The rest of the photos are here.  (I probably won’t get the last few days up for another day or so.)

On Monday of last week Anna started looking and feeling really bad. On Tuesday she was pretty lethargic and had a fever as high as 103.7 along with a horrible cough. We managed to keep her temp down with tylenol for the rest of the week but when we left yesterday to drive to NYC she went downhill pretty quickly so we took her to the ER at a hospital near my sister’s apartment. She has croup and was a bit dehydrated. They tried to get an IV line in her but were unsuccessful, which was the worst thing I’ve ever had to experience with her. Anna screamed like I’ve never heard her scream before. It was horrible.

Luckily we were able to get her to drink some while we were there so the docs let us go after a couple of hours with instructions to give her motrin every 6 hrs.

She seems to have perked up a bit today but still looks sick. She’s hardly eaten anything in the last few days but hopefully she will soon. I’m sure she’s lost a couple of pounds this last week.

So anyway it was a fun vacation but would have been a million times better if Anna hadn’t been sick. I haven’t seen her this sick since she was about a month old. :(

Here’s a video my sister took:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah2z5clLusg

We had a great week at the beach with family. Anna had an absolute blast playing in the sand and going in the ocean. She loved swimming by herself with just her little swimmies on. It’s really been such a great trip. I’m in the process of uploading pictures, but it’s slow as my connection right now, while driving down the road, is not super fast. Here’s where all of my trip albums will be though: http://theboghs.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=8553.

We should get to Chattanooga around 8:30pm tonight and then we’ll do some tourist stuff tomorrow. I leave at 2pm on Tuesday to fly back to Houston via Atlanta. I REALLY REALLY hope that my flights go smoothly. I don’t want to be stuck in Atlanta again. So send some “good flight” thoughts my way.

The trip getting here, however, was no fun. No fun at all.

It’s just Anna and me on this trip. Dan had to stay home and work. We left Houston Tuesday around noon to fly to Lexington, KY. We had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta, which I knew about and was ok with. We were scheduled to get into Lexington around 8:30ish (I don’t remember exact time).

We got to Atlanta around 3:20pm had a pretty nice layover. We had a nice lunch at Houlihan’s and then Anna met a little 4 year old girl who kept her entertained the whole time we were there. I talked to her parents (well, actually her grandparents, but they’re raising her and they seemed really young…I was surprised that they weren’t her parents) quite a bit while we were waiting.

About an hour before the flight a big storm hit Atlanta with thunder, lightning…the whole nine yards. Planes that were already loaded and on the runway were allowed to take off but nothing could land and no new planes could load. So it backed everything up. Our plane ended up having to divert to Charlotte to refuel after circling the airport. We heard later that ours was one of the last to divert and therefore one of the last to leave Charlotte to come back to Atlanta.

So we wait and wait and wait and keep getting update after update with the departure time getting pushed back and back. At around 11:30pm, after Anna had FINALLY fallen asleep (in my arms) and had been asleep for maybe 45 minutes, they told us we had to change gates…and go to the complete other end of the terminal. Luckily, the family we’d made friends with was there to help me and carried my carseat while I pushed Anna (now awake) in her stroller. Things seem to finally be looking up.

At around 12:30am they tell us that our plane is here and we have our pilots. We’re just waiting for our flight attendants to land. Finally, we get word that the flight attendants have landed and will head to our gate after unloading their plane. Not two minutes later the gate guy comes back on the speaker and says “Well ladies and gentleman, I’m only the messenger. Our pilots are out of time and this flight has been canceled.”

THE PILOTS ARE OUT OF TIME?!?!?!?! What does that mean??? They couldn’t wait 5 minutes for our flight attendants to get to our gate??

Ugh.

So we were told to go wait in line (with the rest of the airport since most flights at this time had been canceled) and find out what flight we’d be put on the next day (Wednesday). I called Delta while in line and was told that I’d already been put on another flight. It would leave at 4:45pm and take me from Atlanta to Huntsville, AL, then from Huntsville to Cincinnati, finally from Cincinnati to Lexington. Keep in mind that a typical direct flight from Atlanta to Lexington is only an hour (maybe even a bit less) in duration.

I pretty much told the Delta rep that she was out of her mind. I tried to get on another flight with no luck. I tried to tell them to put me on another airplane but since this was a weather issue all other airlines were pretty much in the same boat and had to help their own customers. I tried to get them to put me on a direct flight to Cincinnati or Louisville but there was nothing.

