Atlanta, Georgia (Tuesday, March 29th, 2016)

Our daughter headed off this morning for work as usual, but had her bags packed for a very important trip to Georgia.  Her husband is graduating from Ranger School on Friday!

Steve and I spent the day packing and getting ready for our week long trip.  So excited to see our son (in-law), and watch him graduate!

Steve's parents are taking us to the airport to avoid having two cars there.  Our daughter will leave straight from work, and meet us there.  We will be on the 5:15 flight to Atlanta.  When our daughter arrived at the airport, she gave us a call and asked us to meet her at the USO.  Most large airports in the US have a USO, it is an organization that strives to make the travels of active military and their families more comfortable.  When we walked into the USO, they had cubbies for our bags, a free snack bar with donuts, muffins, hot dogs, etc.  They had tables and internet as well as loungers and a TV.  It isn't fancy, but it is the perfect place to spend your time if you had a long delay, or even for our half hour wait before take-off.  Steve, being the gentleman that he is, left our daughter and I to enjoy the USO, while he went to pick us up some dinner and then meet us at the gate. 

Hanging out at the USO before our flight to Atlanta.  What a great place for military families!

When we arrived at the Atlanta airport, we had to pick up our rental car.  We usually use Avis, since we are preferred customers with them, but this time we could not get good rates with them, so using our IHG rewards program (linked to Holiday Inn Express), we were able to get a good rate at Hertz.  We also got a lot of IHG points to use in the future, so you can't beat that!

When we landed at the Jackson-Hartfield airport in Atlanta, we took the train to the rental car building, which was the last train stop.  Our daughter and I waited with the bags while Steve went to the counter to get the car that we had reserved a week earlier.  We had reserved the car with Hertz, and although we usually reserve our car with Avis because we are Avis preferred customers, we are also Hertz preferred members, so we assumed that we would be treated well.  When Steve got to the counter, they explained that they did not have any full-size cars available.  We needed a large car as we were taking one of our daughters friends to Columbus with us and we all had a bunch of luggage.  Steve worked patiently with them while our daughter and I waited with the bags.  Apparently they were not happy with the rate we got, so they kept stalling, and offering him "upgrages" at an additional charge.  Steve was not willing to do this since he had been guaranteed a full-sized car at the rate quoted to him.

Finally, after 45 minutes they "found" a brand new Toyota Camry for him which was big enough to accommodate all of our passengers and bags, so we took the car and headed out of the airport.  It was now 11:00 pm, and we were tired, and tired of fighting with Hertz.  It was not a good experience, and one we hope to not have to go through again anytime soon.

Our hotel reservation was at the Holiday Inn Express, Airport location.  When we arrived, the woman at the front desk was extrodinary!  She was so friendly and helpful.  She gave us our room, which since we arrived so late (around 11:45 pm) was one of the last rooms they had.  We went to our room, and at first glance, it looked great, but very soon, we realized that the heater had a constant banging noise.  We figured that we were tired enough that we could sleep through it, so we all jumped into bed with hopes of a good nights sleep.

Touchdown in Colorado and then on the Road Again (Tuesday, December 1st, 2015)

It was so exciting to be home after our long trip to Thailand. We were looking forward to getting unpacked and readjusted before our girls got home so we could enjoy every minute with them while we were all home together. We came home to snow, and lots of it. It was very cold, never getting above freezing, and we were definitely not enjoying that part. 

When we arrived home, our house was empty. Our oldest daughter was out visiting her husband in Georgia and our youngest was still in school. We spent a few days getting unpacked and settling back into life. We made the first 12 hour time change pretty easily, but we struggled to the the last two hour adjustment made. We were up at 4:00 every morning and by 7:30 at night we couldn't keep our eyes open.  We weren't much fun to hang with in the evening but knew we would finish our adjustment soon. We talked to a few other people from our Thailand tour group and it sounded like they were all having trouble too, so that made us feel a little better. I tried to catch up on my work as quickly as I could, since our youngest daughter would be home soon.

After a few days our youngest daughter came home for her Thanksgiving break from school. It was so nice to have her home, and she is doing very well. We’ve had a lot of fun cooking together to accommodate her gluten free diet for Thanksgiving.

We were invited to Steve’s cousin’s house for Thanksgiving, so in addition to our dessert that we were taking, we took stuffing and gluten free gravy for our youngest daughter. We had a great time with all of the family. We were split among 3 tables for the Thanksgiving dinner, with four generations in attendance. The youngest and oldest generation were at one table, Steve’s parent’s and aunt and uncle were at another table, and Steve and I were seated with his cousin and his wife who are a little younger than us. It was the first time in a long time that we were able to really sit and talk with them. We really enjoyed every minute that we spent with them. The dinner was fabulous, but the company with the whole family was definitely the highlight of the day. 

We had a chance to face-time with our oldest daughter and her husband during our Thanksgiving celebration. He recently graduated from his officer’s boot camp, which was certainly the highlight of the month, but it was also their first Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of them and it was so fun to see their excitement about preparing their own meal and just having time together. 

When our oldest daughter got home from Georgia, we invited Steve's parents over for an evening, and had a fun evening of setting up for Christmas.  This will probably be our last time to have the help of our oldest daughter, so this was a very special evening.  

Hanging Stockings

Steve in his usual position handing out ornaments

Love my Charlie Brown Tree, so little and cute!

All done with ornaments!

Time for the nativity scene

Very careful placement!

The perfect nativity, but where's the angel?

There's the angel, Steve is adding her to the top of the tree!

A wonderful meal to end the night

Lobster tails, broccoli salad, beets, beet greens and polenta

I think she liked the beets!

When Thanksgiving break was over, our youngest daughter returned to school, our oldest daughter came home and went back to her routine of work and school, and we were once again on the move.

About a week and a half after getting home, we were off again for another trip to Lake Havasu City, this time with Steve’s parents. Our oldest daughter took us to the airport at 5:15 in the morning, before she left for school. We appreciate this so much, as she has such a busy life. We trade this favor back and forth for each other so that we don’t always have to leave a car in the parking lot while we’re gone. 

We had a treat for Steve’s parents on the plane, we had four Southwest drink coupons, so we all ordered bloody marys. Steve’s mom and dad loved it, and said that now he was going to have to do that on every flight. Steve's dad enjoyed the entertainment that he got out of pouring and mixing and pouring and mixing. The next thing he knew, we were touching down.

We landed in Las Vegas at about 9:30 am and headed straight to Avis Car Rental. We can do a one way rental from the Vegas airport to the little airport in Havasu. We are Avis Preferred, so when we got to the car rental building, we just looked for our name on their electronic sign, and it told us which car was ours. We walked out, got in our car and drove off. It is was so, so easy and very quick. 

We drove to Lake Havasu City via Laughlin, NV where we stopped at In-N-Out Burger for lunch. It’s always fun to enjoy our first In-N-Out Burger after we’ve been gone for a while. It’s about the only fast food that we really ever eat, so it’s a treat. 

It’s so much warmer here than at home, so it’s a treat to be able to run around with just a light jacket.

We have done the drive to Lake Havasu so many times over the last 20 years, that it is really a treat to be able to fly. It only cuts about 7 hours off of the commute, but it is so much easier than making the full drive. 

We got to Havasu, and we all felt great, and ready for the day. We had to grab some groceries and return the rental car, and of course, take some time to enjoy the 70 degree temperatures!