Snow, Ice, & Rain/Chicago Part IV

Tyler had a flight out of O'Hare at 6 a.m. the day after Christmas. When we went to bed Christmas night, the weather was perfectly normal. Being the nice guy that he is, Uncle Joe offered to get up early and take Ty to the airport so that I didn't have to mess with the girls that early. Well, it's a good thing that was the plan because I don't think I could have gotten either one of us there alive. The ice started coming, and by the time I woke up Friday morning, it was all over the news that Chicago was experiencing the worst driving conditions in 10+ years. There was black ice everywhere, cars in ditches, cars slipping and sliding around like it was a video game.

Uncle Joe had delivered Tyler to the airport and thankfully arrived home safely. They were telling people not to use the roads unless it was an absolute emergency. Many roads just shut down completely. Needless to say, O'Hare was not functioning on schedule. Tyler called at 7:30 and they were still on the runway. They didn't end up taking off until after 9:30, and he missed his connection in Charlotte. For a while there, it looked like there was NO WAY he was going to make his cruise. He ran to the next flight, and they basically shut the door in his face and told him he was too late. He was on standby for the following flight, which wasn't scheduled to arrive in Miami until 15 minutes after the ship stopped boarding. Man, he was cranky. Well, luck must have been on his side (or divine intervention) because he made it on his ship.

I was supposed to drive up to my mom's and had a hair appointment scheduled, but I had to cancel because there was no way I was dealing with those driving conditions with the kiddos. So, Kait and I played Wii fit and watched a Say Yes to the Dress marathon. Fun times.

Saturday, it reached 62 degrees. I loaded up the kids and drove up to my parents house. So, here's the situation- you've got 3+ feet of snow melting like mad, plus some crazy rain to top it off. Can we say flash flooding? What a mess. The Des Plaines river was at road level and Riverside was evacuating. Eck. It was so funny because as soon as we pulled up into my parent's driveway, Sassy asked where her snowman was. I told her that it was too warm so he and the dog went up to the North Pole to live with Santa. She promptly informed me that he "left his hat and gwoves". I decided not to tell her that if she looked closely, he left his arms, too...

Anyway, I took my mom and Little A to the mall while Sassy got some one-on-one time with Graycop. We took advantage of some after-Christmas sales and braved the crazy crowds. Once we returned home, we enjoyed one of my Chicago favs- Lou Malnati's. To me, LM's is other-worldly. Divine. Mmmmm.....