The Trek Home-Well, like I said, we were at the Jacksonville airport by 5 am. Our flight left at 6 am without any trouble. We were scheduled for an hour and a half layover in Atlanta and didn't expect any problems there. Well, we were delayed for 3 hours thanks in part to a mechanical/electrical problem. Fortunately, they got the problem fixed and we were able to take the original plane to Denver where we were originally scheduled for about a 45 min. layover and then a connection to SLC. Well, since we were delayed for 3 hours in Atlanta, we missed our connecting flight. However, we arrived in Denver at about 1:!5 and were able to get onto a 2:15 flight. At 1:45 I took the kids down to the bathroom. While washing my hands, Nash took off running out the door as I yelled at him to wait. I swear I was no more than 10 seconds behind the kid but when I got out of the bathroom, he was gone. I figured that was it, someone had snatched my kid. I sent Samantha back to our gate to get Travis while I looked for Nash and asked around if anyone had seen him. About 30 seconds later, Travis comes out & is like, "Mis- we have to go. They're boarding our plane." I just looked at him and said, "I lost Nash. He took off running out of the bathroom before I could grab him." Within about 2 minutes I had 2 police officers with me and his description had been put out to the officers. Travis had a police officer with him & I was giving Nash's description to the guy at the information desk so they could put it out over the PA. After I finished writing down his description, I look up and clear across the way, I see him standing there with a lady & an officer. I of course, took off running for him. Apparently, he made it from the bathroom (next to gate C40) all the way down to gate C34 (that was 10 - yes, TEN terminals away!). Once I picked him up, we ran for our gate. We were lucky because Delta had held our flight for us. Once we got on the plane, I realized that they had split the four of us up for our seats. I sent Nash with Travis & I took Samantha with me. I knew I needed a minute before I started talking to Nash because I didn't know if I was going to kick his butt or squeeze the guts out of him! Some how, we managed to get to SLC 10 min. before our flight was scheduled to arrive AND all our luggage made it with us! Needless to say, we were pretty happy about that! We didn't even hit any traffic on our way home (which of course, it didn't dawn on either of us that we wouldn't hit traffice because it was Sunday until we were about half way home!) and were able to get in the door about 5:30-6:00 pm with everyone & everything in tow (only about 5 hrs after our original arrival time!).
So, it has been quite the week for us, but we have enjoyed every single second of it and were sad to see it be over. Hopefully this week will be a bit calmer at our house, but somehow, I doubt it!
Day 8
(Our last full day) -
Today we went to the Jacksonville Zoo and the Jacksonville Beach.
The kids had a great time at the zoo despite the fact that the wind was blowing pretty good. It was kind of like Hogle Zoo, but smaller. They just had a new exhibit open called Sting Ray Bay. If you pay extra when you go into the zoo, you can actually pet a sting ray.
We thought that would be pretty cool, so of course we did that. Samantha wasn't too excited about it but Nash got quite a kick out of it. I'm not sure if Nash ever actually touched one or not but he was soaked from his chin to his belly button by the time we left the exhibit! I think Sam's favorite part was the flamingos.
After we left the zoo, we headed to the beach. If was the first time the kids had seen the ocean so they were pretty excited to be there. The wind was blowing pretty good still by the time we got there so it was too cold to get in the water. The kids were ok with that though because they had a great time digging in the sand looking for sea shells and whatever other treasures they could manage to find.
After we left the beach, we stopped at this really neat gift shop that was down the road a bit. They had every sea shell you could imagine for sale along with a million other treasures. We actually ended up spending about 30 min. or more here but loaded up on treasures before we were done. After our adventure at the gift shop, we stopped to eat at a place called J.L. Trent's Sea food & Grill where Samantha was insistent that she get to eat Gator Tail again. Apparently she quite likes it now. I'm afraid Jamie will have to bring some home next time she comes because I know I won't be able to find it anywhere around here! Travis ordered a seafood platter that had several types of seafood on it that neither of us had tried before. We now know we both like Flounder and that sea scallops aren't too bad. Travis also tried the Calamari (wasn't his favorite) and a stuffed crab and oysters. Everything on his plate was fried so it was a different experience in that manner as well. It was my first time to try Hushpuppies and Samantha's as well (she wasn't too fond of them!).
After dinner we had to head back to Jamie & Robbie's house to get ready to go. We stayed up until about 1 am watching a movie (The Heart Break Kid) and then had to get up at 3:30 in order to be to the airport by 5 am! Luckily we made it without too much trouble!
