American Airlines - expert in the runaround

My family of five was flying from Steamboat Springs, CO, a direct flight from their local airport (Yampa, CO) to Chicago after a week long skiing vacation. There were snowy weather conditions in Yampa Valley but planes were taking off left and right, and American flights were taking off as well. American Airlines informed us that there were weather issues in Chicago, so we called home. The O'Hare flights, according the internet, were within 15 minutes of being on time (and as anyone who has been to O'Hare knows this is very unusual.) They supposedly cancelled the flight but several flights took off while we waited. When we questioned them they insisted that the problem was not in Colorado but in Chicago. They refused to find a flight that would even take us to Denver, so that we could get a flight out. They had actually overbooked the flights out of Steamboat. Flights were leaving to everywhere. The weather in Chicago was 52 degrees and clear, so there were no issues in Chicago. They flat out lied to us!! It was a Sunday and American Airlines told us they couldn't get us out until Tuesday (how did they know that? Crystal ball seeing that on Tuesday the snow would stop or the "weather issues" in Chicago would clear up?) We had to rent a car, drive a three hour drive through treacherous blizzard conditions and mountainous roads, which incidentally took us NINE hours instead of three, and then spend the night at a hotel in Denver because we arrived too late for any of the flights out of Denver to Chicago. Luckily, Southwest got us home early enough on Monday to put in almost a full day's work and for our three kids to get to school. I will NEVER fly American Airlines again - NEVER. They refused to reimburse us for anyhing, including the fare for the Sunday flight that THEY cancelled. I HATE THEM!!!