Our journey to Minnesota: Part 1 -Getting there

Delaney and I had the opportunity to go back to Minnesota for my stepmom's family reunion and we jumped at the chance. Dan couldn't take any time off work, so we made the journey alone. Dad, Kim and Maddie flew out on Saturday and Delaney and I followed on Tuesday. I was very nervous about traveling all by myself with a 2 year old, but all in all, she did pretty well. However, we had some unexpected issues arise. We missed our first flight out of Sea-Tac due to a gate change and by the time we got there, they had already given our seats away. They were able to get us on the next flight out which only would have been a little over an hour later, but it was delayed three hours. So, we spent a total of six hours at Sea-Tac before ever getting on a plane. Due to the delay, we also missed the last flight out of Minneapolis to Grand Forks, ND so we were forced to stay overnight in Minneapolis. The airline wound up putting us up at the hotel in Minneapolis so it turned out just fine in the end. We caught a 10 am flight out of Minneapolis and were in Grand Forks by 11 am. We got there a day late and spend almost 24 hours traveling, but it actually turned out to not be too bad. I was absolutely exhausted, but Delaney was a trooper. Here are the pics from our travels to Minnesota.
Enjoying a burger at the airport. Watching all the planes.
This is what kept me going during our 6 hour stint with a very cooped up 2 year old at the airport. Oh coffee, how I love you!
Finally on the plane. It was already 6:45 pm when our flight left and Delaney hadn't napped so she conked out pretty quick. I turned on her beloved Monsters, Inc. once we were up in the air and put on her headphones and I think she may have made it about 15 minutes into the movie. She slept most of the flight and woke up when we landed.
It was almost midnight Minnesota time when we landed (10pm here) and we still had to go catch the hotel shuttle. Oh, did I mention we didn't have our bags because they were already in Grand Forks? There is nothing worse than traveling all day and then having to wake up and put on the same clothes in the morning. We went down to catch the shuttle at the airport and immediately Delaney started pointing out all the buses (aka shuttles). You should have seen her face when I told her we would get to ride on one! We had to wait almost 25 minutes for our shuttle and Delaney never stopped talking about all the buses while we waited. We finally got on ours and get on the road. The other group of people on the shuttle were talking about how good she was. She had been an angel. I looked down at her during the ride and she was beaming from ear to ear. She looked up at me and said excitedly, "Mommy, we on a bus!". I think this may have been the highlight of her trip. This was the first thing she told everyone about when they asked about our trip. We finally got to the hotel and got checked in a little after 1 am.
I had to be back up by 7 to get everything ready and get us down to catch the shuttle back to the airport. I woke Delaney up in the morning and she protested about getting up. I finally got her little butt up and she said, "Mommy, I napped". How true kid, how true. That is all that it felt like we got. Here is my little sleepy head trying to get some more sleep in the morning.
We got back to the airport and had no more issues. We ran into my aunt Peggy and her grandson who happened to be on our same flight to Grand Forks. Delaney did great on the plane and we finally made it. More pics and stories to come!