The arrival story

Melissa arrived on Wednesday and we had quite the adventure that day!!  She flew into the Louisville airport at 10:30 in the morning.  I was set to get there at about 11 am to pick her up.  She called to let me know that she was in.  Just as I was getting close to the airport, she called again to ask for my address.  Her luggage had not made it!!  I gave her my address, but expressed my worry about the distance from that airport to our house.  Since we live up by Cincinnati, it was kind of a hike and I wasn't sure if they would deliver her bags all the way up to my house.  I told her not to worry, we could hang out in Louisville for a while till her bags came.  I went into the airport and also spoke with the nice lady at the airline and we said we would spend a few hours in the city and come back for her bag.  It was a nice day.  So we went to McDonald's for lunch and let the kids play in the outside playplace for a little over an hour and a half.  It was a beautiful day out.  It only got to about 75 and there was a nice breeze.  :)  From there we found a mall to go and walk while we waited for the bags to come in.  While we were at the mall, Melissa got a call saying they had located her bag.  We got to the airport around 3 and Melissa ran in to get her bags while I fed Katelynn and watched the kids in the car.  Melissa came back out with no bags!!  Her bags had not been put on the flight afterall.  They gave her a flight voucher and told her that her bag would come in at 4:40.  That was just a little over an hour away, so we opted to go to Chuck E Cheese for some fun while we waited.  Melissa said that she had never been there before.  We all had a blast while we were killing time.

Claire wasn't really sure what to think of the whole thing, but she had a lot of fun before the time was done.

Brian won the jackpot on this ticket game.  He actually won it twice. :)

Everyone had fun riding the rides.  This was a huge Chuck E Cheese!!  They had tons of games and rides for the kids. 

The place was fairly empty which was nice.  Here was Aaron when  he came to get more tokens.

Brian with his jackpot of tickets.

Claire loved the little kid rides!  Thankfully Claire wasn't shy at all.  She had a grand time with all the kiddos!

We always get the sketches when we go.  I told Melissa that she should get one with Claire.  Claire wasn't too keen on the idea!  :)

We played air hockey.

Rode the rides.

And played lots of fun games.

We even danced with Chuck E.

Claire cautiously looked on.  :)  We then headed back to the airport.  We got stuck in 5 o'clock traffic.  When we got there, we found out that they STILL didn't have her bag.  Melissa got another flight voucher and they promised her that they would deliver her bag that night after it got in.  They said it should come in around 8pm.  So, we loaded back into the van and headed back home.  The kids were all hungry and we had been out all day, so once we got out of Louisville and into the suburbs, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner!  It was sure yummy!

Here we are loaded all up in the car and ready to leave after dinner.  Everyone was tired.  It had been a long day!

Here are the kids loaded and ready to go.  Right as we were leaving in the morning, I told the boys that we could bring video games.  So at least they had something to do to keep them busy!  About 45 minutes from home, Claire just wanted to love on Katelynn, and ended up waking her up.  So, we had a screaming baby and a screaming nearly 2 year old and no where to stop!!  As they were screaming, Melissa got a call that her bag had finally arrived at the airport and that they would deliver it.  I slept on the couch waiting for the bag to come.  It never did!!  Barth went to work in the morning.  At just before 10 after Melissa and Claire had gotten up, Melissa called the airlines to see where her bag was.  They said that it had been delivered.  It wasn't on the porch, so I decided to walk around the house.  I found the bag dumped in the middle of the driveway.  Barth hadn't run over it or seen it when he left for work (at about 7:45), so we know that it didn't come before then.  Thankfully it arrived finally!!!  What an ordeal it was!!!  Although it was a stressful day for Melissa and I, at the end of the day, one of my kids said, "Wow!  This was the best day EVER!!!!"  We are so glad that Melissa and Claire are here for a visit.  We are having a great time!!  Claire is as cute as a button!  And it is fun to have Melissa here to visit with!  :)