Day 12 - Unexpected Ending

When we got up this morning Lennard immediately grabbed the iPad to check the weather.  I was really hoping that he would come up with good news, but unfortunately, the system that is preventing us getting west is pretty much stalled right where we need to fly through.  When the ceilings are only at 300 ft... that doesn't give you anywhere to fly!

We went and had some breakfast and as more pilots from our group came out, the weather talk increased. It was finally the consensus that we would have to wait another day.  There were two groups that decided that they needed to get home, so they planned on leaving their planes and heading back on Air Canada.

Lennard felt really strongly that one of us needed to be home with the kids, and since I'm not a pilot (ha! ha!), we finally decided to book a ticket for me on Air Canada to head home.  (Budget... officially blown!)  I gathered up my stuff and we headed to the airport.  It was hard leaving Lennard behind.  I understand the reasoning, but this definitely isn't how I wanted our vacation to end.

Leaving Timmins

I had a short flight from Timmons to Toronto.  Had enough time to have a bathroom break, buy a book (since I had to leave the phone and iPad with Lennard), and line up to board the next plane.  The next flight from Toronto to Calgary was fine.  I read and dozed most of the time.  About an hour outside of Calgary there was a medical emergency on board.  Not really sure what happened, but when they start calling for doctors to identify themselves, you know it's not just a bump or cut!  They were able to help the lady enough to keep going on to Calgary and she was taken off the plane first, so hopefully everything will be okay.

Unfortunately, when I arrived in Calgary, I discovered that the flight to Lethbridge was delayed by an hour and a half.  Grrr!  It was seriously the longest wait ever!  I was so glad when they finally allowed us to board the plane.  Gotta love those mandatory rest periods for the pilots (I'm glad I got rested pilots though!).  We got in to Lethbridge about 8:30 and I could hardly wait for everyone ahead of me to get off the plane.  I was so excited to see our kids!

Emma just about didn't wait for me to get through the doors before she was in my arms and Ben wasn't too far behind her.  It was all I could do to get to the chairs.  I, of course, bawled.  I was so happy to see them, though Emma was very concerned about why I was crying.  It took her about two minutes before she was asking where daddy was.  That was a hard explanation.  They both wanted their daddy!

We made it home, got all the stuff into the house and mom & dad left.  I can't begin to thank them and my sisters for watching Emma and Ben for us.  Lennard and I really needed this vacation and we couldn't have done it without them.

Now we just pray really hard that the silly weather will cooperate and let Lennard get home SOON!