Friday morning Todd and I slept through the alarm long enough that when we woke up we had to RACE to the airport. Which still baffles me because I don't know a lighter sleeper in all the world than MYSELF. But en route to the airport, we got a call from Todd's brother saying none of the passports they all got for their kids were being accepted. That they weren't real passports. They could NOT get on the plane. So we slowed down and assumed no one could get on the plane, even ourselves. We were shocked, but somehow, not entirely disappointed because, for anyone who's kept up with me on how insanely out of this world the opposition has been to just PLAN this trip, it seriously just felt meant to be.
We didn't even bother parking the car in the parking garage or bringing our bags in. I waited in the car at the drop off area while Todd went into the airport to find his mom bawling and leaving for the security area with her husband and her two kids that still live at home with them. It turned out those two kids' passports "worked". And in the moment's time they had to make a decision, they chose to still go. The rest of the group there (2 families, a total of 9 people) was standing at the entry with all their luggage, a shaking, crying wreck, unable to go.
Todd and I suggested we all go to breakfast and talk about making a plan. Should we try to haul our luggage back into the cars and go somewhere less exotic? The kids had days off of school making it a perfect week to be gone and no one was expected at work. While at Denny's for breakfast, I pulled out my passports to see what was wrong with them and we saw that my kids' passports would have worked. It turned out the post office told the other two families to get the new kind of passport that only works for travel to Canada and Mexico. But what no one knew was that it only works for land and sea travel, NOT air.
We didn't regret not trying to catch our flight and had no desire to go try standby or try to reserve seats for the next day or two. We didn't want to leave our group behind. That was all the kids' cousins and buddies they were excited to be with, our best friends. My kids are too young to care where they were going. It wasn't about Cancun or not wasting the money that had been put out on it. We had already recently had a family vacation so it wasn't that we needed another one. For us, it was soley about being with the other families. So, that left us with no real decision to make, we just stayed behind with them. We all decided to go home and take a nap, then look into other possible trip ideas and meet up at our house at 1:00 to discuss them.
At home I called a travel agent who, upon hearing our story, told me to immediately call the airlines and cancel our tickets so we'd still have the airfare credit for later. Which I did, and to my surprise, they allowed all tickets to be credited back- even though our planes had already left by then. She also gathered up ideas for possible trips that ranged from a very discounted last minute Disney cruise to a very discounted Hawaii condo trip. All still way more than our group meant to have to pay.
At 1:00, we met up and everyone else had been researching ways to still get to Cancun. They had contacted passport offices in Texas near the border to see about possibly flying there and fixing their passports the next business day (after the weekend) and then flying to Cancun to finish what was left of our resort reservation. The offices said it COULD be done, but could not be gauranteed. We looked at last minute airfare and it cost too much, even with our old ticket credits. We wondered if we could fly a little later and have cheaper flights. Which we checked with the travel agent, and sure enough it was MUCH cheaper and this way our trip would even slightly overlap with their mom already being there. We called the resort to see if they would let us come just a little later and also leave later to use our full reservation and they said YES. So we called the travel agent back to book those flights, and in just that hour of time, the tickets had doubled in price. A connecting flight had been canceled and other passengers were buying up the tickets to the flight we all needed. It was suddenly a massive price. So we FINALLY gave up. It was a very strange relief to finally surrender that pandora's box of a trip.
By this point, the day was over and we were all too emotionally drained to think about going anywhere else for vacation. We went to dinner and then home to bed. The resort had gratiously agreed to hold our room reservations for up to 14 months. So we haven't really lost anything other than a ticket change fee for when we use our airfare, but we won't be able to to go as the whole oiriganl group because the one group already went. But it's nice to know no one's trip was wasted.
The next morning was a hard reality to face that we were not going to be able to go anywhere with our extended family. And our little family was ready to go somewhere! The bags were still packed and lying in the entryway. We had an empty calendar for the week. Cancun was still possible for us since we didn't need to fly to Texas first, but we just refused to go there without our group as depressed as they were to not be able to be there. Their kids were devestated. Some of them were waiting for their recent birthday's presents there- activities we were going to do there like swimming with the dolphins. They'd watched home videos of Cancun from when their parents went there last time without them and built up all this crazy excitement!
BUT sitting at home all day with NOTHING to do (granted our imaginations were limited with lack of sleep and emotional exhaustion) was more than we could handle. So Todd and I put the bags back in the car and drove to Boise. We got a hotel room there and played hard all day. We got some Christmas shopping done. We swam in the hotel pool, we watched movies in bed, we went to an indoor padded playground that was the BOMB, and went to dinner with Todd's brother, Billy who lives in Boise. He was not part of the Cancun group because he's still in college and couldn't miss that much school. It was nice to spend time with him. We came home two nights later, glad to have had a blast with our kids, blown the cash we set aside for Cancun, and taken our minds off the events of Friday.
They didn't even know what they were missing!
Uncle Billy!
I still can not look at all the mind boggling events that stifled that trip- time and time again over the last 3 months without thinking it was more than coincidence. We were NOT meant to go. The original planning was very hard. 18 people are hard to accommodate. Trying to find a time that everyone could go together with a farmer's schedule, a pregnancy's time table, Todd and I's travels for weddings and such, and just that many people was ALMOST impossible. I had to change my girls weekend and pay change fees for flights to open up that small window of time for us all to go to Cancun. Flights were hard, the tickets upped in price half way through booking them like they always do on big groups, but more than normal.
After the reservations were made I found out that my travel agent had put all the wrong children with wrong parents and because they said we were on the same flight it was no problem.
