We're back! But it wasn't easy.

Beth and I finally made it back to Guatemala yesterday afternoon and soon we'll have some posts about our Christmas vacation. For now I will share our nightmare of an experience getting home...

So, Beth and I booked some pretty terrible times to fly home and return to Guatemala for Christmas break because we were able to save $1,000! On Monday evening we flew out of Kansas City on time at 6 p.m. We arrived in Chicago with no troubles and immediately met up with Beth's sister Robin. She was nice enough to come pick us up and then drop us back off at the airport just for dinner. Our flight from Chicago to Guatemala City wasn't schedule to take off until 2 a.m., so it was great just to get out of the airport for a couple hours.

After dinner, we came back to the airport and checked in at 10. We found our gate and just hung out, watching some TV shows on my MP3 player, reading, and eventually napping from midnight till 1:15 or so. Boarding began on time probably around 1:45, but then suddenly an announcement came on alerting us that the pilot had been rushed to the hospital. We would not be able to leave until he was released from the hospital. So, not only were we at the mercy of the hospital and doctors' schedules, but then we were supposed to have a pilot just discharged from the hospital fly us back? That didn't sound too appealing.

So, the hours dragged on and on, with no updates or any idea of when we could leave. All I could do was try and sleep away the night. Curled up on the floor using a backpack full of books for a pillow, I managed to sleep off and on. Beth was too worked up to sleep for hours, and both of us were cold, and neither of us had a heavy jacket to keep warm in.

Once stores reopened at 6 a.m., Beth bought some Tylenol PM which helped us both sleep better for the next couple hours. Finally at 9 a.m. we were told we would board at 10 a.m.--eight hours later! We did board at 10, but we never took off until 11:15 as the plane and runway had to be cleared of snow and ice.

The flight home took 4 hours and 15 minutes and it was the longest feeling flight of our lives! Time just crept by, even with napping here and there. In addition, the plane was hot, multiple babies were crying at various times, and two people sitting directly behind us threw up during a bout of turbulence (which we had a lot of throughout the flight).

We finally got in to Guatemala City around 3:45 or so. We had been traveling for nearly 24 hours. Thankfully all our luggage arrived and we were able to get home with no problems to a clean, quite, and comfortable apartment. We slept great last night.