I really shouldn't fly.

I must carry bad luck with me because the my flight home was a bit frustrating. The airplane I was waiting for to leave Fort Walton Beach was late arriving, and then the flight attendants said that they overbooked the flight so they offered any passenger $500 to give up their seat and stay until the next flight. I really wanted to take the deal because Hyrum wasn't coming home until tomorrow. But, I needed to get home to decorate a cake for my grandpa's birthday party. (That's why I was coming home a day early)

When we landed in Dallas Texas, I found my gate and then walked around to try to find something to eat. Unfortunately, all the food places in the terminal were already closed. Boo! I gave up looking for food and looked around the gift shop and bought some souvenirs for the kids. When I got back to the gate I found out that my flight was delayed because of some maintenance issues on the plane that would "only set us back 30 minutes," yeah.. I'm going to go with NO. After waiting for over an hour we finally got to board the plane. Then we waited another hour on the plane before it took off because of maintenance checks they still needed to do. Finally the captain came on and said it was time to go. The plane started up, started going down the runway and just as it was about to pick up speed, we stopped. The captain said that there was still some sort of issue that needed to be fixed. Well, we finally got the problem fixed about 20 minutes later and finally took off and headed to Salt Lake. 

The passenger sitting next to me was really nice. He talked a lot, about his family, religion, and family secrets. I thought it was pretty funny at the amount of family gossip he was willing to share with a complete stranger. I guess he just needed to let it out. Lucky me. While he was spilling his guts, I remembered that I had two snicker bars in my purse so I offered him one of them since he had complained that they needed to feed us since we were stuck in the plane for so long. He wouldn't take it and for some reason I couldn't get myself to eat my snickers in front of him. I guess I just felt it would be rude to eat in front of him. Crazy thinking I know. I blame it on the super late hour (12:45 am) and the anxiety of flying all by myself. So I suffered the whole flight. lol Luckily he stopped talking for awhile for me to get a little shut eye. Not the most comfortable place to sleep, my head kept bobbing. 

We landed in Salt Lake City at 2:00 am. and when the front doors opened I about fell over! It was really cold! What happened to my nice Florida weather, it was so nice and warm. I ran back inside to warm back up while I watched for my dad to come. He was so nice to wait up all this time for me. 

Dad dropped me off at home, I came in and found my mom snoozing on the couch. The second my head hit the pillow I was out! The next thing I know, Madi is crying. I wanted to cry, I was soo tired! I made her a bottle and got back into bed. Slept for about an hour and then got up and spent the next 6 hours decorating a cake and taking care of four super awnry kids that missed their mom. I was exhausted, a bit shaky and ready to curl up into a ball and cry. I considered skipping my grandpa's birthday party and just sending my kids and the cake with my mom so I could get some sleep but, mom wouldn't go for that. Sigh..

The party was fun, grandpa really liked his cake. The kids were really siked that the party was at Golden Corral. Here's the cake..

It was a generation cake, everyone's name was written on a leaf and placed on the tree branch. Perfect for my family history junkie grandpa. haha

Last day in beautiful Florida..

I went for a run this morning, I just couldn't pass up the great view. My favorite spot to go to is this little pier about a mile down the road. It is such a peaceful place, I could sit by the water for hours and just think. or sleep. lol

 Yep, gotta have a little selfie on the pier. :)

I'm going to miss this place, however, I miss my kids.

Just can't get enough of the beach!

So, since there hasn't been much of a sunrise to see in the mornings we decided to go back and watch the sunset. Plus, it's the beach why not?!? I love the sand here, it is so white and soft to walk on. Nothing like the sand on the other side of the US at all. 

Oh man, just look at this..

Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Wednesday, April 2

Hyrum and I went to the beach before he had to be to work this morning so we could watch the sunrise, haha that didn't work out too great because it was overcast. Still really fun though, we saw some sharks a ways out from the beach. There were so many jellyfish and birds everywhere. 

After Hyrum dropped me off back at the hotel I decided that I need to go for another jog and explore some more. So, I started in the other direction and found a map of this area and it turns out that this whole place is in one big loop. This is great for me because I was a bit nervous that I might get lost. Yay! Here's some pictures from my run.

After Hyrum got off work one night we went out with some of his co-workers and had dinner. We went to this great place Hyrum had heard about called McGuires Irish Pub. Amazing food!

It's pretty cool inside. The whole place is covered in dollar bills. The customers sign their names on a dollar and they put them up everywhere. They say they have more than a million dollars.

