Delayed Trip Report

I've been meaning to write down all about our trip to Texas. Now seems as good a time as any....a month later! :)

I can not even express how nervous I was to be flying solo with all three kids! I don't even take them to the movies by myself, and here I was about to take them 30,000 feet in the air. I'd talked to them for months, trying to kind of prep them as much as I could for it. It seemed to have worked. We got to the airport and everyone was so helpful! I had the 3 kids, one big rolling suitcase, one little one, my purse, the kids' backpack of activities, 2 booster seats and a car seat. That was intense! A lady at the security checkpoint opened the ropes and let us into an empty lane and we got to skip the whole line entirely! Alayna told her that she was very nice, and that made the lady smile. lol!

We ended up getting to our gate about an hour early. The kids loved watching the planes coming and going. I was watching them thinking, I hope we're not in one of those little ones! Aaaannnd...we ended up being on the little one. Go figure. It wasn't too bad though, I guess. Amazingly enough, I got the kids boarded, seated and settled on the plane without incident. WHEW! That was my next biggest worry. Being the passenger on the plane with kids that everyone is mad at. The kids were so good though, I didn't have to worry at all. They were so excited for take off!

It wasn't a bad flight. 2.5 hours or so. It went quickly. The kids got all kinds of stocked up on cookies and juices. There was a lady that sat in front of us that got a kick out of all of them. She kept turning around and talking to them and tickling Bridger's toes. He thought she was hysterical.

Landing was a bit rough. It was very turbulent. I was way freaked out, (but still secretly loving it too) but the kids got the biggest kick out of it. They said, "This is just like driving!" The lady in front chuckled at that one! Once we stepped out of the plane, the San Antonio heat and humidity hit hard! Holy cow, that was a shock to the system. As we walked out of the terminal, Alayna said, "Hey, this is where we just were!" There was a group of flight attendants and a pilot that heard her and they just cracked up.

We found my cousin without too much incident. She drove us to her apartment in San Marcos and we hung out there for a little bit. The kids played with her puppy, Mingo. Then she drove us to the B&B that my uncle Phillip worked for, doing massages. The cabin we stayed in was so cool! There were paths that wound through a ton of cages full of turkeys, chickens, pigs, peacocks, llamas and goats. There was a big, wooded pen that came right up to the cabin that was full of llamas and goats. The kids were dying! We fed the llamas grass while we waited for my uncle to get there. A long piece of grass got stuck in one of the llama's noses, and he kept trying to sneeze it out. It finally did, and went straight into his mouth and he quickly ate it. EW!

When Phillip got there, we decided to go out to eat. They took us to this great Mexican place. Can't remember what it was called. Phillip was impressed by the kids, who ate the salsa that he wouldn't touch. I didn't think it was all that hot myself, but Phillip said he couldn't handle it. I was shocked! And a bit proud of me and the kids, let's be honest. lol! ;) After dinner, we went to my grandpa's sister's house down the street. She gave the kids otter pops and a stuffed animal frog that they found there. Random. I met my dad's cousin too. Then we went back to the B&B and called it a night.

I can't remember much about the order of the next few days. Phillip drove us around San Antonio and San Marcos and New Braunfels a lot, showing us all the places he and my dad went to as kids. The watering hole they fished at, the same one my grandpa hunted and fished at as a boy. That was in Martindale, where the house that my grandpa was born in still stands. We went to the malt shop and ate lunch where my grandpa always took them. He showed me their schools, and told me stories about all the shenanigans they got themselves into. We went to the wetlands at the Aquarena center. It had been an amusement park years before they converted it into the wetlands center for the university to research biology. When it had been an amusement park, my grandpa would take the family there for outings. There's a picture of my grandpa, kneeling in the grass with my dad, Phillip, and my other uncles David and Michael that was taken there. Phillip took a picture in almost the same spot. That was really cool!

Phillip also showed us the land that he's trying to secure to start his health spa. He wants it to be one of those retreat type places that people go to for a week to cleanse. He wants an organic farm, to make his own aromatherapy things, have a veggie café, and have a fitness center. How awesome would that be?

On Monday, my aunt Martha drove us to Sea World! For YEARS, I wanted to be a killer whale trainer there. LOL! We got there right as the park opened. We walked through a few of the exhibit things first, then went to the Sea Lion show. A walrus did crunches. Which really put things in perspective for me. I mean, if a Walrus can do a crunch, anyone can. We got there late, so we weren't anywhere near the splash zone. The kids REALLY wanted to get splashed. I did too! Then we went to the Shamu show. Made me want to abandon graphic design and go train whales. It'll never happen, but I thought about it! :) Then we went to the dolphin show, and FINALLY got into the splash zone. AND DIDN'T GET SPLASHED! Tragic! It was an incredible show though. The trainers did all kinds of acrobatic tricks and jumped from WAY clear high into the tank. It was absolutely stunning! We decided to take off after that, it was just so hot! We were all dying!

Phillip drove us into San Antonio again the next day and showed us downtown San Antonio. The Alamo, the riverwalk. We didn't really get out, it was more of a driving tour, but he did have me jump out at the alamo to take pictures while he drove around the block. We'd been there once before, with dad when he brought us 10 years before. It was so surreal to be there without him. It's still surreal to be anywhere without him!

