Our first and last trip this summer I decided to be brave enough to venture to Utah with the two boys by myself. The occasion? My brother's wedding! We had the privilege to take his engagement photos with Kaitlyn. Here are my favorites:
After figuring out what to take and finding a ride to the airport, we made it through the airport with no hiccups. The boys behaved themselves for the most part while waiting for the plane. Here are the champions:
The first flight Eli fell asleep right away so I only had to entertain Joey. I didn't realize you had to pay for the Wifi though and was a little underprepared. It worked out though.
My mom and sisters gave me a scare saying I hardly had time to switch planes at the Phoenix airport. I rushed off and by the time I made it to the next gate, I realized I had an hour more than was calculated and was able to eat lunch with the boys. Joey wandered off at one point and I had so much crap plus Eli, I couldn't chase him down unless I dropped all the stuff. I didn't even ask a lady to watch Eli as I ran off. I was not happy with Joey, but we were reunited and I had to keep a close eye since.
It was Joey's turn to fall asleep on the next flight and I had Eli to entertain. We made it to Salt Lake on time and was able to see my family. We spent the rest of the time in Salt Lake City, going to Temple Square:
My sister's in-laws have a cabin in Provo Canyon and all my family was staying there. I think my boys had fun, and at one point we went to the Museum of Curiosity. There were my parents, me and the boys, and Ryker. That's one adult to one child, and we still managed to lose all of them at one point. I'm sure it would have been a lot more fun if it wasn't so crowded. Here are the boys outside:
On Friday we made the drive from Provo to Saint George for the wedding. We had an awesome pizza for a wedding dinner and did some swimming at the pool.
Saturday, Heidi watched all the kids while we went to the temple to see my brother get married. A few hiccups delayed it an hour, but it was a beautiful ceremony and I'm so happy for them! Here is the beautiful couple:
The reception was in the evening and we had fun dancing, especially the kids! Kaitlyn and her family did a wonderful job putting it together. A funny moment was when my brother accidently brought up his bed (which was in a huge tub) instead of the P.A. system and my mom was furious. She said what will happen is my dad will go out and buy another amp, "Which we have three already, we don't need more!" At the reception I mentioned that they have a P.A. system. "Yeah, Dad said he was wanting another amp so it worked out." Haha! Here are some cute kids doing cute dancing:
The next day my parents were so kind to drop me off at the Las Vegas airport, but we arrived and had time to kill, so my dad took us to the Excalibur arcade. The boys found the mini rides and that is what we did for two hours. Maybe it wasn't Sunday appropriate, but I didn't want to sit at the airport for hours.
Remember how I said I didn't want to sit at the airport for hours? Well, when we arrived and I got through security, I saw there was a three and a half hour delay. I was crushed! Sam was picking me up in Austin past 9pm as it was, and this would put it passed midnight! He had to get up at 4am to get to the hospital. But Sam was really good about it and said he would try to get some sleep before he left.
While draining our devices' batteries watching endless shows to kill time, there was another flight scheduled at our terminal. They boarded shortly after I arrived. I noticed there was a plane coming into our terminal and thought "it's a miracle, our plane arrived!" Nope, it was that same group. Apparently they sat on the runway for forty minutes without air conditioning and the engine overheated. They came back and the people sat back down waiting to see what would happen next. I sat and talked to some ladies who were there over the weekend and they said their flight getting there was 7 hours delayed, then there was this. They were trying to find arrangements for their children as they probably would not get home the time they needed to. Well, the flight ended up being cancelled! The next flight out was on Thursday (this was Sunday) and the only compensation they were willing to give was a refund (which would take 4-6 weeks). We were all appalled, even those not on that flight. These women broke down crying, saying they didn't have the money to stay any longer and they had kids they needed to get back to. I felt so so so bad for them and angry at this airline.
They eventually had to go to baggage claim, so I never heard what these people ended up doing. Meanwhile, our flight keeps getting delayed, and we didn't make it out until 9:30pm. The kids thankfully fell asleep after a tough time at the airport (they kept running off in different directions and my patience was thin as it was). A girl next to me talked to me and since I couldn't fall asleep it was fine. We talked about religion and our lives. She just broke off an engagement over religion issues and I hope she finds someone who is a better match.
Arriving in Austin at 2:30am, Sam and I realized that the south terminal is 15 minutes away from the main ones, so Sam was waiting at the wrong place. So we didn't get to head out for a while. Sam tried to sleep while I drove and we didn't get home and in bed until 5am. Sam was able to skip out of morning rounds, but we were all exhausted that day, and on top of that, we all ended up getting colds. That was the only sucky thing about the trip. I will never fly Allegiant again if I can help it. Saving $50-100 is not worth it! No no no!
Now we will be moving onto school for Joey and a trauma rotation for Sam this August. Woohoo!
