flew with Brooks, Reese and Sloane to meet him for a weekend of fun. I was nervous about this little adventure because I had not flown for almost 5 years and this was the Trio's 1st airplane ride!

I was fully prepared for the 3 1/2 hour plane ride to San Francisco. Brooks, Reese and Sloane each had a backpack filled with activities and snacks. I also brought a portable DVD player and 3 iTouches.

Here they are just before take off: (L-R) Reese, Sloane and Brooks.
Little did I know what was in store for me during this flight! Sloane was not happy with any of the activities and wanted to do something new every 5 minutes. When things did not go her way she would scream and kick and throw a fit. At one point, I literally had to climb over Brooks' seat to get to Sloane. I am sure the people around me thought I was crazy...not to mention the fact that I was wearing a dress so I am sure I flashed some people!

Needless to say, it was a LONG flight!

Luckily, Steve was with us for the flight home from San Francisco. When we boarded the plane Steve gave me a "high 5" to celebrate that we had made it with our 3 children happy and ready to go! Well, we should have know better!

We sat on the airplane for about an hour and finally pulled away from the gate. Our airplane literally made a circle and returned to the gate! The captain came on the speaker to say that there was something wrong with the transponders on our airplane and they needed to be repaired! After another hour of sitting on the airplane, the captain once again spoke on the speaker to tell us our flight had been canceled! It sure would have been nice to know that information before we sat here for 2 hours! So the entire airplane evacuated and returned to the ticket counter to find an alternate way back home.

Steve waited in line for 2 hours! Once he reached the counter, our option was to fly to Los Angeles on another airline, catch a connecting flight at LAX, and then arrive back in Dallas at 5:30 a.m. Monday morning!

While he stood in line, I had "kid duty" with Brooks, Reese and Sloane. Here they are watching a movie in the terminal...

I posted this note on my Facebook Wall the day we returned:

Finally home after a long and exhausting experience of "planes, trains and automobiles"...sat on plane in San Fran for 2 hours...flight canceled...stood on line for 2 1/2 hours to get new flight...got luggage and sent it on another flight by itself....boarded a different plane at 12 midnight to fly to LAX...ran through the airport with 3 screaming and exhausted kids....took shuttle to another terminal to catch connecting flight to DFW at 1:00 a.m. (3 am Texas time)...landed at DFW at 5:30 a.m......dragged kids on Sky Link to get car...then drove to other terminal to get baggage!

So our poor children went through security 3 times, boarded 3 airplanes and were exhausted beyond belief on the ride home from San Francisco. Sadly, that is the main thing they remember about their trip. I think we will need to pull out the pictures and remind them about all of the fun things we did during our trip to San Francisco. I will blog about our adventures very soon!