An Epic Journey--Part II

Okay, so we have made it to Utah and now it's time to unload the Uhaul. Luckily, Chely's sister and her husband were there to help. Brad and Kurt took care of the heavy things and Jenny, Chely and I carried in the other stuff. I don't think I helped that much, I mostly stayed in the apartment and kept the kids out of the way. The truck unloaded pretty fast, and we had all the big furniture in it's proper rooms before we went to sleep that night. The next few days were spent getting everything organized and put away. On Sunday, Chely and I went shopping and I got several house-warming gifts for them. We found curtains for the bedrooms, baskets for Emily's books and scrapbook goodies. I also got them a much needed bookcase. The days just went too fast, and before I knew it, it was Monday night and my flight was the next morning. My one regret about the whole trip is that I really didn't get to see much of the area. We mainly stayed right around Draper, I never even made it to see the big Mormon temple in Salt Lake. I did see the one in Draper (it was big in it's own right, but nothing compared to the one in Salt Lake or so Brad told me) on Monday night when we took a little sight-seeing tour. When Doyle and I go back for a visit, we'll be able to do all the tourist things. This trip was really about getting them out there and getting them settled. Tuesday morning we woke up to lots of snow and slick roads. Chely drove me to the airport and it was NOT a fun trip. The roads were terrible, it was so early the highway trucks hadn't done much work on the roads yet. My flight was at 7am and we pulled up to the front door of the airport at 6:35. Luckily, I had gotten my boarding pass on Monday so I could go straight to security. When I got to security, the line was very backed up, but it moved really fast. I didn't get a body scan, or a full body pat down, just had to walk through the metal detector. I made it to my gate to be about the last one on the plane. Then we ended up sitting on the tarmac for quite awhile waiting to be de-iced. This was only my fifth time to fly and my first by myself so I was kinda nervous about the whole day. The flight was a smooth one and before I knew it we were landing in Denver. Because of our late take off from Salt Lake my layover time was cut to about an hour 20 min (from two hours). I found myself a seat in the terminal and waited for my flight to Branson. I met a woman from Springfield and we had a nice visit and I also made a call to Doyle. When our flight was called and we boarded I was once again a little nervous, this plane was so narrow compared to all the other planes I've flown on. But it got me to Branson and besides being a little bumpy on the decent, it was a smooth ride. It was so good to see Doyle waiting for me and to get that first hug from him. I didn't realize that I missed him so much until he hugged me! It was a cool, rainy day but we made the best of it and went to the Branson Landing and had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack before we started the drive home. I think I was so relived to be home that I slept most of the drive to Mountain View. Once I got home I had to get unpacked and get myself psyched to go back to work on Wednesday thru Saturday. It was probably a good thing that I had to work the next four days, that way I really didn't have time to think about the kids being gone. I'm thankful that I was able to help the kids move and I look forward to when Doyle and I go to Utah for a visit--I'm constantly checking prices and just need to get Doyle to commit to when we'll be going!