Lost in New York City?!

So there we were, traveling light at the airport with two car seats, five carry on bags, a stroller and three children. We had finished our busy stay in North Carolina, not quite ready to go home, but with nowhere else to go when suddenly without notice our flight was delayed several hours! The delay made it impossible to catch our connection flight (the last flight to Phx that day) in Newark, NJ. I went up to the help counter to see what our options were and the man searched and searched for a way to get us home. There were no ways out of NC because American Airlines had bought up all the empty seats for their customers because they were grounded. The only option he found was to take the delayed flight to Newark, spend the night and fly out the next evening to Phoenix. That is just what we did. We were dressed for Phoenix and stuck in NJ! We had no bags and two car seats to lug around. Mark washed all of our clothes at the hotel while we were sleeping (ding). Our checkout time was at one and we didn't have to be at the airport until 6:30ish because we had no bags to check. The airline gave us a few diapers to get us through the night and some baby food for Caleb. I (Jessica) had to make these unfortunate events into fun so I came up with a plan. (I hate to waste time miserable when there is fun to be had). I talked to the front desk lady, who by the way is one of my favorite people now. She helped me form a plan to take my family to New York City that went something like this. The hotel shuttle took my to KMart to buy light jackets for my family since it we were dressed for the beach! Then the hotel held our carry ons and car seats for us while their shuttle took us to the train station. We hoped on a twenty minute train to NYC and walked several blocks to the Empire State Building. I was in heaven or close New York City. I don't think I stopped smiling the entire time. I've always longed to go to New York and here we were stuck for an entire day twenty minutes from down town with no where to go! No No I will not cry I will go to the city! I will see the empire state building and I will drink and iced grande carmel macchiato with whipped cream on top. That's right folks! I was there. I took my kids and my husband to the city and forced them to have fun. I had tears of joy in my eyes the entire trip. We hoped a train back to Newark the shuttle picked us up (bringing our bags) and took us to the airport. We hopped on a plane and flew six hours home. I don't think we've been any more tired. But I lived a dream and God gave me beauty from ashes. Had we not gone to the city we would have checked out of our hotel at one gone to the airport and sat there ALL DAY while I was longing to be in NYC and our kids would have definitely ran out of things to do. They would have been sleep deprived and stir crazy. Thanks Mark for going along with my crazy plan. Tee Hee. I wonder if he really knew who he was marrying. Here are some pictures taken on a disposable camera purchased at K Mart :) Our camera was in our checked luggage.

Sorry about the crooked pictures I'll have to fix it later.

Jessica