Spontaneous Vacation

I found an amazing deal on Allegiant Air to fly up to visit my family on their Spring Break and jumped at the chance. I flew out of the Mesa airport (seven minutes from my house!) and landed in Missoula, MT (about two hours and fifteen minutes from my parents' house.) It was my first time flying alone with the two kids and let me tell you I wish I had gotten a picture of that feat! My left arm held the diaper bag, my purse, and the leash attached to Trenton's monkey back pack so he couldn't run off. My right arm held his bulky toddler car seat for the plane ride. And in front was my 25 pound youngest hanging in a carrier that barely fits causing his feet to knock me in the knees at every step. Thank goodness I have a good sense of humor as a mother. Overall, though, the experience was manageable and there were definitely advantages to flying such a small airline that made the whole process easier: free parking, no lines for checking luggage or security, and extremely friendly people who want to help (In Mesa, the guy checking ID and boarding passes let Landon through without either to help me unload everything on the xray. In Missoula, a guy on the tarmac waved me over -- after watching me struggle on the wobbly, serpentine ramp to get off the plane -- and showed me an employee-only shortcut to the baggage claim in order to avoid two flights of stairs.)

It was a last minute trip, which made the time together even more special. Coeur d' Alene was still having occasional snow flurries (which I didn't mind coming from the Valley) but we also enjoyed some days of sunshine and breezes. Besides the usual (playing at the park, going to movies, and eating together), we also spent a day at the indoor water slides, some bounce time at the northern Idaho equivalent of BounceU, and a day visiting Cait's U of I campus and sorority house in Moscow. Here's a snapshot of the week . . .

Ironically, for such a picture-obsessed person as myself, I forgot my camera when we drove down to Moscow to visit the University. So, we went old school and bought a disposable camera. It has been years since I used one of those! Anyway, we used up the whole thing in our few hours there and some of them turned out pretty funny . . .