Goodbye to you all

Today was a day of sadness, sorrow and mourning. Not only because we all woke up feeling about 10 or 15 pounds heavier but because we now had to go home, weigh ourselves and face the facts. Oh and did we mention that this was our last day in Europe? It started at 6 a.m. The train station was across from our hotel and we walked over, lugging our bags one last time. For this, we were rejoicing. We caught the ½ hour train ride to the airport and once there, grabbed one last cappuccino and croissant. Amanda’s flight was leaving about an hour before ours so we said a tearful goodbye (just kidding about the tearful part), took a last group photo and waved until we couldn’t see her anymore. We tried to document the breaking off of Amanda but were sternly forbidden by a security officer. So we can’t show you a picture of her leaving. Actually we can’t show you any pictures. But I guess you’ve figured that out by now. Our flight was 40 minutes late leaving and by this time we had been at the airport for 4 hours and were more than ready to leave so we could…..sit for 11 hours in the plane!!!! YAY!!!!! The flight back was with United, rather than Lufthansa and although we were not as fond of it, we still got heated baby wipes. LeAnne was ecstatic. After an exhausting ride with little sleep we were unable to land in Washington D.C. on schedule and had to circle the airport for more than an hour due to snow on the runway. By the time we were allowed to get off the plane it was 4:30 and we had exactly 7 minutes to catch our connection to LA. But first we were required to claim our bags, stand in the customs line, and recheck our bags. Needless to say, we did not make our connection. Now what? The airport was packed with a crazy mess of people whose flights had been canceled or delayed because of the weather. We wondered if Washington D.C should have been in our itinerary as it looked like we would be staying for a few days. We asked a United ticket agent what we should do and she told us the gate number of the next plane to LA. We rushed halfway across the airport and found them already boarding. Thankfully, we were able to get on standby and saw a few of our fellow Rome airplane buddies as well. Since they were already boarding we figured we didn’t have time for a much needed Starbucks. Unfortunately, once we got on, it didn’t leave for another hour and a half as they had to de-ice the plane and clear the runway again. BUT….. We learned some exciting news!!! A stewardess kindly came up to Char and Nat and shared some interesting information. A certain Mr. Ben Affleck was on our flight!!!!!!!!!! He was in first class though, so we planned and plotted ways to get up there. But there were no empty seats next to him and we were strictly forbidden to use the restrooms up there so we never caught a glimpse. We got into LA and met Grandpa and Grandma Weaver who showered us with delicious food and had kindly brought Char’s car so we could go straight to Natalie’s house. Thank you G’pa and G’ma Weaver!!!!!!!!!! It took 1 ½ to get to Nat’s house where her mom and sis had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for us. After all the talking and catching up we finally crashed after being awake for more than 30 hours.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We couldn’t have done it without you and appreciate it more than you realize. We also enjoyed reading your comments to us and are glad you liked the blogs.

To all the wonderful people who we stayed with: Escuain Family, Debu Family, Pauline Newbold: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! The times with you were some of the highlights of our trip.

Hopefully by Wednesday the photos will be online for your veiwing pleasure. Please check back for the link.

Farewell, dear fans. It has been a pleasure.