We did finally get off the ground just at 1:00 PM GST - a full three hours late.
Laura felt worse as soon as she got on the plane. She was able to sleep quite a bit, but being sick on a plane is no fun at all.
The plane had to take an odd route over the US. A storm system meant that we cam in over Boston, flew on to Chicago, and just about made a full left turn to point toward Houston.
Finally, the three-hour delay with the diversion around the storm meant that the plane was rather low on fuel. It wasn't until 10 minutes ago that we found out that we would be able to go right to Houston instead of needing to stop in Dallas to refuel. Undoubtedly, this was due to the captain flying high [39,000 feet] and sloe to try to conserve fuel. I am very grateful.
All this puts me right at about 8:00 PM for arrival home. I'm sure we'll just delay the girls' bedtime in that case [as it turns out, I got home around 7:00 PM, mostly due to the quick turnaround at the Houston airport].
So far, the last 32 hours have been either in an airport or airplane. It will feel very nice to be at home.