21 Months

Tanner and Tori are 21 months old today! Wow. In just 3 short months, they will be 2!

I know 21 months doesn't seem like a particularly significant month to note, but it sparked my memory today because that is exactly how far apart in age my brother and I are. He was born when I was 21 months old. Here's me and my bubba, 21 months apart.

I can't even imagine having another baby right now, even if I only had one child!!! Although, I think if I only had one child, I would definitely be ready for another by now.

Anyway, that was just random trivia for you all.... it just crossed my mind today as I noted the date. And no, this is not a hint of any plans nor an announcement of any news. I'm pretty sure we're complete with our boy and girl. By "pretty sure," I think I'm a solid 98%, but there are days (although becoming increasingly rare) that that remaining 2% comes to the surface, and I think "maaaaaaaybe." So, who knows? Only God. And only time will tell.

On that note, let me get y'all up to date. We had a GREAT trip to Virginia (but not from... more on that a bit later)! As much as I missed the kids (fiercely, terribly, awfully!), it really was nice to be away just the two of us. Although our schedule was pretty busy with wedding stuff while there, it was a great time to reconnect and just be "us" for a few days. As it turns out, I reeeeeally like this guy!!!!!(He's gonna kill me for posting these! I was being silly, taking goofy photos of him walking out of Walgreen's)See? There's that look like, "Leaaaaah, what are you doing?" Haha!

Okay, okay, just to be fair.... I even took one of myself because, let's face it, I'm still 15 at heart!What a DORK!!! (Okay, I'm officially embarrassed!)

Alright, moving on. For starters, Virginia is absolutely GORGEOUS this time of year!!! We flew in to Knoxville, TN so we had a lovely 2-hour drive to Abingdon, VA, which is where the wedding took place. So, we saw lots of beautiful scenery and greenery! For example, the trees were all abloom....
There were dogwoods everywhere (white flowering trees) and these pink ones looked almost identical, so we concluded that they are either pink dogwoods (if such a thing exists) or maybe Japanese Cherry Blossoms. Who knows? (I obviously didn't do any research before posting this! Ha!) I didn't realize dogwood trees were so prominent in that area of the country. Dogwoods were one of my grandmother's favorite trees, so seeing so many of them reminded me of her and made me happy to think about her!

We arrived in Abingdon on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed a little downtime before the rehearsal and dinner. The groomsmen did a great job "roasting and toasting" Donny at the dinner. I was cracking up at all the stories of their bachelor years and Donny's excessive competitiveness!!! Sheesh, that guy is PASSIONATE about everything! Hmmm, does that sound like someone else we know? Brad, maybe? No wonder they're such good buddies! ;)Here's Best Man Brad telling an embarrassing story about Donny. It was a fun night!

Friday morning, we went to the home of the bride's parents for the groomsmen photos. They live out on the most gorgeous property in the rolling hills of Abingdon! I wanted to move there... it was love at first sight! Here's their backyard:Ahhh... is that breathtaking or what?!?!?!!

This is a terrible picture of the guys, but I wanted to show another one of the gorgeous scenery in their backyard...

And, here's the happy couple after the wedding! (Disregard the glowing eyes, I couldn't figure out how to fix it!)
This is the best shot I could get of the wedding party (again, disregard the glowing eyes - and Donny was a bit distracted by something)!

The reception was beautiful also. Here's Brad toasting the newlyweds.
We had a wonderful night celebrating with this awesome couple! We're so happy for them and can't wait to see all that God has in store for them in the coming years! Congratulations, Donny & Brookes!!!

(Gosh, all my pictures turned out pretty bad. I think it's time for a new camera, honey! Hint, hint.....)

We left Saturday after checkout and drove back to the airport in Knoxville for our return trip. Here's where things get interesting... We arrived at the airport with a little over an hour to kill, so we just hung out and waited for our flight to board. No big deal, pretty standard, right? We board our flight and the pilot informs us there are storms popping up around the DFW airport, so we will have to wait 15-20 minutes to get clearance from Air Traffic Control to go ahead and takeoff. 15-20 minutes turns into an hour. Okay, no big deal. So, we get on our way (did I mention how small this plane was?)(We were on a little American Airlines regional jet, about a 50-seater, barely tall enough to stand up in. Anyway, just hold on to that trivia... it will come in handy later.)

So, the pilot informs us that our flight will be a little longer due to route diversions we will have to take to avoid the storms. Okay, no problem. Oh, and by the way, we will be in a holding pattern for a bit once we get near the DFW area since the storms delayed several landings. He told us we could hang in the holding pattern for about an hour, but if they were not ready to land us after that, we would have to land in Waco to refuel because we were running low. So, sure enough we got to the holding pattern. And we held and held and held. Round and around and around. We weren't able to land at DFW yet, so we had to land in Waco to refuel. In the meantime, more storms were popping up over DFW, more flights delayed and landings diverted. So, we waited on the tarmac in Waco for clearance from ATC to get back in the air. And we waited. And waited. And waited. For an hour and a half! Mind you, we were supposed to be back to DFW between 5:30/6:00 pm. It is now 8:00 pm and we are finally leaving Waco for the 40 minute flight to DFW. Okay, no big deal. So, we won't get to see the kids before they go to bed like we had hoped, but we'll be home by 9:00. Cool, no problem.

This turns out to be the longest 40 minutes of. my. life. No kidding. We hit turbulence pretty much right away and it didn't let up for the rest of the flight. It was the scariest flight I've ever been on, and I've been on a lot! Let me just say I was praying hard and plea bargaining with God to please let me live to raise my kids, or at least get to see them in the morning! Seriously. I know that sounds dramatic, but I was pretty convinced we were doomed. (Did I mention how small this plane was?)

After the most impressive (and nauseating) diving maneuvers to get out of the storm clouds, our amazing and wonderful saint of a pilot landed us safely on the ground at DFW around 9:00 pm to raucous applause.

After my stomach finally settled and the lump in my throat subsided, we were informed that we were "getting in line" for a gate and it might be awhile. Might be awhile. Famous last words. The ground crews weren't allowed out to assist planes to the gates because of the lightning.

(Did I mention how small this plane was???) So, we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. TWO and a half hours later, we were FINALLY assigned a gate. Two-and-a-half HOURS!

HOURS!!! (Did I mention this was the tiniest plane in the history of the world?!?!?!!)

We finally get off that tiny plane at 11:30 pm and head to baggage. Whipped. Spent. Physically, emotionally, psychologically. Done.

We wait for our bags for an hour and a half and finally leave the airport empty handed at 1:00 am with a voucher for our luggage that will be delivered to us. At this point, I was just so thankful to be on the ground (and out of that tiny plane!), I honestly couldn't have cared less about our luggage!


So, that was our wild trip home. I'm sooooo glad to be home! There's no place like home! Home, sweet Home!!!


And last, but not least, a HUGE thank you to Grampa and Grammy for making this trip possible! I know the kids enjoyed their time with people other than Mom and Dad! It's gotta be boring to look at us day in and day out, so THANK YOU guys sooooo much!!!

Whew! That was a LONG post! Till next time,