Travel Home From Florida

We are home from Florida. I fell on the ground after we arrived. I could have stayed longer, but I had to get K out of her carseat, so it was just a brief 20 seconds of exhausted relief. I'm very grateful to be back and be done with that. It was hard, but good. I'm feeling sick now. Have had a bit of a headache tonight.

Yesterday after we landed in Las Vegas, I thought that, with the hardest parts all successfully completed, we were on the down hill. Just needed to gather our luggage and head to St. George. We were at the back of the plane and so we were the last few people off the plane. We gave Mel and Hyrum the van keys and they ran ahead to get an Uber and go get the cars. We took our time walking to the baggage claim, thinking that would give Mel and Hyrum time. We found a play area for the kids and Corey stayed there as I went ahead with Lily to find a bathroom and then we went to get the luggage. We went to carousel 16, where the baggage screen said our luggage should be, but there was no sign of it. No one else was there waiting either. I looked around, walked around, was confused but didn't see anyone to ask for help. After 45 min of waiting, and another walked around, I finally noticed the Delta bagged help desk. I went over there, and hooray all of our luggage was there. It had been put on a different flight, and it arrived in Vegas before us since our flight out of Atlanta was delayed. So mystery solved, but it did put us another hour behind. Plus we forgot about the loss of an hour by returning from Pacific coast time to Mountain time. As we were finally getting our luggage, Corey came over and had poop all down the back of his shirt, from carrying K on his shoulders when she was poopy. We opened a luggage and found Hyrum's clothes. Corey put on one of H's shirts and we called it good. Lily got a smartcart and we began our balancing act.

Mel and Hyrum had been calling us and we'd been calling them, they had some trouble finding their way around, but we had been having trouble too, so it was all working out. I went to change K, didn't give her a new dress though, so she sat in a little bit messy clothes. We called Mel and H again and we figured out where they were and where to go meet them. As we got outside and when we were crossing the busy Las Vegas airport road with all it's New Years tourists around, our smart cart full of bins tipped and almost toppled over a Las Vegas lady goer who looked dressed for the occasion in a short skirt and very high black heels. Luckily all of our crap didn't totally knock her her over. Lily was guiding it, Corey was there with Lil and sincerely apologized to the lady, she was gracious about it, but that was embarrassing in front of everyone. So I thought we were on the home stretch, but we had to really top it off with that extra hour not being able to find the luggage, poop on Corey's clothes, and having everything fall over in the street. We took a deep breath, slowly kept walking and hallelujah we found Hyrum and got our stuff to the van. I took that car with Lily as my copilot and the 4 littlest kids and the majority of luggage while CAHSN went to find Mel in her car. Corey told me to go find a place to eat and they'd meet us there. I didn't want to go eat. I wanted to start our 2 hour drive out. I drove, Wes called, Joseph and Eliza told him their baby news, I wasn't in a good spot to take a call, maybe I'd be ok to just get pizza the kids could eat in the car if we could head out. On the phone with Corey's car, kids suggested going to golden Corral. I did a big vote no. We met up in a Dominos pizza parking lot, which was close to Smiths, and instead of pizza they all went into Smiths for some snacks for the drive tonight and cereal and milk for tomorrow. I waited in the car with these 4 who were asleep.

I sat there feeling tired and done and like I never wanted to travel ever again. Perhaps food will be good if it wakes these kids up though? I was feeling sad about the thought that they'd probably be all rested and wake up early in the morning and I'd still be exhausted. I hoped they would not wake up after we arrive in St. George? I guess it is midnight Florida time... so maybe they really are just exhausted too. We arrived in St. George after midnight. The guy at the front desk gave us a late check out time of noon, so that was comforting. We plopped the kids in bed and all fell asleep pretty quick, except Corey told me this morning that he wasn't able to fall asleep and didn't fall asleep until 3, he wasn't able to breathe. When he told me that I wasn't excited about driving again, but I was grateful to have gotten sufficient sleep. I was starting to feel like I was getting sick though - headache. The kids woke up this morning at 8, which wasn't too bad. I got them breakfast and we watched Bluey while Corey slept a little longer. I love Bluey. MHASODP left for home in the van at 11, I took a little power nap but didn't really fall asleep, and while I did that, K was playing with the room plunger. And she took my airpods and ripped the little ear tip. I was glad she didn't throw them in the toilet. She's really upping her game. 

