Remember the movie "planes trains and automobiles"....well that is what we are up to now...My sister drove to St. George from Colorado with her cute little family and her husband. But he left early to fly out to Idaho to meet his brothers for a quick fishing trip. So that left my sister driving back to Colorado with all the kids and no hubby. Tiffany begged me and my daughter to drive back with her and her four little kidlets to Colorado (8 hour drive) and then get up early the next morning and try to fly (stand-by) out of her little airport on a prop plane to Salt Lake City. Are you familiar with what kind of airplane I am talking about?...It's the kind of airplane that has two propellers and jumps, wiggles and bumps along in the air caused by any small amout of air turbulence..like when a bird flys by and flaps its wings! The noise level of a Prop plane is so loud inside the plane that you have to yell at the person sitting right next to you to ask them to move so you can squeeze over the top of them to get up to use the microscopic bathroom. Luckily these tiny prop planes do come equipped with a bathroom and one very small flight attendant that hopefully in case of an emergency can some how hop into that teeny tiny bathroom and magically turn into the incredible hulk or superman and save us. Since the planes are so small there is no room for overhead luggage so when flying on these planes you check your baggage right before you enter the plane and they take it right then and there and throw it into the belly of plane but that makes it nice so you don't have to go to baggage claim when you land. Once we land from this unique and scary flight we then (after waiting to fly standby) get to board a real jet with two bathrooms and two regular sized flight attendants and fly back to Dallas Forth Worth airport. Once we land we then take a bus to the far north parking lot and try and remember where we parked our car. Once inside our car we drive for just another 45 minutes and we are home!!

We will keep you posted on the adventures of driving in the car with all the kids when we are waiting stand-by in the airport. Until then.....

I am sure you are all dying to hear the rest of the stand-by flight story.....So here goes...after sitting in the airport for seven more hours.....it is time for the last flight of the night......we are sitting there waiting to to here our names called to see if we could get on this flight.....waiting, waiting then sure enough ,my name was called! "Joy to the World"!! only they did not call my daughters name.....(the buddy pass). I run up to the ticket counter and explain to them that I need my buddy pass to leave with me and they say.... I am sorry....there are no more seats available on this flight.....you will have to come back tomorrow. Urghhh!! Then the other ticket agent that was sitting there said wait....there is a flight boarding right now to a small town about 45 min away from where you want to be ....can you get someone to come pick you up if we can get both of you on that flight. I said .......OH YES!! He called over to the other gate, confirmed that we could get on and said run on over there they will take you!! DING DING DING (the bells from slot machines in Vegas are ringing loudly) We won the prize. It was not the exact prize we wanted but it was sure a big win for us. So all in all it took us over 48 hours to get to our final destination but we did get there! It was worth the whole ordeal just to be reunited with our family, celebrate my birthday and my older daughters birthday....together with everyone at a big family gathering, making homemade ice cream, watching the "Enchanted" movie on a big white sheet down in the basement with all my nieces and nephews, and laughing with my sister until my sides just ache!! There is nothing better.

Tomorrow.......My attempt at being a kid and swinging on a swing.....only to fall off and eat dirt....A classic moment in my life.

Day two of sitting at the airport (trying to fly stand-by) I couldn't help but notice that there are some similarities between flying standby and gambling. I know.... you are probably thinking what in the SAM HECK (Tiffany's favorite saying) is she talking about!!...but hear me out. Gambling is a game where risk is the name of the game, and if you are real lucky you can win big (or so I am told since.... I don't gamble myself). Flying standby is similar to Poker in that.....you sit and wait to see how the "game" will be played out, there are many other people playing this game (other standby's) that only show their "poker face" holding their "cards"close to their chest not revealing what priority they fly at (whether they are an employee on vacation, a parent or spouse of an employee, or are they someone having the lowest level of priority a ...."buddy pass"). Then when airline ticket agents (the card dealers) start the boarding process ..the game begins! Will you or will you not get on this plane? It actually begins to get really exciting! You see many of the Non-revenue pasengers (players) stand on their feet and start to gather around the mini t.v. screens waiting with baited breath to see if per chance their name pops up on the cleared list. No one will remove their eyes from the screens! All of the sudden you start to notice your heart is starting to pound alittle harder, your hands start to get sweaty, you start to feel the "rush" of possibly winning big! The only thing missing is large bells and whistles that would go off if you really won something big like at a Casino. The agony of defeat and the thrill of victory is all there at the ticket counter as names come and go across the screen. There have been times when I have won big...flying 1st class even!! If I win I am always so grateful and thank the ticket agents profusely...as if they had anything to do with it! Yesterday it was the agony of defeat (12 hours of waiting and no ticket to board, airport food, crowds of people, many gate changes etc..) Today we have only been at it for 5 hours and we have made one of our flights!!! Now we just need to get the second one and we are home free!

oh....it is just about that time.....the ticket agents are getting ready to board another flight!! Here we go....I will keep you all posted......unfortunately my computer is about to die and of course there are no plugs anywhere in site!! So keep checking to see if we "Win" Big!!! oh and if we do could someone ring a bell for me?