A month before we were supposed to leave our flights got canceled by the airlines. With such a large group we had to then be divided on two other planes from other airlines. Families all mixed up suddenly became a PROBLEM. Days on the phone day and night and migraines later, practically every individual had their own stinking reservation number because they had such a hard time splitting up wrong family reservations. I still don't get why that has to be so "difficult".
Then, days before departure, I called to re-confirm those flights and found that 2 people's reservations never transferred to the new airlines taking us from the old one that canceled on us. Even though when I called the original carrier moments before, they said the reservations were all good and set. I was so glad I went out of my way to get a second opinion! So, flights being full yet again, we had to divide up and put some people on a THIRD flight there. Then there was the possible hurricane threat, then the sleeping in on the day of departure (we were supposed to leave at 4:00am, it wasn't that we were sleeping late in the morning), then the passport issue, then the instant doubling in price of tickets we'd have loved to buy- in the very hour we deicide to buy them. It's just too much. I feel stupid for still trying to make it happen after even half of those events had happened to us. All in all, I spent a total of WEEKS on the phone, most of the time on hold, trying to sort out random kinks in the trip that the airlines, themselves, couldn't explain. We even looked to see if any of the 3 planes crashed before arriving in Cancun because the opposition seemed so completely orchestrated that we wondered if our lives were SPARED or something. Glad no one died, but no plane crashes. At least not the ones going TO Cancun.
I can think of lots of little reasons why I'm glad to be here this week, though. Starting with a blast with my family for 3 days in Boise. My sweetheart and 3 favorite little souls on Earth were so fun to enjoy for a weekend. Though I think the kids still would have preferred their cousins and grandma over their parents for a getaway... And we still mourn that lost oportunity ourselves.
There's also the reason that I didn't have to be cause for more pain for the rest of the family that did not go. Just hearing the details of how my mother in law's group is doing there has been hard for them to hear. I'm glad they are enjoying it, because I think they really needed it. It just stinks for so many others that it worked out the way it did.
I just feel sick for the other people who didn't go because no one did anything different from anyone else. We all went to the same post office. We were all helped by the same post man. He told my mother in law's group to get passports and told the other two groups to get passport cards. I chose passports because I didn't know if we'd maybe want to visit Todd's mission in Peru or some place other than Mexico or Canada in the next five years. But everyone just did what they were told and didn't know any better. And no, the post office won't do anything about it. We asked. It's just a lot easier to not be in Mexico because you CHOSE to stay than to be told you can't choose. My neices and nephew are old enough to be in school and everywhere they go all their friends and teachers are constantly asking why they didn't go on their trip and they just can't talk about it anymore, they're having too hard a time holding back the tears.
Another reason I'm grateful to be here is that we got a call from Todd's mission president's daughter yesterday. She called the house to tell Todd that his mission president has had kidney failure and has been receiving dialysis 3 times a week while waiting for a kidney. 53 friends and family members have been tested so far and none are compatible. She called Todd to ask him to head up a prayer request with all the missionaries from his mission. He spent hours last night finding people on facebook and a good thing is happening there. Todd was in tears saying how his mission president has done a lot more for him than donating a kidney. This was the mission president who took him under his wing when Todd's parents announced their divorce. What would scar anyone else for life turned into an incredible series of spiritual experiences and strenthening moments with the counsel and fatherly guidance of a loving president who Todd spent lots of time with as his first assistant. They've been really close ever since. Our heart goes out to him and his family. Dialisis is something you do about 3 times a week and are normally down for two days each time. He's the temple president in San Antonio and is still trying to do his duties there in so much pain. Todd wants to get his blood tested just in case. It's so sad to hear that no one else so far has worked for him.
My sister in law found out this morning that her one of her extended family members found a 14 cm growth in his adrenal gland and is going to have lots of tests and a surgery that the family needs her support and help with the kids for. She's really grateful she's here to help with that.
I think the reason I'm grateful to be here most for is because of that feeling that keeps telling me that there IS a reason. Maybe several. And I feel blessed to be watched over. I'm glad we're where we should be. And that we can still go another time. But what a whirl wind to go through to be sitting here saying that right now!
Well, enough rambling. I procrastinated writing this blog long enough from the emotional baggage that came with it all. But there it is. No Cancun. Maybe next year. But bring on the holidays because there is some fun to be had! We're going home for Devan and Maura's wedding reception which happens to be over Thanksgiving weekend! Yippee!
5 comments:
The Temple President is in our stake and they have asked everyone who would consider it to get tested. The San Antonio Temple is actually in our ward boundaries. Sad but amazing he is still able to help at the Temlple at the same time!
Wow! You are such an amazing person to be thinking of the GOOD things to come out of that. Maybe your trial was simply to see how you would handle it. Well, you've handled it quite well.
Sarah, that's amazing... having dealt with smaller amounts of trouble with airlines getting our family of 7 around Ifelt like crying while reading your post! Unbelievable! I'm glad you are able to see the brightness and that you took advantage of the week off!!
Wow. That is amazing opposition to have dealt with so faithfully. I do hope some of you can go together next year.
AND, you'll have to tell me where that indoor playground place is in Boise - I'm sure my boys would adore a special trip there sometime. (Homeschool PE field trip!)
Kerri, it's called Kid Planet and it's in that industrial looking business complex across the street from the Boise Costco. They are open every day and you can schedule birthday parties there, which they hold upstairs in their loft. It was really fun! Although, if you go, I'd recommend bringing a book because it was definitely not designed to entertain parents at ALL.
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