Mid-Flight Change

Many of you probably already know this, but here's my crazy Monday travels.
Emily and I were scheduled to fly to Missouri to help Adam and Rachel out for a week. I got a killer deal on airfare, so I thought it was a definite thing.
We left our house around 2pm to drive to Atlanta to catch the plane. Rachel called earlier that day to inform us that there was some bad weather coming through and to follow up on flight schedules. At this point, there were no changes and we were scheduled to leave on time.
We got to the airport and I got checked in and through security as quickly as possible. As we arrived at our gate, I thought we should immediately go to the restroom so we'd be prepared for the hour flight. As soon as we came out of the bathroom, I noticed that our gate had a line at it and they called for boarding of "groups 5 and 6". I was in group two, so this was the tail end of those boarding today. We got in line, got through and were seated.
La-tee-dah, we're on our flight, all hunky-dory, right? After beverages and snacks were distributed and we're all comfy-cozy (as much as you can be on a flight with an 18-month old), the captain comes on and announces a change in plans. He had been notified that the weather in St. Louis had plummeted suddenly and that the conditions were not safe for landing an airplane. We would be making a left turn and heading back to Atlanta (actually, I believe they said a small airport at first because I was contemplating how I was going to make it through the night and next day w/o milk and snacks for Emily). I couldn't believe it!! We were half-way there!!
When we got on the ground, we were allowed to make phone calls while we taxied to the gate. Upon arrival at the gate, we all got off and then stood in another line to change our flight plans and be rescheduled by an airport customer service guy. Seeing as Emily and I were last off the plane, we were last served. Cranky, crabby Emily made it difficult to hear, but give her a break!! She'd be flying for an hour and now was in the same place we had begun and it was dinner time and she had to stand in some crazy line.
Well, (I know, this is a long one, huh?) we decided to reschedule seeing as the evening flight, IF it flew out, was already booked plus seven. I was scheduled to fly out in the morning, but that just wasn't going to work for a myriad of reasons. So, I had to get them to give me credit for my airline purchases.
At this point, we had to go find another line to stand in for my one item of checked luggage to be retrieved from the St. Louis plane and sent back to the ground. I had already called Eric, so he was on his way back from Macon. The luggage people said it could take 20 minutes or 2 hours to get the suitcase back. Guess which one I got?
So, at 8 something pm, we left Atlanta and went home, arriving at our lovely home at 10:15pm. Yes, eight hours of travel and we hadn't gone anywhere. Give me another two hours on the road and I could have been arriving at Rachel's!!!