This year Katya and Alex were sent on a special adventure to Montana. They had been dreaming about if for years actually and finally this summer, we were able to arrange for them to stay at Grandpa Chuck's house for a week and then at Grandma Lorraine's house for a week--ALL BY THEMSELVES! And then they had to fly home on their own!
We left Katya and Alex in Fairfield, MT on Aug 1st. I tried not to interrupt their time with Grandpa and Grandma Linda much but hoped they would at least call me once a day to tell me what they did. Yeah...didn't happen much. It was like pulling teeth to find out. Therefore, although I have collected all these pictures from Katya's phone and instagram, I can't exactly tell you stories behind them.
And Grandpa took Katya driving A LOT! Which helped a ton when it came to her behind-the-wheel portion of the driving class here in NC. She loves driving. (The Model-T from 1912 provided no practice by the way)
I believe this is from the day when Grandpa Chuck drove to Libby, MT through Glacier Park to give the kids to Grandma Lorraine for another week. Here is Grandma Linda and the kids at a beautiful mountainous lake!
Although they had a great, unique and independent time, they were very excited to go home on August 14th. But their adventures were not over!! Are you ready for a long story? I have to write it down here as it was quite an ordeal...
I had booked a hotel for Grandma and the kids in Kalispell as they had a very early flight (6 am) and an hour and a half drive from Libby. So they showed up at the airport at 5 am (it's a small airport) and Grandma tried to put them on the plane. The flight was to Salt Lake City and from SLC to Raleigh. Well, Delta people said that because these were minors traveling alone, they couldn't take this flight because the flight from Salt Lake City was the last flight to Raleigh (although it was at 10 am or something when it was leaving Salt Lake City!). And they were adamant about it!
This whole problem arose because when I had booked these Delta flights in December, there WAS a flight at 5 pm or so from Salt Lake City to Raleigh, so the kids were allowed to fly on their own. But no one from Delta notified me that they had cancelled that flight and it affected my booking. In fact, I had called them a week before our family's departure and asked them if anything major changed because I got an email about the change of the departure from Kalispell (Montana). No one said anything. No one said anything when we flew out of Raleigh either, nothing got flagged and now they were telling me they weren't allowed to fly.
There was a flight leaving to Minneapolis, boarding actually, and they would be NOT the last flight out of Minneapolis to Raleigh, but they were too late and wouldn't let them on it either as it was 5:30 by then. This whole time Katya was texting and calling me and I was pretty stressed as I felt like my hands were tied. Katya was getting pretty upset as well as she was set on coming home, and I understand that. Alex was trying to keep her calm. It was not a good morning. So Delta people said that basically, they had to come back the following morning and get on the flight to Minneapolis and connect to Raleigh. They gave them a free night at the hotel and apologized. But of course, it was super inconvenient for Grandma having to drive all the way back to Libby, do what she had planned to do at the school and home and then drive back in the evening so they could sleep in the hotel and be early at the airport for their 5:50 am flight AGAIN.
Everything went smoothly from here. Everyone got on safely on the plane (they didn't charge Alex a $150 fee for needing an escort, that's how bad they felt). And, I called Delta myself, explain the situation and customer service reps and managers all couldn't understand why people at the airport didn't let the kids fly to Salt Lake City if it's a Delta hub with dozens of different connections from 10 am on that would somehow get them to Raleigh. They also felt very bad and gave each kid a $200 Delta credit, which was nice indeed.
We left Katya and Alex in Fairfield, MT on Aug 1st. I tried not to interrupt their time with Grandpa and Grandma Linda much but hoped they would at least call me once a day to tell me what they did. Yeah...didn't happen much. It was like pulling teeth to find out. Therefore, although I have collected all these pictures from Katya's phone and instagram, I can't exactly tell you stories behind them.
Alex and Grandpa.
Katya in Montana (it doesn't get better from here).
And this is Alex at the farm.
And Grandpa took Katya driving A LOT! Which helped a ton when it came to her behind-the-wheel portion of the driving class here in NC. She loves driving. (The Model-T from 1912 provided no practice by the way)
And more of Alex...near a tree in Montana--my captions are profound...I know.
I believe this is from the day when Grandpa Chuck drove to Libby, MT through Glacier Park to give the kids to Grandma Lorraine for another week. Here is Grandma Linda and the kids at a beautiful mountainous lake!
And with Grandpa Chuck. Alex went swimming here, despite the very cold water... and Katya telling him he would be miserable.
An amazing waterfall hike!
And awesome selfie with Grandpa!
And here are some of the beautiful pictures Katya took during their two weeks.
They said they had a great time although it was nothing like being at home.
They obviously had no friends to hang out with and spent a lot of time with each other.
They did some painting and garden work at Grandma Lorraine's house.
In Fairfield, Grandpa took them to an assisted living home to perform a few songs--the kids always enjoy that.
And they sang a lot of karaoke at Grandma Lorraine's house as well.
Although they had a great, unique and independent time, they were very excited to go home on August 14th. But their adventures were not over!! Are you ready for a long story? I have to write it down here as it was quite an ordeal...
I had booked a hotel for Grandma and the kids in Kalispell as they had a very early flight (6 am) and an hour and a half drive from Libby. So they showed up at the airport at 5 am (it's a small airport) and Grandma tried to put them on the plane. The flight was to Salt Lake City and from SLC to Raleigh. Well, Delta people said that because these were minors traveling alone, they couldn't take this flight because the flight from Salt Lake City was the last flight to Raleigh (although it was at 10 am or something when it was leaving Salt Lake City!). And they were adamant about it!
This whole problem arose because when I had booked these Delta flights in December, there WAS a flight at 5 pm or so from Salt Lake City to Raleigh, so the kids were allowed to fly on their own. But no one from Delta notified me that they had cancelled that flight and it affected my booking. In fact, I had called them a week before our family's departure and asked them if anything major changed because I got an email about the change of the departure from Kalispell (Montana). No one said anything. No one said anything when we flew out of Raleigh either, nothing got flagged and now they were telling me they weren't allowed to fly.
There was a flight leaving to Minneapolis, boarding actually, and they would be NOT the last flight out of Minneapolis to Raleigh, but they were too late and wouldn't let them on it either as it was 5:30 by then. This whole time Katya was texting and calling me and I was pretty stressed as I felt like my hands were tied. Katya was getting pretty upset as well as she was set on coming home, and I understand that. Alex was trying to keep her calm. It was not a good morning. So Delta people said that basically, they had to come back the following morning and get on the flight to Minneapolis and connect to Raleigh. They gave them a free night at the hotel and apologized. But of course, it was super inconvenient for Grandma having to drive all the way back to Libby, do what she had planned to do at the school and home and then drive back in the evening so they could sleep in the hotel and be early at the airport for their 5:50 am flight AGAIN.
Everything went smoothly from here. Everyone got on safely on the plane (they didn't charge Alex a $150 fee for needing an escort, that's how bad they felt). And, I called Delta myself, explain the situation and customer service reps and managers all couldn't understand why people at the airport didn't let the kids fly to Salt Lake City if it's a Delta hub with dozens of different connections from 10 am on that would somehow get them to Raleigh. They also felt very bad and gave each kid a $200 Delta credit, which was nice indeed.
And that is how I finally got these two goofballs back!
The END!
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