The beginning of the end, or "How to miss an international flight"

We just spent the last month in the US. On Monday we left New Mexico, and we didn't get to our apartment in China until Friday morning. It was quite an adventure.
We left New Mexico and stayed the night in LA. We stayed at a hotel near LAX so we could go catch our flight in the morning. This is where the fun began! That night we went to sleep at a reasonable hour. At midnight, I woke up to some rowdy group in the hallway, slamming doors, talking really loudly, and generally being disruptive. After a half an hour of this, I poked my head out into the hall: Yes, they were teenagers! I just gave them a look, and they dispersed into their rooms. For a while. An hour later (1:30 AM), there was still a group of them talking in the hallway-- right outside my room. I went out and explained to them that I was hoping to get some rest before flying to China in the morning. There was more door slamming and people going to and fro, and then it was quiet-- well, quieter. Pretty soon (2:30 AM) it was down to one girl having a full-voiced telephone conversation in the hall right by my room. I told her my desire to get some sleep, and then I stood there until she hung up her phone and went in her room. There were more people going in and out of rooms, many doors clunking open and slamming shut, but by 3:00 AM all was quiet and I got to fall back to sleep.
In the morning, I went down for breakfast, but first stopped by the hotel reception desk. I wanted to leave a message for the leaders of the disruptive student group. I left a REALLY long note. I got to breakfast, and the hotel manager came and gave us free breakfast as well as a discounted hotel room rate. I was very grateful. It wasn't the hotel's fault that their guests were disruptive, but I really appreciated their good customer service. It was the Four Points by Sheraton, LAX. It was a good hotel.
I had some re-packing to do, and thankfully Naomi slept for a while during her morning nap. I was exhausted, so I rested during Naomi's nap, too. This means we left about 20 minutes later than I'd planned, but I wasn't worried.
Checking out of the hotel took longer than I thought, and we got out on the porch right as the airport shuttle was leaving. So we waited 20 minutes for the next one.
The next shuttle was completely full of people, so when we got to the airport, we stopped for several minutes at every terminal to unload passengers. Ours was the last terminal.
When we got to the airline (United) to check in, the line was very long and slow. See, there were 36 desks to check in, but only 4 agents working. The desks were automated, but more often than not, there was a problem that required an agent. And that meant waiting, a long time.
I got to the front of the line at about 12:25. My flight was leaving at 1:23. This means I'd just missed the one-hour cut-off time-- by two minutes!
I ran over to the "special services" desk to re-book. It was a line of about 10 people, but when I got there they informed me that the line hadn't moved at all for about 20 minutes. There was one agent.
This being my first time to miss a flight, it took me a while to realize that I'd missed my flight and they didn't intend to re-book me on my same flight, but that I'd have to be re-booked on another flight on another day. I cried and downed most of a large pack of M&Ms. Talk about stress! I was frustrated, disappointed, and a little scared of what I'd do. I hadn't seen my husband in almost a month, and I just wanted to go home.
Somewhere in the middle of my pity party, I realized that I'd have to spend the next 24 hours in Los Angeles. And if I was going to be stuck in LA for the day, I'd be spending it in Disneyland with my two girls.