worst day of my life, man.

- all times are in Michigan time just to keep straight the hours -

Tuesday 25 December:
4am - woke up.
5am - left the house in Grand Rapids.
6.45am - boarded my first plane (after paying $25 for overweight luggage).
8.45am - arrived in Minneapolis
9am - found out my parents would be on my flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam because their first flight got delayed!
11.15am - boarded my next flight to Milwaukee (still no nap)
11.20am - I saw a suitcase like mine get left behind as we taxied out and I was certain they missed my luggage.
12.30pm - arrived in Milwaukee (15 min late) and picked up my luggage. :)
12.45pm - crossed the street and attempted to check into Delta airlines for the rest of my trip.

Here I found out my plane to Atlanta had been rescheduled for 4 hours sooner and I'd completely missed it. There were no planes that could get me to Atlanta in time to make my connection. My flight plan got completely rearranged. No more Atlanta. My parents made my flight and I didn't. Plus, it would cost another $50 for my overweight luggage. But the lady at the counter suggested since I only had one bag, I could run upstairs and buy another bag for $10. I did, and rearranged my luggage. :)

2.30pm - boarded my one-hour flight to Cincinnati.
7.30pm - boarded my 8+hr flight to Paris and realized I only had 40min from arriving there til my next plane departed!

Wednesday 26 December:
3.50am - arrived in Paris (where the time said 9.50am).
4.10am -finally got off the plane (they couldn't get the tunnel to work so they made us wait on the plane for stairs).
4.10am - realized I probably wouldn't make my plane.
4.11am - smiled.
4.30am - my plane took off... without me.
4.35am - got through the line to talk to someone to get me a new flight. Then I called Luuks sister to let them know what time I'd arrive.
6.30am - boarded my plane to Amsterdam (now officially been travelling for 24hrs).
8am - arrived in Amsterdam. At least my luggage made it.
What a long day! Didn't nap except a couple of hours on the plane to Paris.

One hour later... (but now in Netherlands time)
3pm - saw my parents and two youngest sisters for the first time in 1.5 years.

We hung out, played games, and when the rest of the relatives arrived, we ate supper. I saw Grandma and Grandpa Vanderploeg also for the first time in 1.5yrs and saw Uncle Leo and Aunt Sue and cousins for the first time in 5 years. :) Crazy!
Good to see everyone again!