South Padre Island, Part Two

More pictures! :) It was such a fun trip. Just what we needed - a week away, spending time with family and relaxing!

Sandcastle Trail. Along the main road, there are something like 20 sand castles, all built and preserved. We only saw a few, but they were really works of art!

The lighthouse at Port Isabel. This has been here for years and years. It was fun to go up to the top and see the view across the bay to the island! There is so much history here at this port, and we also went to a few museums as well this day to learn more about it.

The dolphin cruise was one of my favorite activities that we did! We saw SO many dolphins - and even a little newborn one! A couple of dolphins even came up and swam and jumped right by the boat - it was amazing to watch! 

And of course, we had to hit up the Schlitterbahn water park there! We had a blast riding rides and taking the babies around the kiddie pool/huge sand castle area.

South Padre Island, Part One

This past May, we went to South Padre Island, TX with Carl, Jen & their baby. It took me so long to finish the pictures up from that trip! It was such a fun vacation. We spent a week there, hanging at the beach, going on a dophin tour, checking out the lighthouse, and just having fun together. The girls had a great time together as well!

LOTS of pictures coming. :)

Of course, the beach was the favorite activity! Although Maddie really, really hated the ocean at first, she soon ended up loving it - after a few days.

St. George

Waaaaay back, at the end of January, we took a trip to St. George with some of our best friends. I am FINALLY finishing up those pics now...oops! St. George is about half way between our homes, so it was a great place to meet up for a long weekend. I miss Nick & Carly and their kids so much! We haven't lived close in a few years, but I still wish that we did!! James has known them for years, and I have known them as long as I've known him. Emmy and I are best buds, also. :)

We had the best time on this trip! The first day, we visited Brigham Young's winter home that they have turned into a museum. We are so Mormon, haha. Let's go visit a former prophet's house while on vacation! It was really neat though. I love seeing all the historical things. They had a lot of original furniture and stuff there. Also, people used to be really short. I don't think I would have even been able to sleep in that bed. I didn't get any pictures inside the house, but I got a few of all of us hanging out in the yard afterwards! We had to stop and feed the babies, and Em got to pick pecans and crack 'em, which was also really neat.

Two kids looks good on him, amiright?? ;)

We're buds.

Looking back at these, Maddie looks so tiny! Except her cheeks. They were huge.

We also walked around the temple grounds. You almost can't look directly at the temple in the sunlight because it is so brightly white. It's beautiful against the red rock though!

On Sunday, we went to Zion's National Park, on a little hike through one of the canyons. I had never been to Zion's, and it was beautiful! Even in winter, with no leaves on the trees. I kept telling James that I would love to see it in the fall, when all the trees change color, to see all those pretty fall colors with the red mountain backdrop. I bet it's GORGEOUS. Zion's was fun! It was a little chilly, so we tried to bundle the babies up as best we could. My first major mom fail here - I forgot Maddie's jacket and warm blanket at the hotel (facepalm) so we zipped her up in James' hoodie and borrowed P's sun hat to hopefully keep her head warm. It worked though! She stayed toasty and even took a little nap.

On the way home, we drive through Las Vegas, and on the outskirts is a little lookout that overlooks a beautiful valley. I made James stop so we could look and take pictures! It was beautiful and Maddie definitely enjoyed getting out of the car for a bit.

And the Adventures Continue

This past week we were back in Utah for a family reunion. I love Nichols reunions. They are just so fun!! I'll post pictures about it next time because they are still on my camera.

Unfortunately, James and I seem to find that our basic travels keep turning into adventures and we can't figure out why!

On Saturday, we had planned on taking the 5:25 flight out of SLC to DFW. Funnily enough, my old stake president was flying our plane - Pres. Hathaway! I thought that was pretty funny. We were flying standby (of course) and were numbers 23 and 24 on the list, with only 27 open seats. I was worried we wouldn't get on! Everyone boarded and then they ended up putting all the standbys on the plane. We were very relieved that we made it and went and found our seats - Exit row even! More legroom! Awesome!

We sat down and got comfy, expecting to leave the gate right away. But, the cabin door stayed open. We didn't go anywhere. Pilot finally comes on and says that we are finishing up a maintenance issue and will leave by 6:00. Okay, cool, I thought. I immersed myself in my book until I heard the pilot come back on. "Sorry, folks, DFW is gridlocked with the storms and they are delaying our flight until 7:30." So we de-boarded the plane and sat around until 7:00, when they let us board again.

This time, everything went well. We taxied, took off, and were finally on our way to Dallas. They passed out drinks to us, dinner to first class, and we were about an hour into the flight. Halfway there. I was almost asleep. James was.

And then....

"Sorry I have to be the one to break the bad news to ya, folks, but the storms are too bad in Dallas and the airport is gridlocked again. We were told to turn around and head back to Salt Lake."

What?? Back to Salt Lake? I was confused. And not so happy.

So we were diverted back. I called Russ and Pam and we stayed at their house that night and they took us to the airport the next morning. They just delayed our flight until 8:45 the next morning.

And the whole time we flew back here, I was just praying that we wouldn't be turning around AGAIN heading back to Salt Lake. I don't think I could have handled that well.