Tour de Utah 2009 Part I

I don't know if I have the strength to hammer out a blog post after the crazy couple of weeks we have had. It has been full of adventure and fun and I am so thankful for our families who have made it so wonderful, can't say as much for the airlines...

Our Tour de Utah 2009 started very much like last year... in a travel nightmare, only this year it didn't involve a 6 person/ 8 bag pile up on the escalator.We were about to board the plane to Denver when Shane realized the ticket agent hadn't given us our boarding passes for our flight from Denver to Salt Lake. He ran all the way back through security to get the problem solved... we barely made the flight, whew, disaster averted. The flight was going well until the pilot got on the overhead and informed us that we were in a holding pattern for bad weather, okay, the lightening bolts were a little scarey but so far we were okay. Meanwhile Isaac says, "I think one of those lightenings isgoing to hit our airplane"--thank you Isaac for your comforting words. I reassure him... " It's okay Isaac our plane has a force field and no lighting can strike it."

An hour and a half into a very turbulent holding pattern, the pilot says

we no longer have enough fuel so we need to land in Larame.... 20 minutes later we start turning around in the opposite direction. What? "When it rains it pours" the pilot says. Larame doesn't have fuel for us so we are going to Cheyenne. Hearing the words, "we don't have enough fuel, and we're going to have to go on a wild goose chase to get some" was very unsettling. "At least we'll be together as we go down in flames " I thought, trying to look at the glass half-full.

We landed safely in Cheyenne and I saw the woman next to me do the sign of the cross. We then sat on the runway for 4 hours... that's right, 4 hours waiting for our turn to be fuled. Our poor kids were exhausted and crabby, they ran out of water on the plane so we couldn't get a drink or wash our hands, and though people were trying to make the best of things packed in like sardines, I think we were all about to charge the door, sick and tired of being held captive...Its sad when the prisoners at GITMO get treated better than law-abiding citizens on airlines... at least the prisoners have fresh water, fresh air and a place to lay their heads. Here are a few photos from the 2 hour flight, turned 7 hour ordeal.

Finally we took off again, heading for Denver and arrived there at 2:30 a.m. The kids were completely fried so we decided to get a hotel and sleep for 2 hours before we had to catch our SLC flight at 6:30. I have to say it was the greatest 2 hours of sleep I have ever had the priveledge of knowing; took a lovely shower, which according to Shane, is worth an hour of sleep, and were once again on our way to SLC. Knowing that Mason and Jackson were to be baptized at 1:00, I realized we were in for a terribly long day. We were exhausted, and probably looked meaner than scorpions when we arrived, but were glad to be there and were even able to take a short nap.

The baptism was beautiful. We were so thankful for everyone who came to support the boys. Although we felt a little hurried, tired and frantic, there are no words to describe the feeling that was there, at least for me ...It was a wonderful day that I had looked forward to for so many years :)