My dad recently bought a house in Arizona and for quite some time our family had been planning a trip during spring break to spend time together and say goodbye to Alex before she left on her trip to Spain. Unfortunately, Garrett and I were originally not planning on going because all the flights were really extra expensive because of spring break. Last Monday, my sister Kalie called me and told me that her, Mallory and my step-mom Kris were frantically digging around all over the nooks and crannies of the internet to find a screaming deal for us to still be able to get down there in time for Alex's birthday party on Tuesday night. She kept calling me and telling me she thought they'd found something, and then it would fall through a few minutes later. So we spent the day going back and forth, looking and searching. By 6:00pm we had pretty much given up and confirmed that there were no secret steals to be found. We were a little bummed, even though we knew it was a slim chance it would work anyway.
Fast forward to 10:30pm. I had just finished scooping myself up a nicely-sized portion of dairy free ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and dairy free chocolate chips (hey, you have to do something to mask the fake ice cream taste!), and was headed into the office to give my poor neglected blog a little attention, when I decided to randomly check flights one more time.
At first I couldn't believe my eyes! I saw two tickets for a total of $200 round trip. UNBELIEVABLE! And that it was. After rereading it a thousand times I realized the flights were FROM Phoenix TO Eugene, and not the other way around. Minor detail. :( Obviously I was a little tired and my sugar rush had yet to kick in. I conducted one more search to see the price of one-way tickets and there it was: my hero. the airline of all airlines. Spirit Airlines with a screaming deal to Phoenix. What a dream come true! I called Kalie and she couldn't believe what I'd found (or that I hadn't given up on the idea). She did a little magic on her end, and called me back. With a little help from frequent flyer miles from my extremely generous and kind dad and brother-in-law, Kalie said if we would take the Spirit flight, they'd get us home! There was only one minor challenge: it was now 11:30pm and our flight was scheduled to leave Portland at 6:05 the next morning. :/
I yelled at Garrett from the office asking him how spontaneous he was feeling, and he responded by asking, "How early do we have to leave?" And that was that. We snuck into Hudson's room, packed his stuff in the dark, got ourselves packed, slept for about an hour, threw the baby in the car seat and off we went to surprise Alex on our her birthday!
We got to the airport without a hitch, and as we were finding our seats on the plane I noticed that the seats appeared to have gone at least 30 years without being cleaned, if they'd ever been cleaned at all. The leg room, or major lack there of, provided a roomy 2.5 inches between the the seat and the back of the one in front of you. After being crammed in the window seat the entire flight with a bouncy and bubbly 7-month-old eager to see this thing called the sun that we've been telling him surely does exist, I began to feel like we were flying about 2 miles an hour and that it was 1,000 degrees on the plane. Of course Hudson wanted to touch everything, and I was kicking myself for not bringing Lysol wipes, while at the same time thanking God that we went ahead and gave him the Hepatitis vaccination.
It was then that I decided that Spirit Airlines was indeed not my friend (You couldn't even get a little drip of clean, sanitary drinking water for less than $4). That no matter what kind of screaming deal they ever offered me in the future, I would politely decline. ;)
Thankfully, we were so excited to be taking this little vacation and spend time with family, that we were just grateful to have found a flight that worked, and especially thankful to be flying Alaska on the way home. :)
Upon arrival, Alex was extremely surprised to see us! We had a little party for her that evening, after spending a few hours in the SUN!
Hudson decided he is quite the big boy, and spent a lot of time lounging by the pool eating whole bananas...
(I had just bought swim trunks the day before we left, so they hadn't arrived in time for the trip. :( Thankfully, his sweet Tia Danielle gave him this adorable sun hat when he was born!
It was a little cooler than bath water, but he LOVED it!
Uncle Drew and Uncle Casey picked him up this super stylin' floating device...
Normally we keep binkies in the crib and car, but we were willing to use anything to keep him from crying while he got used to the water!
Tia Kalie
...and her other half Casey.
Sportin' his new shirt from Grandma Jane...
My Grandma Fran came over for Alex's birthday. The pictures I have of her and Hudson are so sweet!
Day 2: More swimming!
When did he get so big?!?!?
Half Garrett's head...
All of Garrett's head...
Day 3 consisted of... more swimming!
Hudson is now a fish!
...a fish that doesn't like the sun in its eyes.
Overall, we had a wonderful time! It was a very relaxing and mellow trip, with a lot of lounging around! Plus, Garrett and I were even able to sneak away for a baby-free morning when we went to church on Sunday morning and left Hudson in the hands of two of his grandparents! Woohoo! Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Braun for making it possible for us to come!
We loved hanging out with everyone and getting to say goodbye to Alex.
Next time we hope Uncle Taylor can join us too!
Moral of the story:
Yay for spontaneous trips!
Yay for lots of time with family!
Yay for babies in sun tan lotion and swim diapers!
Yay for sun!
And a big NAY for...
1 comment:
He's the cutest.! I'm glad you snapped some pics of all 3 of you too!
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