*The Carney Family*: Colorado Trip

Now that the election results have died down a bit, on to more important matters... My friend Nicole Webb went through the temple for the first time last Tuesday night and I was able to be there with her!! She lives in Aurora, CO, so yes, I flew out to Colorado to see her! It was so much fun, and a much needed break! I took Preston with me because he was free to fly, and I thought that the Carney's and my sister's family, would enjoy seeing him too! I was able to hang out with my sister and my neice and nephew a lot while I was there so that was fun! Oh and I didn't tell Karena I was coming, so I just decided to show up on her doorstep when I got there, so that was a nice surprise for her! She was pretty excited to see us! We took a 6am flight (definitely not by choice, but lack of options) and got to Colorado about 7:30am,Monday, November 12th, so we had the whole day to visit....and sleep! (I didnt sleep well the night before we left, and had to get up at 2:30am to leave the house by 3am! It was nuts and I was sooo exhausted but I only had to do that once!)

Jason, My brother-in-law was out of town hunting until Wednesday, so Karena and I got to spend some nice time together while he was away for a few days, (not that it wouldn't be nice if Jason was there, but you know what I mean ;o)... We went shopping at Southlands Mall and I went a little crazy on buying stuff, but hey, I justified it as my early birthday presents to myelf! I bought a cute purse, some nice jeans at American Eagle, a cute necklace and earrings at Charming Charlie, and a cute bag that I will use for my sewing stuff! It was nice to get out and not have any kids since Pat's parents took Preston for most of the day, and Alexa was home in Texas with Nana and Grandpa Reynolds.

While I was there Jason wanted to take Karena and I to the shooting range, and at first I told him that I didn't want to go, but then I realized that I needed to do something fun and out of the ordinary, so I agreed... It turned out to be really fun, even though one of my ears became deaf for a few hours afterward (I guess my ear plug wasn't in properly)! Oh and Jason said I had a pretty good shot! At first I kept hitting the spot right above the target, and I got a little frustrated, but then he said that actually that is really good that I kept hitting the same spot over and over even though it wasn't the exact middle target. Then when our time was running out, he told me to just shoot as many times and I wanted one right after the other...so I did, and I felt a little like Jack Bauer (from '24'). It was pretty cool I will say!!

I flew standby both ways, thanks to Nicole's mom who works for Frontier and let me use a Buddy Pass, and the way to Colorado was no problem getting on...however, coming home was a different story! I was supposed to go Friday at 3pm and everything was looking pretty promising, but just as they were about to give me a pass to get on, 2 passengers came running up and apparently took the last seats, and there were no more flights to Houston until the next day, Saturday. There were 2 flights Saturday, one at noon and one at 4:30pm. So the first time I missed the flight on Friday, I called my father-in-law to come pick me up and I spent one last night in Colorado, (and I also went back to the temple with Nicole for her second time around, which was a neat experience!) Then Saturday I went to try to make the noon flight and got there in what I thought was plenty of time, 1.5 hours, but it was totally packed!! I guess the start of the holiday season... so I was a little more crunched for time than I had planned and security took forever, and they had to completely empty my backpack/diaper bag, because of some liquid they saw on the screen... come to find out it was my travel sized contact solution at the very bottom of my bag, which security didn't catch the day before OR on my way to Colorado which is a little weird, but anyway, then they had to rescreen my bag and I had to restuff my 'Mary Poppins' bag and get Preston back in his seat and ran all the way to the very bottom floor of the very end of the airport to my gate (A62). It was now about 11:50am so there were 10 mintues before the scheduled departure, and just as I reach the gate to talk to the gate agent another guy came running up asking about the flight to Houston, and the lady said, "oh... they changed the gate to A26... if you want to make it I suggest you hurry up".... I was already out of breath from going to whole length of the Denver airport with all my stuff and Preston, and I just about lost it when she said this... A26 is literally on the OPPOSITE side of the airport as I was... I was so mad, but I really wanted to go home so I just booked it as fast as I could to the other end of the airport, and yes, I got shin splints from walking/running so fast for so long with all my stuff (yeah...laugh it up!). So I get to the new gate, and people are walking off the plane, and I was so confused! Then I was trying to get out my boarding pass to ask the gate agent if this was the right gate and I couldn't find my boarding pass anywhere, so I was even more flustered, then I asked the guy in front of me if he was waiting for the Houston fight, and he said yes, this is the right gate but they are just letting people off the plane so it will be delayed... I wish the lady at A62 would have told me that!! Then after all that, I really didn't need my boarding pass since I was standby, which I was grateful for, and there were 2 standby seats open, but 5 other standbys. I was really hoping one of the other standbys would let me go on since I looked extremely flustered and had a child with me, but they went on ahead. It turned out okay, but I just really didn't want to wait 4 hours for the next flight, with Preston and all my stuff in the airport. Well I was a little nervous for this flight no. 3 but we did make it! I was so glad to just go home! Preston and I were at the airport for nearly 7 hours! UGH! But I survived! All my thanks goes to the greatest invention EVER... my BRICA Carseat transporter (turns your carseat into a stroller/rolling suitcase). Pat picked us up from the airport and brought me flowers which was so sweet! He also let me catch up on sleep the next day and brought me lunch in bed! I slept until about 4pm! Oh and the whole week I was in Colorado I lost my voice, due to laryngitis! So all of this airport business and being sick, really took it out of me, but my wonderful husband took good care of me!