Denied!

I thought I would catch up on some blog reading today...

I first went to Keetha's blog. It was fun to see pictures of her cute new granddaughter. And it was good to hear her mom is home from the hospital.

Then I thought I would check out Shannon (as in shannonofthewoods). DENIED! Looks like only invited readers can read it. And I am not invited. :-( Shannon, I thought we were friends. Did I upset you? Did I not work hard enough at the feast? Did I not compliment you enough? I said I liked your shoes. Doesn't that count for something?

The Flight!

Yes, that is a photo of lightning hitting an airplane. Fortunately, that wasn't our flight, but it could have been.
We left LAX with out a problem. Security was a breeze for us (thankfully since Anna had to go the bathroom!) Our seating assignments were goofed up and we were all spread out, but we got those changed with three of us together and one just a row behind. We boarded without incident and took our seats in the back of the plane. The plane took off and things were great. We were even scheduled to arrive in Indy a few minutes early.
We flew along for about three hours or so when we saw lightning out the window. YIKES! Then the plane ran into some turbulence. This wasn't your average turbulence though. We were doing some major dropping! The kind like on a roller coaster where your stomach goes up to your throat. People were getting freaked! This was some storm!
We were descending into Indy when it got really bad. As were beginning our approach, the exit lights came on. Not a good sign! That only happens in emergencies! I was doing some serious praying... Dave and I told each other we loved one another, I was talking to God as if I was going to see him soon.
As we were headed down, we suddenly headed up... almost straight up - or so it felt. We were unable to land because the run way was too dangerous. The plane circled the city a couple of times waiting for the storm to pass. We then tried to land again. The exit lights came on again.
We did manage to touch down, and as the brakes were applied, you could feel the plane sliding around. Once again, I was sure we would crash. Thankfully, we didn't.
We had to sit on the run way for about 10 minutes or so while we waited for a gate. The pilot said that if anyone needed to use the restroom, we could. There were several people that did, probably because they were so scared!
We got off the plane (about and hour late) and went to get our luggage. We were scheduled to arrive in Indy at 11pm. We got there at midnight. We had to then wait for our bags because the employees were not allowed on the tar mack to get the luggage off the plane because of the lightning. Finally, the bags came and we got to our car. It was 1am before we were on the road.
We were driving in our Saturn... the car that has broken windshield wipers. And it rained the whole way! Rain-X works though. It was repelling the water and we were able to drive home. We had to take a different route than we usually do because of detours and road closures. Finally, we made it home at about 2:40am. We were in bed by 3am. And Dave had to teach Summer School at 8am the next morning!
So, that is the story of the scariest flight ever. I don't really want to get on a plane anytime soon... but I will. We fly to Colorado July 1.

Day 6

On Sunday, we went to Otto and Norma's church -Arcadia Bible Church. It was a quick visit with folks there, because we had plans for lunch right after church.

Our lunch plans were with the Beamans and the Warmuths... friends of Dave's from long ago. Dave and Darin (Beaman) have been friends since Jr. High and friends with Jeff (Warmuth) since High School. We ate a place called "Dish". Then we went back to Darin and Janie's to hang out. We ended up spending all afternoon playing the "Wii". Dave and I had never done that before. Fun! I was pretty good at bowling. :-)



From Darin's (La Canada Flintridge) we drove to Thousand Oaks to Dave's sister Ruthi's house. Ruthi and Dave (Ruthi's husband) were not home yet but were on their way. They were in Idaho during most of our CA visit. What timing, huh?

We hung out with Grandpa and Grandma for a bit until the fam got home. We stayed the night there and the kids played until it was way too late and woke up way too early to play. Emma had fun with Sammie and Anna had fun with Andy and Johnny.

Johnny, Annie, Andy

Sad Emma and Happy Sammie

"The Cousins"

Day 5 - Westmonsters

Saturday was spent hanging out at Dan and Jane's. It was nice to have no agenda for a few hours! Dave and I were able to go to IKEA and Target... we realized that stores in CA offer a better selection. Too bad we couldn't fit it all in our luggage! We would have bought a lot of stuff if we could've gotten it home somehow.

We had dinner plans with the "Westmont Gang" AKA "Westmonsters". These are friends of mine from college. We met at an outdoor mall and just hung out in the courtyard. It was a good time to reconnect.

Anna and Melissa. I just love this picture.

Rachel, Jen, Lynne, Me, Melissa

Mel and Me

Lynne and Me

Me and Jen (who is pregnant with baby #5!)

Me and Rrrrrrrachel