The girls and myself embarked on a seemingly simply journey....
Dallas to Atlanta... Atlanta to San Juan... San Juan to Anguilla. 
We got up early and got our six containers of carefully packed stuff ready to go. 
We had anticipated moving into a furnished rental house, that a friend on the island arranged for us.  Regardless, in addition to the massive amount of clothes, I had packed some cups and extra towels and of course my espresso machine and my set of kitchen knives to accommodate the 8 people at our new house.

8 happened as I was telling my good friend Zon (her Anguilla nickname, short for Amazon) about this amazing place called Anguilla.  The words "you should come down for the Summer if you can" naturally followed.  At some point she apparently had the same conversation, with her good friend Writa (her Anguilla nickname) which we had not met yet.  So Writa and Zon were going to our house a few days before the girls and myself, while Explora and the boys stayed in Dallas for about 10 days, to finish the house in Dallas, before it got turned over to the new owners.

So there we were, on a plane to Orlando, excited, and a little scared and of course flying with twin 3 year olds still in diapers, which posses the attention span of a mouse, is always a relaxing activity.  For that reason I had made sure we were traveling light on the carry on, and all we had was my laptop case and one little tiny kid suit-case per girl, full of toys, massive amounts of snacks and one change of clothes each.
After a one hour flight delay in leaving Dallas (and two bathroom runs), we did finally made it to Atlanta - so far so good and even though it was taking literally 5 minutes to move 50 feet with the girls, slow and steady was the theme of the trip.
After walking for an hour to our connecting gate (and one bathroom run), we were told that our flight to San Juan would be delayed for FOUR hours. 
The problem with that is that there is only one flight per day to the island, and it's at 9pm.  So if you miss that plane, you can't get there until at least the next day and I wasn't about to spend the night somewhere, so plan B was called into action.
Except, I didn't really have a plan B, but had about an hour while waiting in line (which includes a bathroom run) to talk to an American Airlines agent to come up with one.  Eventually, plan B was pleading my "I'm traveling with twins by myself" card, which worked and we were told to get on a Delta flight to Orlando, where we could make the connection to San Juan in time for the 9pm flight to Anguilla.

So after another hour of walking (and another bathroom run later) and a short ride on the "suicide train" in Atlanta's airport, I managed to get to our connecting gate without loss of limbs nor little kids.
Boarding went well, but after sitting in our seats for over an hour with my ticking time-bombs (aka. little girls) the mood of the croud started to change.
"Mechanical issues to be resolved shortly" was the issue, and while I'm the World Champion at coming up with distracting/redirecting kid and hence keeping them from having a melt-down.... my super-power was starting to fade, when TWO AND A HALF hours we were still sitting in the plane.
"Please de-board the plane" was music to my ears, as it meant something for the girls to do, even though it was cutting in dangerously close to our connecting flight in Orlando.
Sure enough, as soon as everyone got out (a bathroom rvisit and change of clothes later) we were all told to get back in, as the issue had been fixed. 
Finally, off we go.... to our new home in Anguilla....

Now the only problem was that our flight in Orlando was going to take off within 40 minutes of our arrival and speaking from experience, it takes us 30 minutes to move about 10 gates, so if our flight to San Juan, which was with a different airline was going to be any distance away from where we were landing - we were going to miss it.
But unfavorable odds never stopped the "super-girls" from trying... "super-girls" being a desperate nick-name I came up with in the plane, to motivate the girls to keep going with me, instead of working against me.
So we get to Orlando (after two bathroom visits) and my worst fear is true, not only is our connecting flight far, it's in another part of the airport entirely.
We got quite a lot of laughs as we (as in "I") ran around half of the Orlando airport, in and our of trains, with one girls riding on my laptop case, while the other was riding piggy-back, with me pulling the laptop case and holding the two little kid suitcases. 
The "super-girl" thing worked and we made it to our gate just as they were locking the door... exhausted but in one sweaty piece, and without any melt-downs.... we were FINALLY on our way and all this stress was going to pay off in the shape of sleeping under the Anguillian stars tonight.... (sigh)

Except we didn't leave.... and instead we sat there.... while I took the girls to the bathroom.... and our diaper count was getting dangerously close to NONE.  "Mechanical issues" was the problem once again... except for this time, there was no de-boarding, just sitting there and waiting.
TWO hours later my hopes for making it to Anguilla were gone, as were my efforts to keep the girls from having a melt-down.  They'd been traveling and walking for miles at this point (or something like it) and had done an excellent job being "super-girls", but all the snacks and toys in the world weren't gonna make their sleepy bodies cooperate now.
A few hours later were were well on our way to San Juan and of course... about an hour before touch-down, the girls finally fell asleep.

We got to San Juan at 11pm and by the time I carried two girls and three suitcases out of that plane it was 1130pm.  The agent at the San Juan airport offered us a hotel room and dinner vouchers and a taxi ride - and seeing how I was almost out of cash, diapers and food - that sounded like a great idea.
Even though there was supposed to be a plane to Anguilla the next day, it was full and he had us booked on a plane to St. Barth's instead, with a connecting flight to Anguilla from there - a trip I could not possibly put the girls through.  He told us to pick up our luggage on the way to the hotel, but by then it was almost midnight and the girls had been sitting there/being held while crying non-stop for the past hour and they needed a bed - FAST!
So I left the luggage, counting on American Airlines' system to know not only where we were TRYING to go, but when we were going to continue our journey from hell.

Arriving at the hotel in San Juan I swallowed the tears coming to my eyes, as it was a less than lovely place in a very uncomfortable part of the city.  After a cumbersome check in, and a bathroom break and our very last change of clothes, I could no longer ignore the "Mommy, I am hungry" cries from the girls.
There was only one problem (ok, like 10 but let's work with one for now).... the hotel restaurant was closed and the dinner vouchers we got were only valid at a place down the block.
EXCEPT IT WAS ALMOST 1AM AND I WAS BY MYSELF WITH TWIN TODDLERS IN THE HOOD OF SAN JUAN AND HOW THE HELL WAS I POSSIBLY GOING TO GET ANY FOOD FOR THEM????????
Yes, desperation set it and I went to the lobby to ask for the room number of some other people that had gotten in on the same late flight. 
Bob and his family quickly became my new best friends and I will be eternally grateful as he offered to get us some food, which he brought back (barely in one piece as he did get harassed by some guys on the street) an hour later - as the girls had fallen asleep, hungry and in their very last diaper.

It was 2am and at this point I had two choices - either let the girls sleep in and miss our only hope to getting to Anguilla before 10pm the next day and put them through another day like this.... OR get up early and get to the airport, find our luggage and get on the waiting list on the mid-day fight to the island.


And that my friends is the first part of the story on how we got to Anguilla.... you will have to wait for the actual arriva - just like we did - by having to sleep on it!