So Different

Yesterday did not go according to plan.

The plan was to sleep in a hotel near the Denver Airport, get up at 3:30am, catch a shuttle to the airport at 5:00am, and take a plane to St. Louis at 7:55am.

We spend the night at a hotel near DIA... although not much sleeping occurred.  Hubby and I got up at 3:30am, and by 4:00am we realized that our flight to St. Louis had been cancelled due to inclement weather in Denver, and all throughout the Midwest.

Hubby could not get through the Southwest phone line, so he went to the airport to talk to someone in person to try to get us on another flight while I stayed at the hotel, with our (finally) sleeping children.

Hubby said he has never seen a crowd and chaos at an airport like he saw at DIA that morning.  There would be no talking to anyone in person unless he was willing to spend hours in line behind hundreds of people.

He came back to the hotel and towed a few people out of snow banks on the drive.  In doing so, the 4-Wheel drive went out on his car, and he ended up snowed in trying to pull back in the hotel parking lot.

I was all ready to scrap the trip to St. Louis (it really was a MISERABLE night in the hotel) and head back to Rifle but without a working truck, we weren't going anywhere -- literally.  We couldn't go back to Rifle, we couldn't even have a fun day in Denver.

So, Hubby booked us on a flight for early Sunday morning, and we hunkered down at the hotel ALL DAY.

Now, I will admit that there are many worse places we could have had to spend the day stranded with our three children... but Hubby and I were both exhausted, and it was definitely not all fun and games at the hotel.  We got through, and everyone felt better after an nap and after ordering some food... but I couldn't help but imagine how different the day might have been if Hubby and I had been stranded in a hotel together WITHOUT our three wonderful children.

If Hubby and I had found ourselves stranded for 36 hours in a hotel together with literally no where to go we would have done the following:

• SLEPT!  Oh, we would have slept and slept and slept!  We probably would have slept through breakfast... and then we would have taken a nap in the afternoon as well.  And, we would have gone to bed incredibly early because of our early flight the next day.  Oh, the sleep we would have gotten!
• Read!  I would have read a Christmas book and a magazine that I have brought with me different places throughout December and have not been able to crack open yet.
• Swam!  Hubby and I would have swam together... just the two of us without babies, and floaties, and children getting cold.
• Movies and Television!  We would have vegged out just the two of us, and watched the movies that we like on Netflix (instead of Mickey Mouse and Masha & Bear), and watched the television we like (instead of Cartoons).

Of course, we love our children and are happy to have them with us... but someday maybe Hubby and I will be stranded in a hotel together without any dependents (with our children safely in the care of someone we trust) and we will definitely appreciate that forced R&R in a new way if and when it ever occurs.

 

Please keep us covered in prayer for safe and smooth travel today.