Well. Obviously I have missed a few weeks. I guess that means I have failed in the blogging world as a dedicated blogger and have once again become a lazy lame loser. The good news is that it is a new year so I get a fresh shot at it. The bad (or rather sad) news is that I actually seem to care. So here is a rundown of what has happened over the last few weeks:
We went on Christmas vacation. Which means we visited family and friends at their homes, ate lots of good food, stayed up late, played an obscene amount of board and card games, slept as much as possible, and generally lolled around. It was fabulous.
However, it didn’t start out that fabulous. And thus it comes….the stereotypical Christmas traveling fiasco. Everyone has one. And this is ours:
Imagine if you will that it is 5:00am (3:00am if you are in UT or ID). Your alarm sounds. Already, this is a bad day. It is pretty much a standard fact that any day that starts before 6:00am is going to be dreadful. But, your plane leaves at 6:45 and the airport is about a 30 min drive and your taxi is arriving at 5:30 so there is no avoiding it - you have to actually get up when your alarm sounds. No snooze button. (Not being able to hit your snooze button is also an indication that things are bound to go badly, which is why I actually set my alarm to go off at 4:53am so I could hit snooze once…which I did, so really when I said imagine your alarm sounding at 5am it really is 5:03 and it is the second time it has gone off having once already hit snooze…but it is still before 6:00am and that is all that really matters).
So, you roll out of bed. This is the true roll. I think we are all familiar with it. It is when you are laying in bed and really don’t want to get up because you where up till around midnight packing your bags and you are seriously considering missing your flight but then realize that you can’t miss your flight because that would cost you money because you booked you flight through an online booking agency that although got you a great deal, also made it impossible to change your tickets, so if you miss your flight you aren’t going anywhere because you certainly can’t afford to buy new tickets for a flight you already paid for once. So your half awakened mind blitzes through this line of reasoning and of course seizes on the part that wasn’t actually thought but was subconsciously implied: “PAY FOR THE SAME TRIP TWICE” which, since you are pitifully broke, sends you into a panic. A panic which signals your body to sit up AND get out of bed at the same time, thus prompting a half crouched semi falling quasi sort of part roll resulting in you being out of bed, on your feet and stumbling your way to the bathroom (since it is common knowledge that the bathroom is the first places everyone goes). Unless of course your feet get caught in the sheets. Then you end up on the floor. Or still in bed. Both have happened to me. I prefer the bed. In this particular instance, however, the roll was successful and I was off to the races.
So we race around grabbing bags, stuffing last minute items into our luggage, waking our daughter up (any time you have to wake a sleeping child is also a portent of a bad day), trying to eat something, and attempting to be out to the curbside at 5:30 for our taxi to arrive. Miraculously, we make it to the curb at 5:25am. But of course since we are on time the taxi is 10 mins late. This translates into 10 mins to worry about stuff we might be forgetting…or thinking about the pancakes we could have made with those extra ten minutes instead of eating cold oatmeal without milk.
Anyway, we get to the airport; get through security and the new “body scanners” (which really aren’t a big deal, you don’t really even notice them) make it to our gate just as they start boarding and are on the plane at 6:40am. Maybe things aren’t going to be that bad after all you think. But then the pilot gets on the intercom and says “we have a small problem, we aren’t sure what it is but it shouldn’t take long” uhoh, you can feel the panic start to set in. Everyone knows that the phrase “shouldn’t take long” in the airline industry actually really means “a really long time” in normal people’s terms. But then the pilot gets on and says “We have a leak in one of the oxygen masks up front, but the good news is that it should only take 10-15mins to fix.” Now you’re just freaked. 10-15mins?!? Are you kidding me? 10-15mins in airport lingo really means “FOREVER” in real time. And so after two hours of sitting in our seats with our seat belts we finally take off. At which point our 2yr old says “yeaaahh mommy, we’re there!”
Well to make a long story shorter (mostly because I’m tired of typing) we missed both our connections and had to be re routed. So instead of arriving in SLC at 1:45pm we got there at 4:45pm which doesn’t seem like a huge difference but when you put the whole thing in MST time it means we got up at 3:00 am (well 3:03am) where at the airport at 4:00am and then spent the next 12 and a half hours in planes and airports arriving in SLC at 4:45pm. Which, with a 2yr old who missed her nap, feels like forever. But, on the bright side, 12hrs is a lot faster than the 3-4 days it would take if we drove…so although it is sort of a fun story to tell it really wasn’t that big of a deal, just slightly inconvenient.
Anyway, we got to SLC on the 18th and stayed with Mom and Dad Griffin, who, as always, were exceptional hosts. It was a blast. Some highlights included Zach’s birthday party at Derek’s, game night with the Plickas, a visit to the Taylor ranch, seeing Drew and Deanna, talking to Lael and Elise, teasing Ericka about Lord Luc, teasing Peter about his smile (aka “ladykiller”), playing around with the three Js, and of course Christmas eve dinner with everyone and then Christmas morning at Mom and Dad Griffin’s. We then traveled up to Idaho Falls on the afternoon of the 26th (Insert a large thank you to Derek for letting us use his truck) and went to a large Smith family white elephant gift exchange which several of my aunts, uncles and cousins attended. This was particularly enjoyable for me as it reminded me of my childhood Christmases when all the extended family would get together. It also was enjoyable for me because it allowed me to visit with several extended family members I don’t get to see very often anymore.
We then spent the remainder of the evening with my immediate family at my parent’s house. It was fun to have all the siblings there for Sunday evening. It is a rare occurrence that we all get together anymore and it was refreshing to see everyone if some of them only briefly.
We went to Logan on the 30th and had dinner with my best friends Tyler and Travis. We got to see Travis and Brandi’s baby girl Kambrie. She is a doll. Big eyes. Sweet smile. It was fun to see Travis as a dad. He is as smitten by his girl as I am by mine. Darn kids. After dinner we went back to Tyler and Tashie’s (which was where we were staying) and stayed up talking to Tashie till midnight or so (Tyler works nights till 2am). For our part we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Up till then we haven’t had the opportunity to talk to Tashie very much. She is a delightful person and a brilliant host. Tyler, thanks for the bacon. I love bacon.
To wrap things up quickly, not because I don’t have a lot more to say, but because as mentioned I am tired of typing, we also enjoyed Lindsey’s wedding, playing Wii with papa, visiting with Lori and Trevor (Travis and Tyler's Mom and Brother respectively) (also insert a quick congrats to Trevor and his fiancée!) seeing Great Grandma Smith and basically thoroughly enjoyed seeing and talking with everyone on our trip. People are what make up the best and worst in life and we got to see all the best people in our lives on this trip and so it was as Nacho Libre says "the bessst."
We honestly had a blast. Thank you all for making memories with us year after year. And I do mean that last bit - even as cheesy as it sounds.
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