A trip to Utah: Day One

For a few months I had wanted to travel to Utah to visit family.  James couldn't get the time off to travel with us, and the roads weren't really practicable and safe enough to travel without him.  Plus we'd been traveling a lot lately and it just wasn't in the budget it to do it again.  But that didn't stop my heart from aching to see family.  

Well, we got see a ton of family on Thanksgiving which helped a lot.  And then my Mom came back into town and we had a blast hanging out together.  

The Thursday ( 12/10/2015) before she was to come visit,  I got a text around 11pm from my brother Luke.  It read:

Hey Sister, This is Luke.  Sorry it's so late but I was thinking of you today and wanted to reach out before I went to bed.  I have 2 free standby Southwest passes available if you'd like to fly down SLC (Salt Lake City) for the girls night at the ballet.  I probably could get another one as well so both girls could go with you.  Absolutely no pressure.  Just thought I'd offer.  Love you.  Luke

I was so surprised by his text.   James had to work that said ballet weekend, so I'd need to find a babysitter for Everett or something, but we both agreed we should accept Luke's gracious offer.  

After sleeping on the idea,  we decided that we had enough money to purchase one flight so Everett could come with me.  

When I contacted Luke to work out the details he was able to round up one more ticket for Everett.  THANK  YOU LUKE.

I don't know if I can express how sweet this gift meant to me.  I was excited to go visit my sisters and renew my spirit.  

Luke rearranged my Mom's flights so she could pick up the standby tickets we needed.  

The Tuesday after Jenni's concert began our adventure.

Monday night while my mom and I were helping sale Jenni's CD's after the concert, we got a text message saying the flight we were listed on had been canceled.

It took a while but after a phone call we were relisted on a later flight and all was well.  Maybe even better. No one really cares to wake up at 3am in the morning to catch a flight.  

Instead we slept until 8am and since Grandma and I had packed the day before we were all ready to go.

My neighbor picked us up in her van and drove us to the airport.  

We made it through security in a breeze and went to find our terminal.  

The flight was really full since the earlier flight had been canceled.  And it didn't look like we'd get on.  As the last people boarded the plane.  The Flight assistant called my mom's name.  YEAH she was going on the plane.  She was hesitant to leave me alone with all three kids and no plan, but I knew we'd somehow be okay.

Then by a miracle the flight assistant called my name.  I was dumbfounded and excited all at the same time.  We quickly printed out boarding passes and ran to get on the plane.  Of course the plane was full and there were no seats together.  So I hesitantly place Gwenevere in between to people and told her she'd be okay.  I'd come find her when we were in the air.  She wasn't worried a bit.

Then the flight attendant put the guy who was on the jumper seat in the back of the plane and two seats became available for Grace, Everett and I to set next to each other.  yet again, Another Miracle.  I have no idea how Grace would have handled sitting all alone.   technically Everett was supposed to have his own seat, but I was so grateful the flight assistants didn't enforce this rule at the moment.  He was much happier on my lap.

But before the we departed the flight attendant asked the person sitting next to me to trade places with Gwenevere so she could sit next to us.  She graciously agreed.  WOW how cool is that. Gwenevere was happy she could come sit next to me.

Grandma was in the front of the plane and we all had seats.  Truly a miracle.

We ended up waiting on the runway for a while and Everett fell asleep before we even took off.

Then moments before are plane was to take off, one passenger jumped up out of his seat and ran to the bathroom.  The flight attendants were already buckled for take off and no one was allowed out of their seats.  The flight attendants yell at the man to return to his seat or we'd have to turn the plane around.  The air was tense and the man didn't return to his seat.  The flight attendants yelled again and again.  We were next in line for take off and there was no room to turn the plane around.  in what seemed to be a forever moment panic filled the air.  I once again wasn't sure if we'd make it off the grown.

But right as the pilot was about to turn the plane around the man raced back to his seat and yelled "sorry I couldn't hold it any longer".  YIKES poor timing.

With a huge sigh of relief, our trip continued.   Grace watched out the window as we took off into a sky of clouds and heavy rain.  Up, up up we flew and then the moment happened.  We broke above the clouds to see the most beautiful blue sky and the majestic Mt Rainier through our window.

 The man who had caused such a fuss prior to takeoff was sitting one row behind me and across the aisle.   After we had reached a safe altitude the female flight attendant came to talk with the man.

The conversation that occurred still sends shivers up my spine.  He was male and she was female and his attitude towards her was disgusting.  I knew such attitudes still existed in the world but I enjoyed being ignorant of it.  I prayed silently that my children weren't listening to the conversation and I quietly talk to them in hopes that I was distracting them from the somewhat loud conversation behind us.  My mind worried of what the man might had done while in the bathroom.  Could this flight turn into one of those horror movies where their is bomb on the plane?  Probably not, but still I said a quick prayer that we'd make it safely back to ground.

After a moment, the female flight attendant left and a little while later the male flight attendant came to speak with the man.  Immediately the conversation was different and the man apologized for his behavior.

A few more incidence occurred every time the female flight attendant was trying to help him obey the rules.  But we managed to enjoy the flight nonetheless.  

Somewhere overlooking the Columbia river 

Everett was awake by the time we started our descent.  He and the girls LOVED the landing.  "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

When we landed in Phoenix there were police officers at the gate to help escort our lovely friend to a different location.

We met back up with Grandma and she took us to the McDonalds.  And then paid for our meal.  Thank you Grandma Thomas.  

While we were eating dinner an airport worker came and gave the kids little toy airplanes.  Thank you Phoenix airport.  This trip really has been awesome so far.

The kids got to play at the playground at the airport before we ran back to our terminal to catch our last flight for the day.

Grandma started heading back to our terminal and I figured I'd let the kids play for a bit before heading back.  The problem was: my cell phone didn't adjust to the time difference and I thought we still had an hour before boarding our flight.  OOOPS

My mom called right as I was rounding up the kids, She said they were boarding the plane.  YIKES,  we were clear across the airport.  The kids did a great job running through the airport like the Home Alone family, dragging luggage and coats along the way.  Luckily we made it to the terminal before they boarded family seating.

The flight was wide  open and we got to get our boarding passes and boarded the plane with the early boarders.  We managed to find seats all next to year other.  Grace and Gwenevere wanted to sit next to Grandma Thomas,  And Everett had his own seat right next to me.

Sitting next to Grandma Thomas

Me and my co-pilot

Everett slept again during the flight.

We landed in Salt Lake City around 8:00pm.  Grandma Thomas needed to catch a shuttle at 8:30 but she helped me load up all the luggage and car seats and helped me get to the rental car area before going on her way.

Thank you Grandma for ALL your help.  This trip would have been a lot more stressful without you. 

 I had reserved a compact car, but with the snowy roads I was a bit worried.  When I went to pick up the keys the lady at the counter said she could offer a reduced price for an upgrade if I wished.  Thinking this might be a good idea I asked for the prices but then decided I'd probably be just fine with what I had.

We walked out to the car and I began to doubt my decision.  I guess our saturn isn't considered a compack care.  I wasn't sure all three carseat where going to fit.  LOL

But I figured I'd give it a try anyway,  and It WORKED!  We loaded up the car, called Laura to tell her we were on our way.

Then off we went....

Onto another grand adventure...

ford torse 

Laura helped us settle into bed after we arrived.  And it wasn't long before we all fell asleep.