Location: Blackfoot, Idaho
Today was our final day in Idaho. We had been dreading this day since we arrived. To our surprise, we woke up with a nice good bye gift. Lots of FRESH FLUFFY WHITE SNOW!! Well gee, we've been here for 2 weeks and NOW it snows?! Well luckily our flight wasn't until late that night. So we had ALL day to play play play! This is all any of us wanted (well except for the locals) since the minute we arrived.
Snowball Time
Taking cover in the Tree Fort
Tractor Time
The new tractors came in handy to plow the driveway!
Luke's gift to Anden!!
Ok so maybe it wasn't as expensive as we thought!
Feeding the Horsies
Finally caught the train
The Final Snow Angel
Sunbathing after a long day of PLAY
Sadly, it was finally time to load up and head to the airport. But first we had to make a pit stop. As a gift to the men, we FINALLY made time to stop at the Army Surplus Warehouse.
It's right off the freeway on the way to Idaho Falls. Jeremy has literally stared at it every time we drove past over the last 7 years just longing to enter inside. Somehow (well I could think of lots of reasons) we've never had time. Today was his magical day. I hope it was all he envisioned. The kids had a blast rummaging through old army gear, bolts, screws, bombs, you name it!
Learning how to camp & cook
Dad dreaming of relaxing once we leave
All I can say is that any store that allows a big hairy dog to run freely throughout....probably isn't my type of shopping establishment. However, he might have been an employee. I'm not quite sure.
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho
Arrival: 7:00pm
Flight Time: 8:30pm
I wish I could say at this point our day was almost over. But no, not when you fly Allegiant Airlines, the Garbage Can of the Friendly Skies. They still just have one flight a day, a week. Clearly an 8:30pm flight is NOT a kid friendly time. But we had no choice. Also flying a week after a National debacle of the attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing, caused some extra prodding and probing through security. Have you ever been frisked...everywhere...while still holding your baby?? At least they let me switch her from one arm to the other in order for them to wand my upper inner thighs. Not awkward at all. I especially loved that I'm "randomly selected" EVERY TIME at this particular airport for special screening and rummaging through every ounce of my luggage. Yes sir, there is in fact liquid nitrogen in that sippy cup. You guessed it correctly. So getting through security at this airport is an achievement in itself! We accomplished just that! Now having this airline be on time - ya that's an Act of God.
The flight was only delayed 30 mins, which is fabulous for Allegiant! However the kids, and ourselves, were near meltdowns by the time we finally boarded. Once we finally got situated, I realized that during the juggle of children and luggage I didn't think I handed the attendant Jer's boarding pass. Oh well, surely they wouldn't notice?! Well, after being held hostage in the plane for 30 mins with no explanation. The flight attendant finally announced over the loud speaker that they were off count of boarding passes vs passengers by 3. We were told to search our belongings and we couldn't depart until this was resolved. So I had the choice, either humiliate ourselves and get death stares by other passengers while we raised our hands....or sit there for the entire winter. The choice was clear, I humbly raised my hand while lowering my head and the stares ensued. She came and grabbed the boarding pass and lectured me as to the whereabouts of the other 2. I explained, for all eavesdroppers to hear, that they only "missed" 1 of our passes. Off she sternly marched. The wait continued for another 30 mins. Our kids were now alternating between hanging from the ceiling and army crawling under the rows of seats. Finally, they announced the "problem" had been resolved. Well we happened to be sitting on row 4 and heard them whisper that they had actually counted wrong. The man behind me purposely blurted out loud enough for most to hear, "You made us wait an HOUR because you can't count?!" I quietly seconded that motion....ignoring the minor detail that I was actually part of the problem.
The engines finally started and we were Vegas bound. I had figured that the kids would give up and fall asleep once the humming of the engines began. Oh, how wrong I was. Taylee was beyond out of control tired. She's the type that refuses to go to sleep unless she's in her bed or tied down. Unfortunately our spare ropes were confiscated back at the airport so tying her down was not an option. She's a "lap child" so seatbelts weren't an option either. She was everywhere! Literally crawling on the floor, bouncing on the seats, touching and grabbing EVERYTHING. We tried to restrain her but she would begin screaming and crying. I kept reminding ourselves it's not her fault that it's WAY past bedtime and she's stuck on a plane. So there she wailed for all to hear. After 10 mins, a flight attendant showed up to give us an empty cup. Confused, I accepted it and wondered if she wanted me to put it over her mouth?! She explained that kids like to play with cups and this will settle her down. Really?! How about you hand me a crib instead? We thanked her for the assistance and instead unleashed Taylee to roam. Suddenly she was happy and giggly as can be....without the help of the empty cup. That was the longest 1.5 hr flight of my life. Anden was awesome and zoned out watching a movie. That was a good thing because it took BOTH Jer and I to wrestle Taylee.
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Arrival: 10:30pm
We finally landed in Vegas! As we taxi'd in to our gate, Taylee finally sat down and fell asleep. No kidding. The next hour was spent wrestling with WAY too much luggage, tired/grouchy kids and rude strangers through halls, escalators, trams, elevators, shuttles of the Las Vegas airport...on Dec 30th. The day everyone is arriving for New Year's Eve celebrations. It was SO busy and no mercy was given for people with little kids. While we were on the shuttle to the parking lot, we joked about how awful last time was when Aaron's car battery was dead (because of Anden pushing every button before we had left). We reminisced about how it had taken forever to get security to jump the car while we all waited in the parking lot in the cold dark middle of the night with 50 bags of luggage and car seats. Good thing that wouldn't ever happen again! We exited the shuttle and waited while Lynds/Aaron/Anden went to get the car. After much too long, Aaron showed back up asking for me to call security cuz the battery was dead. I cracked up laughing and said, "Nice try, tell Lynds to pull around so we can load this crap up." His face didn't flinch, "I'm not joking."
Final Arrival: 12:00 am
