Hopefully at this moment

Liz's plane is lifting off the ground...with Liz in it!!! Today is the start of the much awaited trip to Norway. No trip would be complete without a touch of stress and it came bright and early in the form of a phone call at 6am.

L called to let us know that the airlines rearranged the commuter flight to Newark. All the bad weather along the coast has made tons of delays. The airlines were concerned the late afternoon (4:52pm) commuter flight would be delayed and our group would miss their connecting flight. The airlines explained that Wednesday's 4:55pm flight didn't arrive in time. (they were suppose to have a 2hr layover!)

What the airlines did was divide the kids into 2 groups....one catching a morning flight at 10:05. The other catching the midday flight at 12:55. So our 2pm arrival time was switched to 11:30 (VERY thankful she didn't get assigned to the 9am group!) Luckily Liz was totally packed and ready. It was just a matter of getting everyone out the door a bit earlier. (BTW...when we got to the airport at 11:30, the 10:05 was still listed as delayed. UGH!)

A few extra bits of excitement....

*** At 7am I was asked to go wake the family down the street who's 4 kids needed to be at the airport by 9. (we live 45 - 60mins from the airport) No one was answering the phone...so they were awoken to me banging their door down. Amazingly they were driving past my house 25mins later!!

*** Liz went into panic mode before leaving. She was sure her backpack with wheels was too big for a carry-on. We ended up switching it to a huge tote Carrie got from the TODAY study (was a better option anyways)

*** Liz got very nervous as we got closer to the airport. She mumbled something about not being able to handle her luggage, should've left the carry-on home, should've stayed home herself. LOL She even looked a bunch of clouds and announced...I think it's too cloudy to fly today. (she's very aware that simple clouds wouldn't affect a flight) I tried to assure her that this was the hardest part of the trip and once she'd done gone through check-in and security once she'd be a pro and it'd be easy.

In our group...

*** 2 kids had their dad drive away from the airport curb without handing them their passports. Luckily the dad has a cell phone, allowing us to call him back before he got too far. (My Pat wasn't so lucky with his wallet when he went a few years ago...luckily his passport was in his carry-on because it was too big for his wallet. He had to borrow money though.)

*** Another family with 5 kids going had a few misc situations occur that caused delays. They pulled up to the curb about 20mins before they were due to board.

We watched the kids go through security...

*** P had to be wanded and patted down due to setting off the metal detector (she has a prosthesis...not sure if she mentioned it to the screener)

*** Liz was the "lucky" one who they picked to pull her bag. I think I saw a bead of sweat appear on her brow as the TSA guy pawed through her things. I'm not sure if they ended up confiscating something or not. (too far away to see clearly)

I'm wondering if the earlier group had any mishaps or excitement before take-off. Here Liz is just barely over the ocean and I already can't wait until she gets home so I can hear all about it. LOL

Bon Voyage Liz! Have fun!!!

Edited to add...checked airline's site. First round of kids arrived in Newark 30mins after scheduled arrival. Liz's flight....2.5hrs late!!! Flight they were originally booked on...10mins behind schedule. Poor Liz!