How Long Does It Take to Get to Utah??

Houston taking a nap in between trips back and forth to the airport, how sweet.

One of a few scrabble games while at the airport, thank goodness for that.

How I felt about being at the airport for the 3rd day in a row "DONE"

What could be better than Amy's Ice Cream after a long day?

We had the opportunity to visit Utah the past two weeks, given the fact that I am VERY pregnant and experience a lot of swelling in my feet if I sit for or walk for long periods of time we decided to fly rather than drive. So how long does it take to get to Utah? Well the answer is it takes around 23 hours to drive and 2 1/2 hours to fly, unless of course you are flying standby in which case it takes 4 days. Allow me to explain, my dad retired from Delta and he still has flight benefits that also benefit us, the kids can travel on buddy passes which is a lot cheaper than buying full price tickets. We wanted to leave on Saturday but Chad had meetings on Monday so we decided that the kids and I would fly standby on Saturday and we purchased Chad a ticket on Frontier to leave Monday night. There are two direct flights a day to Utah the first at 6:23am and the second at 2:10pm, lets just say that the kids and I had several early mornings. On Saturday we were bumped from both flights, on Sunday there were two seats available so I decided to send Jessica and Houston. At the last minute a paying passenger ran up to the gate and Houston lost his seat, Jessica went on to Utah without us. We returned to the airport on Monday, with only one seat left I could only send Hannah as I needed to stay with Houston. Chad had meetings which meant that Houston and I had to spend the entire day at the airport. The pictures above chronicle some of our very long day, thank goodness there is food, and tables and chairs and we had a travel scrabble game. Chad came to the airport to catch his flight at which point he gave me the car and Houston and I headed home with a plan to return to the airport on Tuesday to try again. As of Monday night everyone was in Utah except Houston and I, while it was disappointing Houston was a trooper and did not complain too much. We enjoyed our time together and had fun.

We returned to the airport bright and early on Tuesday morning, HURRAY we finally made it on the morning flight and even had seats in first class. Normally I would say that's not a big deal but after spending 4 days at the airport I was very happy to be in the comforts of first class, have additional leg room, bigger seats and most importantly FOOD! Houston was very excited to finally be going to Utah, to be reunited with our family and to see his Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. All went smoothly with our trip up until the last 40 minutes of our flight. I started to feel very nauseous, followed by hot, heart racing, ringing in the ears and knew I was about to pass out. I told Houston that I may pass out and then realized he may not know what to do. I pushed the stewardess call button and told the stewardess what was about to happen, with slurred words I felt myself pass out. It only lasted for a matter of seconds but felt like several minutes, I came too and asked the stewardess if he could get me a cold cloth for my neck. I put the cloth on my neck, took deep breaths and with Houston holding my hand to make sure I was OK began to feel better. One of the passengers sitting in front of me asked a few times if I was OK and even asked if I wanted a blessing. It was very sweet of him to see my need and be willing to offer his help, I found myself feeling a great deal of gratitude for the blessings of the Priesthood. Gratefully I began to feel much better, they asked if there was a Doctor or Nurse on board and unfortunately there was not. The stewardess asked if I needed medical personnel to meet the flight, I told them I was fine and it was not necessary. Before the plane landed the stewardess informed me that the Pilot knew I was expecting and would require me to meet Paramedics when we landed. This situation went from being very scary to being somewhat embarrassing, when we landed they asked all the passengers to stay seated so that paramedics could assist a passenger that is not feeling well. Fortunately they got on the plane quickly, assessed the situation and allowed me to walk to the end of the Jetway and off to the side to be evaluated. They monitored my vital signs and made sure I was OK. Everything checked out, my blood pressure was a little elevated but other than that I was fine. After feeling confident that I was out of danger, and following some instructions to go to the hospital if this occurred again or if I started to have contractions I was allowed to go. This was quite an ordeal and something I hope I never have to go through again, needless to say despite the number of days it took to get there I was very grateful to arrive in Utah and be with my family again.