What a Day - Update

Today is Tuesday and I haven't found time to sit down and blog until after 9:30 at night.

We arrived home from our trip last evening, dropped our bags in the living room, and headed to my niece's birthday party.  Afterward, we crashed in bed (my own wonderfully, comfy bed) and tried to sleep off the jet lag.

This morning, the kids began their first day of school.  Our district just built a brand new middle school (which both my boys attend) so they delayed the start date to allow time for its completion.  It's gorgeous.  We woke up at 6:45 and Hubby headed to the store for groceries.  Getting home late last night, we didn't realize that we didn't have milk for breakfast or bread for lunch.  I packed lunches, curled hair, ironed clothes, and chauffeured kids to school.

After that, I got a quick breakfast of a donut and hot tea (our daily breakfast in San Fran...if you're ever there, be sure to eat at Happy Donuts!).  I headed out for a chiropractor appointment and then to Target to let Baby Girl pick out her birthday present.  She turned 3 while on the big Choo Choo so she hadn't had a party yet.  Then off to the grocery store again to buy food for the week and ingredients to make her cake.  She wanted a green cake.

I texted my family and said we were meeting at Chuck E. Cheese at 5:00 for her party...sorry about the late notice.  I have a wonderful family who showed up with smiling faces and gifts.

We got home about an hour ago, put the kids in bed, and received some bad news from my parents.  (An acquaintance of ours was just taken to jail for the molestation of his own granddaughter.  How horrid is that?) 

So now I can sit down and tell you about The Trip.  Oh my, The Trip.

It started off great...we flew from home to San Francisco, stopping briefly in Denver.  No problems.  I didn't beep at airport security (hurrah!) and we got seats together on the plane.  San Fran was awesome from Tuesday night through Friday night.  On Thursday, however, my uncle received an email that our train trip home was cancelled.  Again.  We weren't even surprised this time.  We learned through this process that Amtrak is made up of the grouchiest people ever.  I think they're in training for the DMV.  As soon as they hit the maximum grouchiness level, they are promoted to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles.

To make a long story short, we were able to arrange for the train to take us from San Fran to Denver.  There was a break in the rail in Nebraska from the recent crash so Denver was the end of the line.  We accepted that arrangement, although not happily.  We paid over $2000 to purchase air fare from Denver to home.  We lost the money we had spent on our second flight arrangements...the ones from Chicago to home.  If you were wondering, no, Amtrak does not take responsibility for our financial losses.  At this point, our family is at about $6000 for this trip.  Can you imagine what we could have done for $6000?  But when you're stranded on the other side of the country, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Anyway, the train trip was beautiful.  If I wasn't so tired right now, I would post my pictures.  But I haven't even taken them off my camera yet.  Maybe tomorrow.

So, I made it...I'm home.  We didn't crash, we just lost a truckload of money on the deal.  I loved the trip and would have given it rave reviews if it wasn't for the DMV hopefuls and the fact that one of my kids may not get to go to college now.

Good night, all.  I hope the rest of your evening is simply splendid.  (We met some Australian people on the train who were spot on marvelous.  They've got me talkin' all kinds of proper and stuff.  Well, just a wee bit.)