When we got back to Martha's house from that drive, my cousin Carina wanted to take us to the San Marcos river to swim before we left for Amarillo. It was so gorgeous there! There was a restraunt that sat above the river, and a huge waterfall that came down around the restraunt and into one end of the river. It was really shallow in that area, it only came up to my waist at the highest spot. My cousin Deana showed Alayna how to swim, and she thought she was all kinds of cool after that! Deana held Bridger so his tummy was in the water and he was flapping his arms and legs around thinking he was swimming. He kept telling Deana to let him go, he could DO it! Haha! Too cute. We stayed there for a while, then went back to Martha's house to shower and get ready for our long overnight drive.

We left about 10:00pm. The kids fell asleep fairly quickly. Uncle Phillip talked and talked (definitely what he does best!). The whole trip he talked to me about my dad and him growing up. The stigmas attached to growing up Mexican, and how that affected who they were as people. My dad never talked about stories from when they were growing up. I feel like I don't know a big part of who he was. But hearing the stories from Phillip helped fill a lot of gaps for me.

Anyway. I stayed awake for a while, I think it was about 1am when I finally drifted off. I'd wake up every half hour or so. I woke up and stayed awake about 7am, just as the sun was rising. The fields, barns and silos were illuminated by the pure golden light that the sun was casting down. It was stunning! I looked over at my uncle, who looks so much like my dad, and it took me back to a few months before my dad died. It was Christmas morning, and he picked me up from work at LDS hospital, I had to work the whole night before. We drove down to Payson together to pick up my siblings from my mom's house to go back to Farmington so we could celebrate Christmas together. As we drove, the sun came up over the mountains and it was incredible. I looked over at my dad and said "Awwww, we just made a memory!" I said it jokingly, but I hold on to that memory dearly now.

We got to Amarillo, and went to my aunt Martha's mom's house for breakfast. She's a sweet, wonderful lady! After that we went to my Grandma's house, but the door was locked and she didn't answer. We went over to the hotel my Grandpa got for us and Phillip dozed. Then we went back to Grandma's and got there just as Grandpa did. We hung out together for a while that day. My Grandpa has been putting together our family history for me and he showed me a lot of pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents. That was SO cool to see. I was always told that we were Mexican, Italian and Native American. But no one knew what tribe or anything. My Grandpa thinks that we came from the Apache Indians. I can't remember the last name of my great great grandpa, but that's where it comes from. And we're not Italian. We're Sicilian. :) I can't wait until he gets it all typed up and copies of the pictures made to send to us! Grandpa took us to Ihop. He takes my uncle James there a lot to get him out of the house. (James has MS.) All the waitresses there knew him, and he wanted to show off his granddaughter and great grandkids. lol! That was fun. Then Grandpa took us over to James' apartment so we could say hi to him. I hadn't seen him in 10 years. He's changed a lot. It was a shock to the system at first, but he's the same old James. It was so good to see him. Uncle Michael didn't say a whole lot while we were there. But he was so tired and sick from dialysis that he probably wasn't feeling up to a whole lot.

The next day we were all hanging out at Grandma's house and we heard the news that Michael Jackson had died. What the!? Phillip was so weirded out by that! lol. He's emailed me since, and he's STILL weirded out by it. haha!

We left that evening to start for home. Grandma didn't want me to go. I wish I could have stayed with them longer! I miss them so much! But, it was getting late so we had to take off. We made it to Cheyenne but 6am and had breakfast at a truck stop. Then we went to the hotel Phillip got and he took a nap while I took the kids out. I found a map thingy in the hotel office and saw that there was a botanical garden. So I got directions and we went out exploring. We got to the gardens and lucky us, it was FREE! We like free. ;) It was gorgeous too. There was a wetlands pond, and a peace garden with fountains and a rose garden with a swinging bench that you could sit down and enjoy the gorgeous view. It was fantastic! After that we went to the mall so I could get a car charger for my phone. I thought I left my charger in Texas. (We go home and I found it in my suitcase. LOL. Totally like me, right?) We ate lunch and walked around a while. They had a great play place that the kids would NOT leave. So I sat and chilled while they wore themselves out. :)

We went back to the hotel, where Phillip was napping. He decided he wanted to take off again, so we left again. There were a LOT of rainstorms between Cheyenne and Rock Springs. I was a bit nervous, I'm not gonna lie. :) It was pretty intense. We made it to Rock Springs at about 5. And stopped for dinner. I haven't been to Rock Springs since I left it 7 years ago after my first semester of college. Interesting memories in that place. It was a little weird being back there. We didn't stay long, just long enough to eat. :) It was still raining hard as we made our way through the rest of Wyoming. And it was raining even harder as we made our way into Park City. But we made it home by 10:00 that night. It was good to be home, but I was missing my Texas family. :( Phillip stayed the night and hung out for a while the next day. But then he left to continue his trip to Washington.

It was a really awesome and really hard trip for me. It brought a LOT of memories back about my dad. Which is good. But man, I miss that guy!