I was tired, frustrated and just couldn’t do three more flights the next day with all of our carry on stuff, a big carseat and a two year old after we’d just sat in the airport for more than 10 hours. So I had Dan book me a reservation for a rental car. I decided to drive from Atlanta to Lexington. It’d be much less stressful and I’d get there well before my THREE flights would get me there.

So. The couple that we were hanging out with have a son that works for Marriott and were able to book two rooms in a hotel downtown Atlanta (because all of the airport hotels were full). We were going to take a cab but I figured since I was getting a rental car that we could all just take the shuttle there and then all pile in the rental car and save cab money.

We get to the rental car place and they will only take a credit card, no debit card, for a one way rental. I didn’t have enough room on my credit card. I called Dan and had him make a payment online to clear up enough room and it told him AFTER the payment that it wouldn’t clear until the next day. Well, not ideal but I would just come back in the morning. The couple decide to get a rental just to go to the hotel and back so we get that and head to the hotel.

It was 3am before we were in bed and we had to leave at 10:30 because they had to get back to the airport for their flights (which were better than mine….go figure the woman with the toddler gets the crappiest flights available.)

So we head back to the car rental place in the morning and they drop their car off and leave. They were such great people and really I was so lucky to have met them. They helped me tremendously while we were stuck there.

I get in the rental place and call my credit card company and the payment has STILL not posted even though it said it should. They said it would post on Thursday. So I go up to the guy at the counter and see if there’s any way I can get a car and he pretty much says nope, I need a credit card. I broke down crying at that point. I’d just had enough and couldn’t keep it in. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to get back anymore flights. I was just done. Luckily, the guy took pity on me (he later told me it was because I looked like a nice person and was going to Lexington…guess he has family there) and went to talk to his manager and was able to make it work. I GOT A CAR! He even gave me a free upgrade from a compact to a not-so-compact.. ;)

We got on our way around noon and got to Lexington around 6:30pm. Luckily we had no further incidents.

It was such a frustrating and tiring experience and by far the worst travel experience I’ve EVER had….and I’m a pretty seasoned traveler. I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone and I really really hope that the rest of my trip goes smoothly.

I took a bunch of photos today at Kentucky Horse Park before we left Lexington but I think this post is long enough. I’ll post some pics on here in the next day or so.

I went to NYC for a long weekend a week ago and met up with my friend Mary. We stayed at my sister’s apartment in NYC. We had SUCH A GREAT TIME! I think we did just about every thing we could possibly fit into our 4 days there:

• We got up early and tried to get on the TODAY Show and got our 3 seconds of fame.
• Top of the Rock (went up to the top of Rockefeller Plaza and had a gorgeous view…we were actually the very first people to the top that day.
• St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• Central Park
• Time’s Square
• Shopping on 5th Ave (well ok, WINDOW shopping.)
• World Trade Center area
• Sex & the City tour (this was AWESOME!)
• Mary Poppins on Broadway…Emily’s friend IS Mary Poppins so we got to get a backstage tour and all that. The show was amazing!
• …and probably a lot of other stuff I’m forgetting.

We had such a good time though. I used this trip as an excuse to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday (in TWO days!!) so every night when we went out to dinner Emily and Mary told them it was my birthday so I’d get a dessert. It was fun fun…

Here are a few trips from the trip. The entire album can be found here.

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Let’s see, what else is going on? Anna’s about to start her first dance class. I AM SO EXCITED! She is too. She keeps “doing ballet” all over the house so I searched and searched to find a school around that accepts 2 year olds. I originally found one about 25-30 minutes away that has a “mommy and me” class. It’s an 8 week class. We missed the first class and I just realized a couple of days ago that we were going to miss 3 more, so half of the classes for that session…so I’m not paying for that if she’s going to miss so much.

SO. I searched and searched again and found a place that’s about 40 minutes away. They have a 30 minute tumbling/ballet/tap class for 2-3 year olds that’s NOT a “mommy & me”…so we’ll see how that goes. She already has her leotard, tights, ballet slippers and tap shoes, so she’s all set. It’s a 2 week session, with two classes each week (so 4 classes total) and we won’t miss any (well, unless she’s sick or something). So I’m excited! She can’t wait to go….see?

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Hmm…I guess that’s about it. I’m sure there’s more going on with me, but it’s really not all that interesting.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBiAs7rtwTM