On the road again....

Life in a Nutshell

Well, sort of.

We flew out Monday evening to visit my parents in their beautiful mountain home. Who would have ever thought a 2 hour jaunt to points north would turn into a 6 hour Memorare recitation fest??

Explanation:

Little did we know that when we set out, that "points north" was in for a whopper of a thunderstorm. And so, on approach, the plane started bouncing around like a rag doll in the mouth of a doberman. We tried, not once, not twice, but four times to land without success.

To say it was a harrowing experience would be an understatement.

DH was sitting in front of me with DD #1. I was sitting in the next row with DD #'s 2 & 3. And that left our two precious boys sitting by themselves behind me. I have never felt so helpless (or sick) in my life. I had my feet wrapped around the metal part of the seat in front of me, my arms around DD #3, who had a death-grip going on. DD #2 was asleep. (thank God) And the two boys kept reaching their arms through the seats, trying to to hold my hand, telling me they were sick, and scared, etc......

But, boy, did they pull through with flying colors.

Not only did we all hang on to our dinners, but DS #1 decided that he needed to comfort DS #2, and ended up letting DS #2 put his head on his shoulder. I heard him say more than once, "It's ok, (DS #2)".... DH and I felt our hearts breaking at the fact that we couldn't be right with them to help and comfort them.

Finally, the pilot came to his senses made the decision to try the next town up, and land there. No dice. Thank goodness we didn't actually go up there, since their thunderstorm was a lot worse than the one we had just attempted to land in. When the words "wind shear" and "40 mph gusts" are being used in the same sentence as "landing the aircraft" it's not a good thing.

So we turned around and headed to Amarillo, TX. (well, at least we got half-way, eh?)

Where we re-fueled, settled our stomachs, and then took off again for points north. A gazillion Memorares later, we were safe on the ground.

The time? 1:30 am Mountain time, 2:30 am our time.

I have never been so glad to be firmly on the ground in my entire life.

And after a day to recuperate, we hit the road today to the Hot Springs and had a blast. Pictures will come later, and we will be home on the 8th.

Pray for us on the 8th!!!!! (no more t-storm plane trips....ever!)

:)