The Kirbys: Slight - 20 Hour

Our flight to Idaho for the 4th of July weekend was, quite possibly, the most annoying flight we have ever been on! If we didn't have Kylie there to keep our spirits up and entertain everyone on the plane, it would have been horrible!

Our plans were to leave Fayetteville at 4pm, stop in Denver and then arrive in Idaho Falls at 7:30. Our flight started off well but as we were getting ready to descend into Denver, we were rerouted to go around the backside because of bad weather. By the time we got to the other side of the airport, they closed the airport completely for about ten minutes. Because they rerouted us and we were only fueled to take the original route we were forced to fly into Colorado Springs to stop for gas instead of waiting the 10 minutes in the air. We were the first plane down on the runway in CS and were quickly followed by 13 other planes who were in the same situation. You would think that since we were first down, we would get first dibs on gas... Oh no no. Not when you are flying a United Express Jet. The non-express jets got first priority. So 2 1/2 hours later we were still sitting on the runway (not allowed to get off the plane) and the fuel truck finally came over. We then took off for our 10 minute flight back into Denver and by this time our original connection into Idaho Falls had taken off 3 hours before. Of course, there were no more flights in IDA until the next morning, and did the airline offer to put us up in a hotel? Of course not! I love United! By the time we got our new flight figured out and headed to the hotel (that we booked) it was 11:30pm which was 12:30am our time... and Kylie was still awake and happy as could be (even with a visibly grumpy mommy and daddy). She finally fell asleep on Mommy's chest during the bumpy shuttle ride to the hotel. Our flight finally got into Idaho falls, after another lay-over in Salt Lake City, at 12:30pm the next day.

What a blessing it was to have Kylie. She loves airplanes, we think because we are in such close quarters with so many people, and she looooooves people! She kept us laughing and kept everyone's spirit's high. While we were on the ground she was able to walk down the aisles with us and talk and wave to everyone on the plane. And while we were in our seats, we let Kylie tear apart the "SkyMall" magazine- she thought that was the greatest! We were so blessed to have our happy little girl with us. Even when she was unbelievably tired she never showed it and that made the whole ordeal so much easier for us.