Flight to Omaha

We were up and on the road in good time today.  We got to Great Falls and went to Golden Corral for lunch.  The kids love getting to pick whatever they want, so it was a good lunch.  

When we got our plane tickets they assigned us seats all over the plane.  We were concerned about the kids being by themselves on the plane, so we wanted to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time to get it sorted out.  Lennard dropped us off  and then went to park the van (out in the back 40!).  As we were waiting for him, there was a lady that was quite upset.  I could tell that something was going on, but I just wanted to keep the kids occupied.  After watching her yell and stomp off I figured that she had probably missed a flight.  When Lennard came in I told him about what was going on and jokingly said that I hoped she wouldn't be on our flight...

We got our bags checked in and headed up to go through security.  I got all the bags and shoes and coats put on the conveyor belt to go through the xray machine and then stepped through the metal detector.  The kids were fine, but when I went through it dinged.  They told me it wasn't because of metal, but that I'd been randomly selected to have further screening.  They swabbed my hands and when they put it in their machine it blinked red and said Explosives!  (Whatever)

I was then pulled aside and told that I'd have to go through more screening!  They wanted to know which bag was mine and I sort of laughed since I'd packed ALL the bags.  I told them which one I happened to carry into the airport and they went through it with a fine toothed comb!  Everything was emptied, swabbed, etc.  Ridiculous!  Even the pack of cards was ripped open and shuffled through.

Once they swabbed everything, my bag, my shoes, my earphones and my iphone all tested positive for explosives.  Really?!  By this time, Lennard and the kids were sitting there getting antsy, so I told them to just go to the gate and try to get the seats figured out.  Lennard went to hand me my passport and boarding pass and the security guard just about hand a conniption!  "You can't hand her anything!"  So he handed her my stuff and went off with the kids.  They re x-rayed the stuff that they were concerned about and (of course) found nothing to be concerned about.  Then came the fun part where they took me in a separate room to pat me down!  I don't know if any of you have had the pleasure of being pat down... but it's a little more invasive than I care to experience again!  I did have to laugh when she asked, "Are you able to stand unassisted for more than 4 minutes?" - This was after I'd been standing next to her for about 20 minutes while she went through my entire bag!  I just looked at her and said, "Obviously!"  I was not impressed by this time.  I mean... use some common sense.  They pat me down, including the bottoms of my feet, (which I've been walking around their airport in stocking feet now) and then scan it... if it is positive - what do you think would be in their airport!  So crazy.  Anyways - after all that, and not finding anything, they sent me on my way!  Of course, I had to repack everything!  Grrr!

I finally got to the gate, and Lennard said that they were attempting to get us seats together.  That's when we figured out that the woman from earlier was in fact on our flight!  The gate agent went and asked if she would move seats and she refused!  They managed to get the kids and I seated together and Lennard ended up being up a couple rows.

We had a bit of a wait at the airport still, so the kids got to pull out some of their activities to keep them busy.

We finally boarded the plane and discovered that we would be sitting by the 'grumpy' lady!  The flight attendant assured us when we boarded that anyone seeing that they would be sitting by a child would want to move seats... but not her!  I sort of had to laugh when Emma proceeded to talk to her the entire flight!  Ha! ha!  Thankfully, the lady was nice to Emma otherwise I would have made a stink and had her moved!

We got in to Minneapolis and found our gate quickly.  Lennard and Emma went to McDonald's and got dinner for us (since it was the closest and quickest thing).  We'd half finished eating when they announced that there was a gate change, so we loaded everything up and went to our new gate!

We were all very tired when we got to Omaha, but the kids were thrilled to see Grandpa and Aunt Alicia!  After the drive home and a quick visit with everyone, we all headed to bed.  Such a long day!