Nauvoo: Part 1

We were lucky enough to be able to travel to Nauvoo last week. It was a great experience and really fun, I'm glad that we went. Our trip did, however, get off to a rocky start. We were to fly out of SLC Sunday morning. We flew separate from the rest of my family and we were to meet up in St. Louis to make the 3 hour drive to Nauvoo. I had us all packed and ready and out the door by 8:00 am, on time! Delta now has the awesome rule that a person can only check one bag, any extras would cost $25. With three of us, and a car seat counting as one of our bags to check,  we were so proud that we fit all of our things in one larger suitcase. After the drive the airport and the looong shuttle drive, we went to check in. Easy peasy. "Um, ma'am, you'll need to repack this bag. Its too heavy. To check it you'll need to pay $80." WHAT?! But what if both Randon and I didn't think and totally forgot about any kind of weight restriction? Shouldn't we be rewarded for our efforts of stuffing every last thing into ONE bag? Just rearrange things into other bags you say? We don't have any other bags beside the diaper bag. And anything heavy we could take out and somehow juggle would be identified as LIQUID which we know won't fly with those lovely security people.  We sadly looked away as he took our money. Eighty dollars. EIGHTY DOLLARS! Sorry, rant over. Well, kinda. We then rushed to find our gate thinking we had about 7 minutes before they would start boarding the plane. As we're running and see our gate area in the distance, it looks oddly empty and calm when I was imagining the cattle herd of people trying to board the plane at once. We approach...no one is there...no...no...NO! People don't really miss their flights!!! That only happens in the movies!!! We ask the attendant...sure enough...plane is gone. I burst into tears. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to do. Even if we got a later flight, my family would have to wait as we were all driving together. I thought of bagging the whole trip until I thought of the $80. We got booked on the next available flight which wasn't until 4:30 that afternoon. My dad said they were planning on staying in St. Louis for the evening anyway to go to dinner and see the arch, so it would work out for them to come pick us up and head out. It would all work out. We luckily just had alllll day to spend in the airport seeing that it was only 9:40 and our carseat was already well on its way to St. Louis so we couldn't leave. Here we are, happy as clams in the airport. Randon wanted to punch someone and I may have over reacted a bit with the crying. I almost felt pregnant again. Whew. I'm not. We couldn't believe our luck that morning.

So...we decided to drown our feelings in calories and eat a Cinnabon. (My first time...didn't think they were all they were cracked up to be.) 

Luckily Easton took a three hour nap and we both had books to read. Even so... it was a very long day. Easton was such a good sport. He is so friendly and would smile at everyone. I'd look down at him and every time he was smiling at someone different grabbing their attention from across the room. When we FINALLY got on the plane, I was so nervous about Easton. I had planned for him to be tired and sleep and he did...while we were still in the airport. He did so awesome though. He is just like his papa, he loves to fly. Here he is on the plane, giving Randon and I no excuse not to smile. 

Well we finally got there and had a great time, all included in Part 2. I had to separate the two posts since this part was a story in itself...and because we were all much happier for the rest of the trip! :)