Heading Home

The window of opportunity to schedule our summer vacation was relatively small. With trying to plan around farming, two families' schedules, summer activities, etc. it was almost impossible. We hated to be traveling home on Keeler's actual birthday but we didn't have many options and of course we made up for it with a fun birthday party prior.  July 23, 2008 will always be one of the best days of my life.  I became a mother. Nothing will ever be more special. 

July 23, 2016: not quite as momentous but still pretty memorable.

We started the day traveling from Gulf Shores back to Pensacola for our flight home.  We let Keeler decide on lunch.  He requested sushi and Japanese. We settled on a restaurant near the airport.  We were seated with another birthday group and had fun cutting up with the a group of older ladies and their son. We'll never forget Nigeria! 

Leaving the restaurant Keeler was playing with my phone and started playing the sound to this video through the car's Bluetooth. He'll probably kill me someday for posting but I never want to forget my baby on his 8th birthday "loving life"... and his mommy ;)

We had some time to kill so we stopped at a local mall.

The boys played some laser tag...

got a massage and I got a really cute pair of Lilly Pulitzer shorts... 

I might have a slight obsession. 

Then it was on to the airport. We were told that we couldn't check in at the front but to get our tickets at the gate counter.  We checked our bags, went through security and waited.  At the gate counter Tyler was told we might not fit on the plane.  What?!  They proceeded to board OUR plane. What?!  Tyler went back to the counter and they told him that we got bumped but they were working on alternate arrangements for us and assured him that we'd be compensated for the inconvenience. 

Bummer... more waiting.  Finally they called him up the counter and told him that we would have to take a taxi to a neighboring airport (one hour away) and we had two options:

a) 4 airline vouchers - a very nice value

b) 4 inconvenience checks - also a very nice value, like enough to almost pay for our entire vacation... 

We'll take the checks please. One might say we quickly turned our frowns upside down.

While Tyler worked out the details with the airlines I took the little cowboys out to explore the airport.

Then we all loaded up in a taxi {paid in full by the airlines}.

This was the little cowboys first taxi ride!  Keeler and I took the very back. The music was blaring so we decided a good nap was in order. Kallahan also fell asleep while Tyler chatted up the driver. 

We ended up arriving at the neighboring airport just in time to grab a few of our favorite snacks and get on our flight to Dallas.  We ended up arriving at my parents about 3 hours later than originally scheduled. But who cares?  We felt like we had won the lottery!

Keeler's 8th birthday will be hard to beat.   Again, we're thinking eight is GREAT!