Day two in Florida

Okay, so I survived my flight and met up with my honey. We took my stuff back to the hotel, and went for a bite to eat. They have this strip mall just down the street from where we are staying. This area is really nice. Hyrum says that a lot of famous and wealthy people live around here. Lucky for us this is a work trip for Hyrum or we would never be able to afford to stay in such a nice area. So anyways we walked down to the check the place out. They have a movie theater, a few restuarants and some crazy expensive stores. The great thing about being in this area is that I don't have to worry about going out and exploring on my own while Hyrum is working. 

 I decided that I would go workout in the little gym they had here in the hotel. Yeah, that was a joke. lol Smallest gym ever, and no ventilation at all. So, I went outside for a little jog. This place is really beautiful.

I ended up jogging over six miles this morning, which called for a really big nap after I got back. All of it was totally worth it though, it is just beautiful!

My journey to Florida, day one.

I hopped on a plane all by myself this morning to meet up with Hyrum in Florida. That was quite the experience. I was supposed to have a layover in Dallas Texas and have about two hours to eat, relax and maybe stretch my legs. But, halfway there the pilot said that we had to change route because of some weather issues in Dallas so we turned around and landed in Abilene Texas. This caused a bit of stress with some of the passengers on board. I text Hyrum when we landed to let him know what was going on.  A few passengers actually were headed to Abilene and talked the pilot into letting them get off the plane, knowing that their luggage would still go to Dallas. They decided to go and this caused a few more passengers to freak out. Luckily, nothing to crazy happened and we were only an hour off course.We had to refuel, which took awhile and by the time we made it back to Dallas I only had 45 minutes to find food and my next gate. 

Here is the Abilene airport. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, and it was really really small. 

So, the first thing I did when I got off the plane was find my gate. Check! Luckily, there was a subway really close to my gate so I grabbed a sandwich and went back to my gate to eat. When I was done I pulled my book out and started to read. I have decided that it is really hard to read in an airport, it's too loud for me to concentrate. So, after about 15 minutes I looked up to see when we would be boarding the plane. My flight wasn't there anymore! It was moved to another gate! I jumped up and dashed down the terminal looking like one of those people that are always late for their flights. Yep, I am super cool like that. I made it just in time to the new gate as the last three passengers were boarding. I can't believe I almost missed my flight! Not the best first experience flying all alone, seriously!

I finally made it to Fort Walton beach Florida two hours late, tired and hungry. All of that craziness was just a distant memory when I saw Hyrum at the entrance with the biggest smile on his face! Awe.. paradise.

Bear Lake

Hyrum's brother invited us to spend a few days at Bear Lake with their family, and since our kids were out of school for UEA we thought it would be really fun to go. We didn't get there until late Wednesday night because I waited until Wednesday morning to pack for the trip and Hyrum worked until four. It was kind of scary driving through all the curvy roads in the mountains in the dark of the night! I am really proud of my kids though, no one puked this time! Every time we drive through a canyon with really windy roads one of the kids pukes.

The kids were all so excited when we finally made it to the hotel, they were all wide awake so it took a while to get them to sleep. Andy and Ammon (my nephew) got a room to themselves and they stayed up after eleven. It was really nice to sit, relax and visit with Brent and JennyLyn and watch a few shows on TV after the kids finally fell asleep.

The next morning we took the kids over to the Garden City Park so they could play. 

 They spent most of the time swinging. They liked having Hyrum and Brent push them high up in the sky!

 They have a boardwalk down to the lake at the park so after the kids were done swinging we headed down to the boardwalk. The kids wanted me to take some pictures of them playing in the leaves. They turned out pretty cool.

 The lake is really low right now. We walked out to about the middle of where the lake used to be before we got to the water.

 The kids found sticks and drew lots of pictures in the sand.

 Just chil-laxin'

 Lyllee built a little city with all the little shells she found, it even had a large tree in the city.

 I was so happy that I was able to take a picture of all the kids together, this only happens once in a blue moon.

 Such beautiful scenery.

 Best buddies.

 Madelyn was so intrigued by the leaves she found.

 Love this girl!

 Madelyn and her cousin Ruthann. They are only three days apart..

After dinner we took the kids to the pool at the hotel. Madelyn really enjoyed splashing with dad and watching her siblings playing in the water too.

 Ruthann seemed to have mixed feelings about the water. She wanted to get in and out of the pool a lot.

 Silly Ammon posing for a picture.

 My cute girls.

 This was Madelyn's favorite thing to do in the water.

 Andy saw Samantha jumping in and got up enough courage to try it himself.

 Samantha practiced all the skills she learned from her swimming lessons earlier in the year.

We had a lot of fun with Brent and JennyLyn. It was a nice little vacation, I hadn't ever been to Bear Lake before. Next time we go we will have to stop at the place that shake place that is known for its raspberry shakes. They are supposed to be really good.

I love driving through the canyons in the fall, so pretty!