The weekend is finally here, and we've decided to take our chances and try to fly to the U.S. a week before our ski trip, so that we can attend Rick's surprise 40th birthday party (that's Bruce's cousin) near St. Louis. Bruce will meet us in Utah in a week. Jordan will stay in Saudi with her friend, Danielle, while we're gone, and feed Shadow and take care of him each day. She can't miss a week of school, but she's happy that she got to go to Cambodia.
I spent the day getting ready for our trip, packing our ski clothes, cleaning the house, and making a list of all the things we need to bring back from Wal-mart and Target! I planned to take a long nap since our first flight leaves at 1am. But... it took me all day and night to get ready and I was even late leaving for the airport. We had to run through the airport, but didn't have any problems getting seats on KLM from Dammam to Amsterdam because we only try to fly when their flights are empty.
Friday, Mar. 9
We arrived in Amsterdam at 6am, and planned to try for each Delta flight to the U.S. We walked from gate to gate, and enjoyed the Sky Club between flights; but finally at 2:30pm, we were given seats in business class to Memphis. We had a wonderful flight and arrived just before 6pm. I figured we were doing pretty well since Rick's party wasn't until Saturday, and surely we would get on a flight to St. Louis sometime between now and tomorrow night; but then I found out that there were activities planned earlier in the day that we wouldn't want to miss.
We went to the Sky Club and started to check flights and form our travel plans when I discovered that all the flights out of Memphis were full tonight and tomorrow -- it's Spring Break! I wouldn't even make the surprise dinner in time if I tried to fly to St. Louis. Even the flights to Atlanta were full. I looked for any city that might be closer to St. Louis, but it turns out that I'm about as close as I can get... so I googled a map to drive to St. Louis and rented a car... an expensive car too! (since I plan to drive it one way) I wasn't sure if I was crazy to do this, but I didn't want to come all this way and miss the birthday.
We got in our car at 9:30pm; both girls immediately fell asleep in the back seat; and I drove. I drove for an hour before I started to nod off, so I pulled into a motel parking lot and closed my eyes. I woke up an hour later and started driving again. I drove for another hour before I had to stop again. I parked at a Denny's Restaurant and slept for another hour. During the next hour-long drive, the girls awoke in the back seat, so we stopped at a gas station to get some snacks. There was a McDonald's connected to the gas station that was just opening, and the girl who worked there said she'd make us anything we wanted; so Reese excitedly ordered real pork bacon! It was our first taste of real bacon since we left home in January. Brooke helped me find my way to Aunt Marie's house in the dark, and we let ourselves in at 5am. Of course, Aunt Marie was awake, waiting for us. She got us all settled into beds and we slept for three hours before we went to Rick and Annie's house for brunch.
Rick was surprised to see us at his door, coming all the way from Saudi Arabia! We got to see his adorable little boy, J.R. Here is a picture of Annie and Rick playing with J.R.'s puppet theater.
Here are Brooke and Reese playing with J.R.
Here's Aunt Marie and Brooke with J.R.
After brunch, we went rock climbing.
Friday, Mar. 9
We arrived in Amsterdam at 6am, and planned to try for each Delta flight to the U.S. We walked from gate to gate, and enjoyed the Sky Club between flights; but finally at 2:30pm, we were given seats in business class to Memphis. We had a wonderful flight and arrived just before 6pm. I figured we were doing pretty well since Rick's party wasn't until Saturday, and surely we would get on a flight to St. Louis sometime between now and tomorrow night; but then I found out that there were activities planned earlier in the day that we wouldn't want to miss.
We went to the Sky Club and started to check flights and form our travel plans when I discovered that all the flights out of Memphis were full tonight and tomorrow -- it's Spring Break! I wouldn't even make the surprise dinner in time if I tried to fly to St. Louis. Even the flights to Atlanta were full. I looked for any city that might be closer to St. Louis, but it turns out that I'm about as close as I can get... so I googled a map to drive to St. Louis and rented a car... an expensive car too! (since I plan to drive it one way) I wasn't sure if I was crazy to do this, but I didn't want to come all this way and miss the birthday.
We got in our car at 9:30pm; both girls immediately fell asleep in the back seat; and I drove. I drove for an hour before I started to nod off, so I pulled into a motel parking lot and closed my eyes. I woke up an hour later and started driving again. I drove for another hour before I had to stop again. I parked at a Denny's Restaurant and slept for another hour. During the next hour-long drive, the girls awoke in the back seat, so we stopped at a gas station to get some snacks. There was a McDonald's connected to the gas station that was just opening, and the girl who worked there said she'd make us anything we wanted; so Reese excitedly ordered real pork bacon! It was our first taste of real bacon since we left home in January. Brooke helped me find my way to Aunt Marie's house in the dark, and we let ourselves in at 5am. Of course, Aunt Marie was awake, waiting for us. She got us all settled into beds and we slept for three hours before we went to Rick and Annie's house for brunch.
Rick was surprised to see us at his door, coming all the way from Saudi Arabia! We got to see his adorable little boy, J.R. Here is a picture of Annie and Rick playing with J.R.'s puppet theater.
Here are Brooke and Reese playing with J.R.
Here's Aunt Marie and Brooke with J.R.
After brunch, we went rock climbing.
Brooke didn't waste any time getting started.
Brooke and Rick are having a race.
J.R. is enjoying the play room.
Reese is on the left and Brooke is on the right.
That's Reese! And to think she used to be afraid of heights.
We went back to Aunt Marie's and took a nap until dinner time. Then we all met at the restaurant where we would surprise Rick. Here is Rick entering the restaurant.
Aunt June (Rick's mom), Aunt Marie, Uncle John (Rick's dad), and Brooke
Brooke and Reese
Wendy, Kathy, and Stacie (Bruce's cousins)
Annie's brother, nephew, and cousin, with Rick
Cindy (Rick's sister)
Wendy and her husband
Me and Aunt Marie
Aunt Marie, Annie, and Brooke
Look at that delicious food!
Wendy and me
Reese, Annie, Uncle John, and Aunt June
Rick is blowing out the candles.
After dinner, some of us drove down the road to play laser tag. We had a blast shooting each other with laser lights. I missed the first game because I had to return my rental car, but the second game was boys against girls and the boys won.
I'm so happy we were able to come and celebrate with everyone... it's been years since some of us have seen each other. And I'm so glad Annie put all this together!! She did a beautiful job!
We were happy to get in bed at Aunt Marie's house afterwards. We decided to skip church in the morning just in case we needed the sleep. We hadn't had a whole night of sleep since we left Saudi, so we didn't know if we'd be jet lagged. We needed to be ready for brunch at Aunt June and Uncle John's house at noon.
Sunday, Mar. 11
Aunt Marie let us sleep until 11am, but finally had to wake us so we wouldn't miss Aunt June's Sunday brunch. Brooke, Reese, and I, all slept for 12 hours... and would have slept more! But we made it to Aunt June's a little late. Here is Cindy talking to Annie and her nephew.
Aunt June is getting all the preparations ready.
Ummmm.... look at that food!
And look at that table--picture perfect.
The food is delicious!
Here comes the cake!
Blowing out the candles...
J.R. is watching Daddy cut the cake, and you can tell that he wants a piece real bad.
Here you go...
Ooops, not yet... (look how good he is)
Ready to dig in...
Ahhhh, that was good!
Aunt June, Uncle John, and Rick
Muffy
We were able to catch the last flight to Atlanta, and arrived at 10pm. We took a taxi home, and even though it was dark, we could see the pear tree blossoms as we drove up the driveway... beautiful Georgia spring! We will enjoy sleeping in our own beds tonight!
- Pattie -
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