A road trip, a baby, and fire works... A great 4th of July celebration to remember...(Part I)

On this 4th of July, we decided to head to Idaho and celebrate the birth of our new neice as well as the Fourth of July!

So this episode of the Adventures of WHAW began with a stand by ticket, where we literally stood there and waved bye! The glamorous side of traveling the skies unfortunately comes with a lot of waiting, and waiting, and in some cases even more waiting. Heidi and the kids grabbed the last 3 seats on the plane, so I waved goodbye and hung around for the next flight.

The next flight came and left without any empty seats, so I waited around some more with the same results. So after nearly 9 hours in the airport (thanks to a delayed flight) I was able to grab the last seat on the last plane headed for SLC. You should have seen the look on the poor guy's face that was just after me on the stand by list. After all, he had waited nearly most of the day as well with no such luck. I thought he was going to empty my suitcase, jump in, and force me to lift him into the over head bin.

Since the flight was delayed and didn't leave until almost 9:15, we arrived in SLC fairly late. Our standard transportation when flying into SLC, is to have our limo driver, Wyatt, come pick us up. As always, he was right there when I stepped out of the terminal. Since it was late, I decided to forgo the extra hour drive it takes to get to Mom and Dad's house, so I crashed at Wyatt's house. Before heading there, we made a quick stop at the local Taco Bell. Anyone else remember when seven layer burritos were only 99 cents?

The next day, the traveling clan of clowns, otherwise known as my 2 kids accompanied by Jena's 3 kids, came to pick us up and start the caravan trip to Idaho. Jena had negotiated a pretty good deal with Grandma and Grandad, and placed the 5 kids and a first round draft pick to be named later in their van. This left our van kid free and an enjoyable ride as we drove to Idaho.

We arrived and headed over to the church to see Wade and Katie's creation. She is adorable! Who would have known Wade had enough genes in him to pass down and contribute to such a beautiful baby. Afterall, he is the youngest of 6 kids and I hear his oldest brother got nearly all of the good looking genes!

We enjoyed a great dinner with nearly 50 of our Idaho relatives and their families and commented on all of the memories of running around as a kid, while the adults sat by and chatted. Now we found ourselves on the chatty side while our kids ran around endlessly. The evening was really special as we got to participate in blessing Aubrey Marie and welcoming her into our lives. Alea was especially proud that she shares the same middle name and initials as her new cousin.