The Agony of Fatigue

Happy New Year!  We are in Sunriver, Oregon this week with my parents, brother, and his family (more to come on Sunriver later).  It’s been great spending time with family, cross-country skiing, and eating my mama’s amazing food all week, but the trip out here… a different story.

One of my favorite pictures ever: Cruz, Zoe, and me totally passed out on the floor of the Delta Sky Miles lounge in the Portland, Oregon airport. (Yes, that is baby Zoe up top under the blue Patagonia)

Everyone has their travel nightmare stories, so I’m not expecting sympathy, but here’s ours for humor sake.  On Friday, we were scheduled to fly from JFK-> Salt Lake City at 7 AM, and then from Salt Lake City to Redmond, Oregon (40 minutes from Sunriver).  We were scheduled to get in before noon West Coast time, and have the full day to get settled.

Unfortunately, some guy with the flu decided to try to fly on our first flight, and temporarily passed out on the tarmac.  Our plane had to turn around, and we missed our connecting flight by 15 minutes.  So, instead of taking 2 flights, having less than an hour layover, and landing before noon, our day turned out as follows:

3:45 AM EST – Wake up

5:00 AM EST – Drive to JFK

6:30 AM EST – Board plane for 7:00 AM flight

7:20 AM EST – About to take off

7:21 AM EST – Plane turns around on tarmac

11:35 AM CST – After almost 5 hour flight, plane lands in SLC, 15 minutes after our SLC-RDM flight takes off

11:50 AM CST – We learn from our “updated itinerary” from the Delta agent

3:00 PM CST – Take off for Portland (not Redmond) from Salt Lake (3.5 hour layover)

3:45 PM PST – Land in Portland

9:15 PM PST – Take off for Redmond (5.5 hour layover – 9 hours total for those counting at home)

11:00 PM PST- Arrive in Sunriver after flight, missing bag scare (don’t ask), and drive

Without two kids, this would have been funny.  With two kids (including one who refuses to nap in airports and airplanes), we rotated between laughing and crying (all of us)

Cruz refuses to sleep on planes (too excited about flying). We FINALLY got him to sleep during the last hour of the 5.5 hours in Portland by having Ken walk around with him in the Ergo (which he is way too big for).

My beyond exhausted boys.

My beyond exhausted me

For the record, the trip took 21 hours (longer than our trip to the Philippines a few years ago!), 3 planes, 9 hours of layovers, and about 5 meltdowns from the kids.  But it was all worth it to be with family.  Happy New Year!