Sandy and I
Shelly & me by those beautiful palm trees
Sandy & Owen (he really looks confused)
More Tucson relatives...Cousins Morgan, Meg, Shaun, and Aunt Donna (Shaun's Mom)
Two Aunts who are elated with their new nephew! Priceless!
My sister Shelly and I decided just a couple weeks before Christmas to make a trip to Tucson to see our other sister Sandy. It had been five years since I had been down there, and Sandy really wanted to see Owen. With the direct flight from Sioux Falls to Phoenix, I didn't think it would be too bad flying with a 2 month old. We decided Brad and Ava would stay home as Sandy doesn't have a lot of extra room for guests. Ava was disappointed to have me leave, but I knew she'd be fine. The trip out there was great. Owen slept almost the entire plane ride and was really good. We did lots of fun things like shopping, going out to eat, bowling, and even went to a movie (Aunt Donna babysat Owen) while we were down there. Our 4 day trip went by way too fast and Owen was held and cuddled by his two aunts the whole time. Sandy dropped us off at the airport in Phoenix and made the two hour trip back to Tucson. We, however, did not get to take off. What started out as a 30 minute delay due to fog in Sioux Falls turned into 4 hours of waiting in a crowded airport. Luckily, Owen slept almost the entire time. We finally boarded and took off for Sioux Falls. A two and a half hour flight of 3 diaper changes and a lot of bouncing Owen, we were finally descending into Sioux Falls. Then, the travel nightmare began. We nearly touched down when we suddenly started ascending quickly. After what seemed like an eternity, the pilot finally told us he couldn't see the runway due to the fog and we were being diverted to Rapid City. It was 10:30pm and I was not looking forward to getting dumped off with a baby in a different city. We learned there were no flights available from Rapid to Sioux Falls. After a long wait stuck in the plane after we landed in Rapid, we finally were allowed off the plane, got a car rented, and headed to a hotel where we rested our tired bodies at the lovely hour of 1:30am. We were up again at 7:00am and loaded in our rental car for the drive home. Then we ran into the blizzard. Shelly drove the first half until we got to Chamberlain. Then I drove the second leg to Sioux Falls. For much of my leg, we were only going 30 mph, so it was a long and scary trip. We debated about getting another hotel all along the way, but we were told that we would drive out of it. That didn't happen until we were about 25 miles out of Sioux Falls. Fortunately, Owen was a trooper and we only had to stop twice to feed and change him in our 8 hour journey. The Lord was watching over us that day and we made it home safe and sound. I was never so happy to see my house and bed in my life!
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