Delays, Blizzards, Strep and fun, fun, fun

Our kids say we can't go anywhere without having an adventure, but they say it with a smile and sometimes a laugh.  Those of you who have followed our blog and facebook posts since the beginning of our call to missions may remember our trips this summer - three trips, three popped back tires on our suburban, three times God showed Himself to be faithful.  Ah yes, those were quite the adventurous summer trips and brought us many laughs.  Yes that's right, I said laughs.  Sometimes that's all you can do, haha.  Of course we are all used to adventurous trips, we had plenty of them during our time in the military.  Fortunately we have all learned to just roll with the changes, flexibility is a good thing.


We had a few adventures on our most recent trip.  The first adventure happened unexpectedly and yet even in the craziness of it all, we were still all able to laugh again.  When we left SeaTac we noticed our flight in Salt lake City had been delayed about an hour.  Our reaction was a  sigh of relief. We now didn't have to worry about rushing off the plane and making our connecting flight.  When we landed the delay was  a bit longer, but no problem we were able to relax and stretch.  After we boarded the flight the Captain gives an announcement saying the reason we had the delay was the plane in NY had broke, but they were able to replace it with a good plane and that was the plane we were in now, so we should have a good flight.  Well apparently the plane was tired from the trip because after a few minutes the pilot made another announcement "We have a warning light that is on and we don't know why.  You may want to deboard the plane while we troubleshoot the problem."  We were told not to go to far because they just need to restart the plane and the light should go out.  Well then we were told it might be a bit longer.  We went to order some food and as we were in line an announcement came over the loud speaker saying we were boarding.  Cool, we got out of line and to the terminal to find out that was a false alarm they are still having problems with the plane.  Well we got our meal ate and went back to the terminal to find out we the flight was moved to a different terminal.  Let me tell you if this happens to you, it is not a good sign.  We were supposed to leave at around six and now it was closing in on nine.  What was good though was the airline was giving out airport food vouchers so you could eat dinner.  They actually gave out enough for dinner and breakfast.  We didn't need the breakfast ones, they brought in another plane and early that morning around two a.m we were on a plane and in the air.  Thank you Kenny Kreston and Sue Post for being flexible and picking us up at the airport.  Thank you Kirk Ogden for the use of your vehicle while we were at training.

We made it to the JAARS compound and crashed from exhaustion.  The weather the first week was awesome.  We played a bit of volleyball after classes and went on walks with the kids.  Then Friday someone said it was supposed to snow on Monday.  Yeah right, was pretty much my response.  Well Monday came and there was no snow.  I pretty much figured that was going to happen.  Then Monday evening came and the snow started,  then stopped.  We didn't get much.  Then Tuesday came and so did the snow! I couldn't believe it.  It wasn't really a blizzard, but it was enough snow and ice to shut down the training center.  It kept snowing and classes were canceled the rest of the week!  crazy crazy stuff.  The snow was beautiful though.  In addition to the snow we experienced awesome 70 some degree weather, a thunderstorm that sent the little kids running to our room, and an earthquake ( I didn't feel the earthquake).

 When we first arrived at JAARS, Ashlynn was shining the light from my phone into her throat saying "Dad do you see those white spots?"  Being the great Doc that I am I said gargle with salt water and everything would be fine.  I didn't really look that close and I am not a real doctor.  Crystal got a good look and shortly after the snow storm our throats were a bit sore.  Well I went in and found out I had Strep.  Thanks Ashlynn lol.  Crystal and Ashlynn had it also and we all got to take our meds together.  The Doc asked if I just wanted a penicillin shot or the pills.  I said the shot and she looked at me as if I were a bit strange and asked if I was sure because it is a big needle and it hurts allot.  I said yep, I'm sure.  She said no one has ever said yes to the shot and she would go get it.  Turns out they didn't have any shots.  After a day on the meds everyone was feeling much better and after 2 days everyone was feeling great.

After training we went to visit some friends and shortly after we got there one of their kids threw up and I thought, "Oh no that had to be because of us somehow."  We found out it had started before we got there. Whew! It quickly went through both families.  Thankfully it was a short lived sickness.  It was an awesome visit reconnecting with friends.  Mr Tim is the only person other than family Andrew likes discussing things like predestination with because he listens and respectfully debates using scripture to defend his position. We enjoyed joining the Fitzgerald family in their nightly bible readings.  Thank you Fitzgerald family, Pat and Ashley!  We had an awesome time of rest and relaxation at your place!


p.s. Did you know Hippo milk is pink? The Q in Q tip stands for quality. (a little trivia from Ashlynn)