Idaho - Part 1

This summer we spent two weeks in Idaho with the Young side of the family. It was our first visit there in over three years (it was the first trip for Jaxy). Getting there was a little crazy, but airplanes aside it was a great trip!

Donnie flew standby, and the kids and I had confirmed seats. He made it right on schedule...our story was a little different :)

We boarded our first flight from Atlanta to Denver, and after sitting at the gate for more than two hours (mechanical delay), we finally took off. What should then be a 2 1/2 hour layover in Denver turned into a mad sprint carrying two kids, and three carry-ons. We would have had just enough time time to make it before the flight took off at 10p.m. if we ran really fast.

As they made the first boarding call, lightning struck. That closed the ramp for a mandatory 15 minutes. Halfway through that time, it began to hail - golfball sized hail. That lasted for about 20 minutes. When it was through, we had to wait for every plane to be inspected. We were at one of the last gates, so one of the last planes to be inspected. Finally around 2a.m., our flight was cancelled.

By this point, almost every other flight had been cancelled too, and the hotels were all full. I stood in line to get new tickets, and called Donnie (who was relaxing in Boise at this point) to try to find a hotel for us. At first, I was told we would be on the flight the next night at 10p.m. Then I was told we would not receive our bags or carseats tonight. I pleaded with the lady - "I have two little kids, no toiletries, no carseats, no extra clothes or pull-ups (Jaxy only used them at night, but I wasn't going to share that). I could not stay another night there.

She took pitty on me (probably because Jaxon was screaming at this point, and Sydney was sleeping on my feet), and booked our tickets for the next morning on another airline. So we found a buddy family (another lady with 2 kids; there is safety in numbers) and made our way to the only hotel with a vacancy. It was really scary. I mean REALLY SCARY.

We checked in, walked to the gas station next door and picked up toothbrushes and deodarant, and headed back to sleep (and hopefully not get bedbugs). The next morning we arrived at the airport to find that even more flights than the day before had been cancelled. Thankfully, we were one of the very few planes that actually made it out of Denver that day.

We arrived in Boise, went to Darren & Julie's house (where we spent our first half of the trip), and I showered. Thankfully, our trip back went through Chicago, and we had no weather-related issues :)

The kids had so much fun getting to know their cousins...and their pets. Jaxy still talks about "Lainey's dog Buster." We had a lot of time to hang out and catch up, and let the kids run wild.

The weather was really nice while there, so we spent a lot of time outdoors. We went on a bike ride at one of the many parks. We had a picnic at another one. We went to the Boise Zoo (it was only $.25 with our Zoo Atlanta membership).

Kade has a jumpy house business, so he blew up one of his jumpies, and the kids were entertained for hours. We also went to the old train depot and let the kids play in the water.