Sunday, August 03, 2008

A Miracle

It was nothing short of a miracle today. A miracle, or a gritty determination not to be stuck in the Charlotte airport for 12 hours. One of the two.

The entire story is too long, but it involved waiting at one airport to take off because the runway at the Charlotte airport was shut down. And it also involved Becca and I running for (I SWEAR) a mile across the Charlotte airport in 15 minutes as I cursed my stupid decision to travel (standby, nontheless) without a stroller. The backpack, purse and rolling Elmo backpack banging into my bag as I kept yelling to Becca "RUN! The airplane is leaving without us!"

It was a miracle. I don't know why our gates had to be at opposite (completely opposite) ends of the damn airport. But, we arrived at the gate and they had space for us. We didn't have time to stop at a bathroom. The only time we stopped running was when I had to bend down and pick up Becca and run carrying her, praying that it wouldn't send me into labor there in the main terminal.

Thank God for moving sidewalks.

We got seats in the same row, but in middle seats across the aisle from each other. You should have seen the faces on the people in both rows when we came staggering in, panting and I said, "Well. My two year old has one of those middle seats and I have the other." The people on the aisles moved to the middle seats (apparently no one wanted to move across the aisle) and Becca and I each had an aisle seat.

We made it home. Somehow, someway. And our luggage even made the flight too. I'm still trying to figure out what happened. Tracy and her girls were there waiting for us and after a mexican restaurant for lunch, Becca and I took long naps to recover from our Olympic-qualifying cross country sprint.

So, our vacation. It was the opposite of a sprint. It was a relaxing, low-key time. Here are some photos.

Becca with her cousins, Avery and Kate


The family plus belly.
Quite a protuberance...


Our attempt at a group photo, during a thunderstorm with the worst humidity I have ever felt in my entire life. We are all sweating buckets.

Becca and Kate at Jane and John's pool

We had dinner at this awesome hole-in-the-wall type place with a beautiful setting. There was lightning and dark skies in the distance, and it made the lighting just incredible. These are my favorite types of places to eat--of the beaten path, quirky and with fresh seafood.


12 comments:

Tracy said...

Katie, you look ABSOLUTELY beautiful in the picture of you and your fam at the hole in the wall seafood place. It looks like you had a blast.

Anonymous said...

I second that. I hit "comments" just to tell you how gorgeous you look. (Not that I'm surprised, of course. It is YOU, for pete's sake.)

Smitty 1, 2 , 3 and 4 said...

You are GORGEOUS!! I love the second family picture. In that picture, you look absolutely striking. The pearls, your hair, everything. You look like a super model, I don't care what you say!

Peregos said...

Yeah! I am so relieved for you that you made the flight. Thanks for sharing the pictures, I agree with the rest: you look great!

Katie said...

Thanks, y'all. You are too kind!

The Quinn Report said...

You look gorgeous in them all, but I ESPECIALLY LOVE the first one of you, John, and Becca! Is that where you stayed? It looks beautiful there!

Anonymous said...

You look great Katie!! The humidity could not have been worse then Okinawa,unless you were there in Jan.But you also being Preggers I bet doesn't help.

Andrea and Ben said...

You look GREAT!!!!!! What a great vacation, I am thoroughly jealous. It looks like a place where great memories were made :0)

Unknown said...

Protruding belly? Oh please! You look great. I'm only 5 months along and I swear I could give you a run for your money! I don't envy you that sprint in the airport, just the thought makes me shudder. Glad you made it back ok and had such a great time. (P.S. Amy Hartley just had her baby last week. Gabriella Jane, 8 lbs, 1 oz, 21.25" long; 31 hours of labor and 3-hour delivery.)

Jen said...

I love those last photos, starting with the one at the 'off the beaten path' restaurant!

Sounds crazy (the last part of your trip), and relaxing (the vacation part). I'm so glad you got to go!

Erin said...

Nice job with the plane catch!

You are one of the cutest pregnant ladies I've ever seen. JEALOUS.

Also, your Becca is beautiful. I love those photos of her with the stormy looking sky in the background. It's a cool contrast.

Lysandra said...

Beautiful pictures!