Rachelle's wedding, plus travel nightmares

So nope, the camera was not found in time for the wedding. The pictures I have are all swiped from my cousin Jody's Facebook. Here are the pics, then I'll briefly describe our crazy traveling adventures.

Rachelle and Aaron with the Olsen nieces and nephews (there are none on the Glanfield side yet). This is what they'll look like with their 8 kids! :) The only one missing is baby Katrina, who was only a week old and had to stay home with her recovering mommy during the wedding. We missed you guys!
My only picture of the couple ... I am looking forward to getting some more, soon! (hint, hint)

Aw, look at the little twins! Tessa and Talia truly believed they were princesses this day ... and they were! Gummy made the darling outfits, Aunt Ruthie did their bouquets and Aunt Mari did such a great job on their hair -- Talia slept with hers in and it still looked great the next morning! The funny thing was that since they looked so much alike, Talia believed they should be joined at all times and would not let Tessa's hand go. Princess Tessa got pretty irritated by the end of the day ...

Cute Anna and little Leesy in their wedding clothes. Seriously, the kids were so stinkin' cute.

Jer and his family at the reception.

Me and my fam at the wedding.
Steve and Betsy, recovering the day after. A great shot taken by Aunt Deenie.

So here's what happening with our traveling fiascos: The night before we were leaving I was packing the carry-ons and collecting all our documents, etc. As I grabbed the passports I flipped them open to see whose I had. When I opened Caden's my eyes happened to fall on the expiration date: 27 OCT 08. In my mind I said, "October? Wait. It's not 2008 yet, right? RIGHT?" I quickly began to panic as the realization set in that his passport was expired. I frantically did some internet searching to see if he really wouldn't be able to fly across the border with an expired passport and determined it would not work. After spending a few hours on the phone with the airlines, sorting through various options, and talking to my generous and ever-supportive parents, we decided that the only way that would work would be for Dave and Caden to change their flights to fly into Buffalo, then rent a car their and drive across the border, because you can drive across the border with just a birth certificate until January - you just can't fly. It was such an upsetting night and one I'd never wish to live through again.

So early in the morning we parted ways at the airport, Dave and Caden going off on their adventure and me with Tessa and Davin in tow. I had not been planning to travel with two young children alone and had not emotionally prepared myself for the ordeal. The first flight was fairly short and not too bad. But we only had a 45-minute layover, and our plane was about 10 minutes late arriving, and by the time we figured out our gate we were going to be late. So I ran through the airport with Davin screeching in the stroller because he wanted to get out and walk on the moving sidewalks, and Tessa complaining that her backpack was heavy. We got on the little metro to take us to our terminal, then ran off and down a hallway to our gate, where the flight was bording. As I was checking our stroller I said, "Tessa, where's your backpack?" She was like, "Ummmm ..." and I realized that she had left it on the train. She started crying and wanted to go back and get it, but we couldn't! Her lunch, her toys, and all her fun activities were gone. She was so upset then said, "Mom, you should have been watching me so I didn't leave it!" Ha ha, way to shift the blame. They learn it so young. :) So she was crying as we got on the plane, no too loudly or anything but very pathetically, and Davin decided to join in, and some mean lady a few rows ahead had to stand up and turn around and throw several snarky, disgusted looks at me to let me know how much she didn't appreciate us. So kind. I was rather proud of myself because I tried really hard and managed to keep my cool and distract the kids and keep them pretty well occupied through the flight. My only regret was not getting a bathroom break before bording :)

Wouldn't you know, as the plane wheels touching the runway in Toronto, Davin finally gave a huge sigh then slumped backward in my arms, completely exhausted and passed out. I'd been trying to get him to sleep the whole flight. His timing couldn't have been worse. And he was totally dead to the world. I couldn't wake him up for the life of me. Then Tessa says, "Mom, I have to go potty!!" So that was tricky, getting off the plane. I had 2 carryons and a snoring toddler in my arms, plus I had to get the winter coats out of the overhead bin. As I reached for them, Davin flopped backwards again and I nearly dropped him on his head. He caught himself and as he tried to sit up, he smashed his face on the overhead bins beside us and began to cry. What a rude awakening ... but I was glad he woke up! I get to the door of the plane and realize there are tiny stairs going down right onto the tarmac, and we had to walk quite a ways to the covered sidewalk. So now here I am, crying toddler, 2 carryons, 3 winter coats, and trying to help my 3-year-old get down the steep plane steps, which she is afraid of. And it's freezing cold and raining. And I see my stroller sitting a few feet away from the plane steps. It's getting soaked and I'm wondering how in the world I'm supposed to add a stroller to my load - I couldn't exactly put everything down in the puddles to open it up. What a mess. And people just stared.

Then we had to get on a bus for a 5-minute ride to the actual terminal - they seriously let us off the plane in no-man's land! And by that time I guess Tessa had lost it, because she started rocking in her seat, rolling her hands and singing, "The wheels on the bus go round and round ..." occasionally stopping to look up at the man beside us and let out this maniacal "heh heh heh heh" where she would move her lower jaw really fast and almost bark like a seal. No kidding, she looked seriously mentally retarded, and I can't imagine what that man was thinking of her. I was laughing so hard!

Finally we get to the airport and into the line at customs. We're about 3 people back in line when Tessa says, "Mom, I have to go potty right now!" So we lose our place in line and take her to the potty. But then our luck turns around. There is no line by the time we get out of the potty. The border guard was super nice. I grab a luggage cart (oh yeah, did I mention that I got the two little kids PLUS all the luggage because I could check it for free? Dave really got the good end of the deal on this trip) and wouldn't you know, on the first luggage carousel there are 5 suitcases going around, and 3 of them are mine! On the plane I had said a little prayer: "Please, Heavenly Father, if I am worthy at all of a blessing, please let our luggage make it and not be delayed, despite our short layover. Please." And it was even on what I thought was the wrong carousel. So I was truly blessed, and everything else went just fine. Dave and Caden made it with little trouble, and Dave even managed to pick up the chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory that Rachelle wanted for her wedding cake but nobody was going to be able to go get.

Then we had a great visit, fun wedding, nice family times, etc.

On the way home Dave and Caden went their separate way and Steve and Betsy were with us (hallelujah!). We were at the airport for about 3 hours when it was announced that our flight was cancelled because of snow in our connecting airport, and there were no other flights that night. We called Dad and he came back to get us, and we got to spend one more night in Canada! Betsy and Tessa were so excited. Tessa was so thrilled she was announcing to everyone, "We get to go back to Gummy and Poppy's house!" and made the others smile. Betsy had been trying to get Steve to give up their flights since they were asking for volunteers - she's like, "I like my job but I really like my vacation more." That wasn't going to happen without a fight from me, though - I wanted them with us! :)

The flight home went OK - the second flight was about 5 hours long and we were all so ready for it to end, but we made it! Dave picked us up and Caden had spent the day with Grandma since I wasn't home to watch him, and he enjoyed that.

It was a great trip overall and we can't wait to go back! Next time for longer, I decided. On Sunday we were driving and Caden let out a sigh and said, "I'm Canada-sick. I just really like Canada." It took me a second to realize he meant it like home-sick. Then the other day Tessa did something to hurt him and she said, "Sorry, eh!" Yes, it's rubbing off!

If you made it to the end of this post, you deserve a medal.