Friday, January 16, 2009

Christmas in Seattle, aka the JETS game fiasco


(Ann & Harlan at JETS / Seahawks game)
So my husband Andy had a great idea to visit my brother Dave and family in Seattle for the holidays. "Oh, and by the way...the JETS are playing the Seahawks the Sunday before Christmas". The plan was for Andy to fly up for the weekend, go to the game with my brother and 2 other friends who were coming to Seattle for the sole purpose of attending said game, fly home to work for a few days, fly back up at a super convenient time for a trip out to the airport...7:30 PM on Christmas eve, then spend a few more days there before heading home to get back to work. WELL.....very long story not so short, Andy never did make it up to Seattle for the JETS game. We all were able to board the plane heading up to Seattle, but the super great head flight attendant (who has no kids) on our flight decided Andy wouldn't be making the trip up with us. Joey, the 2 year and 2 week year old, WOULD NOT stay buckled in his seat. The guy is Houdini. Every time we buckled him in, ho got out of it. They kept coming by to inform us they couldn't take off without him buckled, but then we would wait for a long time without taking off....he would squirm out, they would come tell us to buckle him..... we sat at the gate, he squirmed out, they came to tell us off.... you see where this is going. All the while. Joey was crying and yelling. Yes, we were that family everyone looks at and wonders why they can't deal with their kid. Now Andy, who is so level headed at all times, started to get into it with the one particularly nasty attendant. He asked if we couldn't let Joey just sit on a lap for take-off as he had done literally 2 weeks prior. (I took Joey to Oakland to visit my other brothers, Greg and Dale.) "The FAA won't allow us to take off".....blah blah blah.... screaming and crying, arguing between Andy and the head attendant (and I even raised my voice to her.... they were being pretty unreasonable) something about the FAA kissing Andy's butt or something and we were headed back to the gate so Andy could get off the plane. We finally did take off and made it Seattle. There was one truly super great attendant who helped me get from the gate to baggage claim. (pretty far in Seattle, even when you aren't trying to wrangle a 4 year, 3 year and 2 year old plus 5 carry on items, 3 blankets, and 4 coats) She was the one who ratted out the other gal about being less than tolerant regarding kids as she had none.



The JETS game. Seattle had about the worst storm they had ever had the day we got there. The game was the next day. The weather was so bad that one friend who was flying in never did make it either, and the other friend who did make it had a hard time getting back home the following Monday as all trains were stopped heading South to Portland. With 2 extra tickets, sis-in-law Lizzy and I decided it would be great fun to go to the game with brother Dave and Andy's friend Harlan. So, we put on about 8 layers of clothes and off we went. We ended up having a blast. The game was blizzard conditions, but a great time. The JETS lost, so it was probably just as well Andy didn't make it. My 4 nieces did a WONDERFUL job of babysitting their cousins.



My brother and fam live in Issaquah at the top of a mountain. The area had snow storms for about a week. Their house got loads of snow, so we had a wonderful white Christmas. Rose is now the sledding Queen. David liked it too, but nothing like Rosie. Joey usually napped during prime sled time, but he got some time in too.



Andy did make it up, but even that was iffy as the weather was so bad. He got some good sledding time in too with the kids. He stayed a few days and had to head home while we stayed on and celebrated New Years eve, then came home. Niece Sally made the trip home with us to help me travel with the 3 kids. She spent the weekend here then flew home. The unfortunate part was she spent a few days sick with a stomach bug Joey caught and graciously shared with everyone. (He threw up the entire flight home, but that's a story for another time.) All in all, a good time was had by all. Thanks to the Seattle Heffernans for hosting us for a lengthy visit.

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