The drive home was good. LNK were with us. I drove slower in Mel's car. It was a much better drive than last night. I'm grateful for daylight. I talked to Nicole, Corey researched Brandon Sanderson stuff as he talked with Lily, then turned his interest to research on the Boston Red Socks. 

I'm so glad to be home. We unpacked a little, mostly to start laundry. I'm sure I'll be on recovery for a few days. A few pics from the trip - K was the last one we woke up yesterday morning before we headed out to the airport. 

Oh I forgot to report on that travel day. Let's see. Joseph & Eliza and Ethan & Bella had earlier flights out, so they all left early. J&E dropped off E&B at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, then they drove to Miami. They had a direct flight back to Ohio, so that is good for them. I spent Monday night rearranging baggage, cause we were not going to have as much room in our cars on the way home as we did on our way here (cause we wouldn't have E&B and their extra room for people and luggage). So I packed the bins and the small suitcases, and then put the small suitcases in the medium suitcases and then put that in the big suitcases. It barely worked out and fit. We loaded up yesterday morning, headed out in time, I went straight to the rental car return, which was a mistake, cause then I had to walk with all the kids and luggage. Thankfully we didn't have bins, so it wasn't that bad. Corey didn't make that mistake, and he dropped off Mel with the kids in his car and the bins and luggage. They tagged the luggage while he returned his rental car and he was able to take the shuttle over with just him. Me and my shuttle goers were a little slower, but again, I was glad we didn't have the bins. 

Corey caught up, and we got bins all checked. 9 luggage and 2 carseats. 

That's where I was thinking the hardest part was over. And I guess it mostly was, but we still had hard things ahead in vegas. Kids liked riding the shuttle train to Terminal D.

We had some food to get us through. They took our jelly, mustard, and peanut butter at security, drat, so we just ate bread with meat and lettuce. I ate 3 heads of lettuce. We only used 1 of 6 heads of romaine during the week, so that was pretty optimistic of me to think we'd use them during our trip home, haha. But I did eat 3 of them, and they used 1 for their sandwiches. That was breakfast. I also ate two bell peppers. Flight to Atlanta was good. I watched Bluey with Katharine. Had a 4 hour layover in Atlanta. 

K wanted me to hold her the whole time. So Corey's been sick a good chunk of this trip, so I had to step up my game, and K was super needy and wanted me to hold her and ONLY me, so yeah, I have good reason to be exhausted. At the airport layover yesterday, kids ate candycanes, apricots, Corey did get some fries for NODPK. I opened a thing of gluten free wafers that I bought for Bella that we never used, and then this happened. That didn't happen with the dried apricots or prunes that we still had with us, lol. I finished my highlight of 2024 post. Mel and I decided to watch a movie together on the flight to Las Vegas. We watched The Fall Guy and it was so funny. I really really liked it, haha. Corey recommended it, so I watched it. Lily had recommended it months ago, but I thought she was talking about Free Guy and I wasn't interested. I still thought that was what it was, but when the movie started I realized it wasn't what I thought, so I didn't know what to expect and it was just all so new and fun and I watched some of it twice. Our flight was delayed departing AND they had to take a longer route because of whatever wind stuff, so that also added 30+ min I think. We ended it with a little more Bluey with Katharine. 

The Bluey episode "Rain" is soooo cute. I watched that several times. Ok, that's good enough for our travel log. SO glad to be home. Hyrum and Mel were helpful around here. They arrived home before us and when we arrived, they had unpacked the van AND Mel was vacuuming it out! Our poor van hasn't been cleaned for years. Thank you Melodie! She's a lifesaver. Our teens left to see friends that they've missed, and the boys have been busy playing with toys. They were especially surprised by the box of toys and costumes that was in the car from my sister Patrice. That's kept them busy.

K was happy to sit in her chair and watch princess movies. Corey and I were going to go climbing after we unpacked a little bit. I called to make sure they were open on New Years Day. I called at 5:40. The lady who answered said they were open, but that they closed in 20 minutes. Drat. We should have gone before we unpacked. Probably better this way, since I am feeling sick. We'll go tomorrow. When we were unpacking, I just happened to look at the clock at 4:28 (my bday) and I felt like that was God giving me a hug and telling me good job and that he loved me. We did it. We gave our kids a good experience, I didn't murmur out loud, and God watched over us on our flights and drives and we are back home. Thank you Lord.