Disneyworld: Part 5

On Wednesday, we headed home. Why do we need a separate post to talk about travel home, you ask? Well, because there's quite a memorable story involved. The morning started out on the right foot. We packed quickly, without trouble, and had plenty of time to wander down to the lobby to wait for our Magical Express ride to the airport. 

One last look at our nice sunny view from our balcony and we were on our way.

So everything was fine, until we got off our stop at the airport (the second stop) and the driver got our bags out. Our third bag (the small black suitcase I had packed all the girls' clothes in) didn't look right. It was small and black, but definitely NOT our bag. I kind of freaked out when our driver acted like it was no big deal "Just call the Grand Floridian and tell them". What was the Grand Floridian going to do? He also wanted us to just take the bag. What? It wasn't ours. At this point we were about 1 hr away from boarding, so we tried to get our wits about us and make a plan. There weren't any tags on this bag. We looked inside the suitcase to discover a magazine with a subscription label. So we asked the driver to look at his papers and find the lady's name and flight information (thankfully, the drivers have papers for every rider with this information). We learned she was on a Southwest flight in the other terminal. So, Matt went with the driver and I took the girls to Sun Country with our other 2 bags to check in and go through security.  I prayed he was back in time to board the flight, but he told me to get on the plane no matter what. In the midst of all of this, the lady who took our bag realized it didn't belong to her when she was headed to security. Luckily our bag WAS labeled, but it had an old tag on it from American Airlines, so she assumed we were flying American and headed there. She called her husband who sent Matt an e mail (his e mail was on our tag). Meanwhile I kept hearing Matt's name being paged overhead at the airport and wondered what in the world was going on. The girls and I were through security and stopped to eat some lunch. I got Matt something to go, and luckily, he met us at our gate (after retrieving and checking our bag) about 5 minutes before boarding. Whew! We switched seat mates for the ride home and were on our way.

Jillian and I did a little pipe cleaner sculpting to pass the time.

So, in summary, it's hard to put into words what this trip means to me. I just really enjoyed our girls, and feel so blessed by our family. We are reaching a stage with our kids that is really fun, and it feels fantastic to make such wonderful memories with them. Prior to this trip I was a Disney-naysayer, but now....I'm a believer. Magical things CAN happen. It's hard not to have fun at this place, even if you are a crowd-hating, germ-hating, obsessive mom. Miracles are possible, people. Miracles are possible.