It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Friday night my mom arrived to take over the reigns. Phil and I (with Nate) left Saturday morning. We flew to Minneapolis and then on to Denver. The weather was bad in Minneapolis and we were worried we wouldn't get out, but after 2 hours in the plane de-icing we were able to fly out. We got to sunny Denver and I said, "we really need to move to the west". It was so fun to see James and Marion (friends from med school) and their kids. We went to a great mexican restaurant (missing good mexican here in Iowa) and played games. The next day we were on our way to Telluride, a 6 hour drive from Denver or a 45 minute plane ride. That's right we jumped on our private plane (Steve you ROCK!) and were there in less than an hour. Phil was LOVING the leg room and even got to sit up front with the pilot to land us. This is the way to travel!

We got to Telluride just as Jason and Gretchen were pulling into town from Spokane, Wa. It was perfect timing. It was so much fun to see everyone and hang out again. We stayed in an amazing condo in Mountain Village, right outside our door was the ski lift and the gondola to ride into town. We spent the next 6 days playing settlers and cards, playing guitar hero and the wii, sitting in our own hot tub, skiing, ice skating, snow shoeing, laughing, and talking about the 'good ol' days'.







Jason and Gretchen had to leave on Thursday and we flew out Saturday back to Denver. We had such a great time. It was another amazing trip- thanks so much Steve(James' father)! While in Denver we celebrated Steve's birthday and spent the night rockn' out with rock band! Sunday morning we got up and started out treck back to reality.
We left Denver a little late and thought we would need to hurry to our gate in Minneapolis. But no hurring needed. Our flight was canceled to Cedar Rapids. The next flight was at 5 pm and we got booked on that flight. Canceled. 7pm flight...canceled. We some how got a flight the next day at 11am, everyone else was not getting flights out until Tuesday night. We got a hotel and then received a phone call that our 11am flight was canceled for the next day. We started calling around for rental cars so we could just drive home and they were all gone. We finally found a car not at the airport and it was VERY pricey but we needed to get home because my mom was flying out Monday night. Phil went to the airport to try and get our bags that night (Sunday) and talked with someone who got us on a 5pm flight Monday, so we decided to do that since it was now snowing in Minneapolis and the roads were still bad in Iowa. When we got to the airport the next day our 5pm flight was delayed to 7pm. My moms flight was leaving at 7:30pm so I made arrangements for the kids(thanks Robilyn). We got on the plane about 6pm and sat out on the runway for 45 minutes, then we took off. We made it to Cedar Rapids at 7:30 and my mom and I talked on cell phones. I could see her plane when ours landed and she was on her plane ready to take off. We had figured out a great plan for her to drop off the van and I would just drive it home (we had Phil's car there already). Phil went out to get the van and couldn't find the keys. I was waiting for our luggage, which had arrived on an earlier flight. I went out to see if I could find the keys, nope. It was about negative 16 outside so we waited for our bags so Phil could get his coat out and go scrap off the 4 inches of ice on the car that had been sitting there for the week. But quoting Phil 'adding insult to injury' our bag with our winter gear was lost in the fiasco, so Phil had to go clean off the car in subzero windchills without a coat. Can you say frostbite? It took him a long time to dig out the car. He finally came inside and tied a long sleeve shirt around his ears. We got all of the luggage in the car and since one of our bags was lost (still is) we were able to have room for the girls without their carseats, which were locked in the van. We had to leave the van there overnight. We drove to get the girls on roads of ice and passed a few dozen cars in snow banks. We made it home safely and today a friend took me to get the van and found the keys in the snow, the wind must have blown them off the tire to the inside of the wheel where I wasn't digging with my bare hands the night before. As the title of this very long blog says.. It was the best of times... it was the worst of times!