The trip that wouldn't end....

Soooo......we were supposed to leave Georgia on Saturday, March 21st. We left Meredith's house on Friday morning and visited our good friends the Purdys, then headed over to Ghee's (Nathan's mom) "little cabin in the woods." It was such a great place to visit! We are so glad she moved there. It is an adorable house, and it's on 10 wooded acres with a lake. The kids were in heaven! They tromped through the woods and saw some cows in a neighboring field, yelled at the top of their voices thinking that they couldn't be heard by anyone, peed on trees and other backwoods Georgia type activities. It was GREAT!!!

Nathan and Sister Sarah had a rock skipping contest

Owen posed in front of the skipping rocks

Hazel stuck her hands and white shoes in the pristine (sarcasm) water

Nathan wanted to take the kids out in one of the boats. He stood by the boats for a good 15 minutes using an oar to tip them up and peer under them, then drop them suddenly and jump back. Finally, I asked what the crap he was doing. He said he was checking for snakes. Nathan is deathly afraid of snakes. All snakes. Even the sweet little harmless, innocent ones. I laughed at him and made fun of him for being overly cautious. I eventually got fed up, marched over there and used my bare hands to throw one of the boats over for him to use. Guess what was in there?! You got it. A snake. It was hilarious! I said in a matter of fact voice "Oh! What do you know? There IS a snake in there" and he yelled "Are you serious?!?!" while running for the dock. He then stood on the dock yelling at me while I showed the snake to the kids, took pictures of it and prodded it with an oar.

Look! He posed in an S shape. S is for snake.

Don't worry- I went inside and Googled it to prove that it was harmless....although I needed to convince myself, too, thanks to it's unmistakable triangular head. But it was, indeed, only a non-venemous red-bellied water snake.

This is how Hazel felt about not getting to ride in the boat.

There was so much excitement, we were wishing that we were there for more than one night. Our wish was granted. On Saturday, we left for the airport around 3:00 pm. We got dropped off at the curb, waved goodbye to Ghee and hauled our baggage up to the counter to check it. Why did I think this trip was somehow going to be easier than the first time around?

Owen didn't even have a ticket. His ticket had apparently been 1 way, so it was considered used and void. Long story. To make it short....we called Ghee who cheerfully headed back to the airport to pick us up. We took all our luggage back to her house and camped out another night, making furious phone calls to get the ticket situation taken care of. Luckily, on the way home, Ghee had picked up some worms. Apparently she had little faith that we would make that flight and she wanted to cheer us up with some live bait for FISHING!!!!! I haven't been fishing for a little over two years, so I immediately walked down to the lake (as Ghee put it "in my dress up clothes) and started sticking worms on hooks and casting like crazy. It's amazing how fishing can make me feel calm and anticipatory at the same time.

Here are a couple of fish that I caught.

And here is the obviously inferior one that Nathan caught.

And here is the precious one that Owen caught and reeled in all by himself.

The next day was Sunday, which we have been told is the busiest day to travel, so we saved ourselves the heartache and stress and didn't even try. We just decided to rest up for Monday. So we invited all of my family over to Ghee's house for a rib fest and some fishing. Yep- we broke the Sabbath a little- recreational activities and all, but it sure was fun! Good food, Hazel got to see Avery again, the two families were together for a brief moment and it's been a LONG time since that happened. I sure appreciated them making the drive out to the country to say goodbye to us a second time...even though Meredith got a little annoyed because my fishing addiction got the best of me and I left her up in the house nursing Kyle and talking to the Moms. Sorry, Meredith. :(

Cousins reunited

Hooks and worms and lures, oh my!

Another farewell

Another slumber party at Ghee's

Another bath at Ghee's to wash off the worm guts.

Another Where's Waldo moment

We got up Monday morning and Ghee drove us to the airport once again. We tried for the first flight (which was around noon), and got denied. Ghee drove back to get us. We went back to the airport for the 5:30 flight (bless you, Ghee), and got denied yet again.

Here we are waiting for Ghee to pick us up the second time. Most of us are sad, and I'm not quite sure what emotion Owen is feeling.

So we spent Monday night at Ghee's once again. That blessed angel of a mother-in-law gave up her king sized bed for us, made the 30 minute drive to the airport over and over, fed us, washed out clothes and never once seemed unhappy about any of it.

We finally got on a flight at 7:45 Tuesday morning (which required waking up at about 5:00 am), and we were on our way back to Phoenix.

Here we are on the plane....exhausted, but thrilled to be heading home.

Since we had no idea when we would be arriving in Phoenix, we didn't have anyone to pick us up. So we got to the airport, tracked down our luggage that had once again flown across the country without us and hopped on a bus. That bus took us to the light rail which took us to a stop about 1 1/2 miles from our house. The kids and I and all our luggage then sat in the parking lot of a bank while Nathan took another bus to our house so he could get the car and pick us up. This whole ordeal took about 2 1/2 hours. And while we were waiting at the bank, Hazel decided she had to pee. I'm sure the two men beside us on their smoking break thoroughly enjoyed her screaming "I have to pee, I have to pee! I can't wait. I'm starting to pee in my pants." Then when I tried to softly suggest that she get in the stroller and sit on her foot, she screamed "I don't want to put my foot in my vagina!!!!" At that point, I just let her keep screaming. It's not like I could be any more humiliated, so I just decided she could live it up...scream to her heart's content.

Anyway. We are home. We are slowly getting back into the swing of things and back to our normal sleeping patterns. Thanks to all our family and friends who helped make this a memorable experience (was that vague enough to include all the good and bad experiences?).