Ashleigh's big trip

 

Ashleigh got to spend a couple weeks with her Aunt & Uncle in Alabama. She was so excited when they invited her to come visit and had been looking forward to it for quite a while. They even offered to split the cost of her plane ticket with me.

The worse part of my train being delayed a couple days was I only had a couple days to spend with Ash. before it was time to put her on a plane and see her off.

I was nervous to send her on a plane alone. I was a little younger than her when I started flying alone back and forth from Utah to California during summer break & holidays to visit my Dad. I loved it, and I knew she would too. Delta has the best unaccompanied minor's program so I felt confident letting her fly.

She had a wonderful two weeks with Charsty, Josh (who I think the world of, he has been so supportive of Ashleigh. He sends her texts all the time reminding her how beautiful she is, or just asking about her day. He always makes her feel special) and their two sweet little ones.

They spoiled her rotten by taking her out to eat all the time, going on adventures and even a took her on a little mini vacation within her vacation by staying in a hotel for a couple days to visit historical sites, the zoo and amusement park.

Charsty took tons of great pictures and I was happy to see Josh uploading some to Facebook so I could see pictures of the fun she was having. Of course they wanted her to stay longer, and tried telling me they were keeping her and just sending me back a clone. haha

She called me every night to tell me about her day and say goodnight, (sometimes she would call throughout the day) but after her being gone for two weeks, after only a very short reunion from my trip, I couldn't wait for her to get back.

I didn't get teary eyed when I dropped her off the airport but I sure did when I picked her up. I was only able to get two kisses before she decided she was too cool to be mushy around her mom in a public place.

I had her fly back on July 3rd so she would be home in time to celebrate the 4th with us. As she was flying into Salt Lake, she could see fireworks going off across the entire valley, and told us and it looked amazing.

Ashleigh and I walked out to baggage claim where she was met by Rusty and Jackson with a bunch of flowers and a big welcome home hug.



She's already talking about going back again next year.

Home Sweet Home

Rusty and I walked in the front door just after 1 a.m. on Saturday and he was greeted by this huge poster.

The kids had spread out on the dinning room table and worked on it for quite a while before I left on my trip. I thought it was so thoughtful that they wanted to use his favorite colors and things they knew he was interested in to really customize it. They picked the dinning room wall as the perfect place to hang it to make sure he saw it as soon as he walked up the stairs. He loved it.

The next day we got up and headed out to pick up the kids. I couldn't wait to see them. Although the kids have known Rusty for years I was wondering if they would be shy or awkward around each other as they met for the first time in person. It was like they had known each other their entire lives!

They played basketball in the backyard, jumped on the trampoline and played trampoline games, and played on the Wii. Midnight came and passed and I was exhausted, they had just started a board game when I finally had to crash for the night and go to bed.

Thankful Thursday - Camping Edition

Of the many blessings I have; I am thankful for:

• Easy up canopies, to protect our fire pit & wood from the rain
• Baby wipes
• Hand sanitizer
• Nature hikes
• Deer in our campsite
• Clear, star filled nights sky
• Foil packet dinners
• Bug repellent
• Hoodies
• Blueberry pancakes

All Aboard!!

We made it on the train! After days of rescheduling and not knowing if the train was even going to run... we made it. It was such a sense of relief.

Goodbye's were of course full of hugs, kisses and tears. But Rusty was excited to be leaving Iowa and his parents just wanted to know he would keep in touch.

We had our huge duffle bags with us and my purse which was filled with snacks for our trip. The bags were between 45 - 50lbs a piece. 50 pounds being the maximum amount a carry on bag could weigh; we used his parents bathroom scale to weigh each bag as we were packing them to make sure they didn't go over 50. 

Rusty carried the two heavier bags and I carried the two lighter, although 90 lbs did not feel very light! They made great seats however. The Galesburg train station is very small with seating for olny 20 people and they were all taken. We hadn't eaten anything all day and our train was delayed until 5 PM; we made good use of the snacks we brought.

We were in the last car on the train. Our room was a little bigger than we thought it would be from just looking at pictures online. The ride was more smooth and quiet than we had expected as well. Shortly after we were settled  in our room and the train had pulled away from the station; our attendant came by:

"Miss. Madsen, Mr Brown, welcome aboard. 

My name is Denis and I'm here to help you with anything you might need....".

It felt so official and welcoming especially after what we went though the few days prior just trying to get on the train, He gave us a card with the time of our dinner reservation and explained the controls and amenities of our room and our train car. Included with our fair were all of our meals and at the top of the stairs in our car was a beverage center with ice, bottled water, juice and coffee which we could help ourselves to anytime.

 I loved watching the scenery changed between cities and the open country; and from state to state.  The meal selection was very broad and everything we ate was very good.

Dinner: Green salad & dinner rolls. Fresh steams veggies, garlic mashed potatoes and a tender steak with a horseradish butter sauce.

Breakfast: French Toast, bacon and peach yogurt

Lunch: Bacon cheese burger, pickle spear and chips

Dinner: I ordered the steak again because it was so delicious but we ordered room service and are that meal in our room.

Oh and dessert with lunch and dinner. Cheesecake and fruit crumb cake, both wonderful.

At night, the two seats pull together to make a bed and a bunk folds down from the ceiling. It was quite comfy but we only slept a few hours. We talked and laughed (quietly) till the wee hours of the morning.  Our phones show the weather based on our location, so we kept checking to see where we were. At one point it just said, "current location" so we must have been in the middle of nowhere!

Looking down from the top bunk

It was fun meeting other people on the train. For one of our meals we sat with a very cute older couple in their 90's who had been married for about 60 years. She talked about knowing Al Capone when she was a little girl and how he would buy her and her friends ice cream. Another meal we sat with a very proper couple that we couldn't quite figure out. We didn't know if they were husband & wife or brother & sister. They didn't seem too interested in conversing with us but they did complain to one another about not packing their grapefruit knife for quite a few minutes. It was interesting to say the lest.  On the second day, we shared lunch with a fun young couple on their way to Colorado to ride the rapids. The four of us went to the lounge car after lunch and kept visiting. There, we met another couple who were also going to Colorado and even staying in a same hotel as them. At that point the tracks were running along the Colorado river and the rapids. We kept joking around and wishing them good luck when the water was really choppy. We saw quite a few people riding the rapids as we passed and some were waiving at the train.

This kayaker had tipped over and was in the water. We watched this raft pull him aboard.

Someone in the front raft waiving.

Throughout the whole trip I kept thinking how nice it was to just relax and enjoy the scenery rather than driving the 2,000 miles ourselves. I was so thankful that we were in sleeper car instead of coach so we could really stretch out and kick up our feet. I'm so glad my mom suggested it!

There was no question why the train had been canceled for a week due to flooding. At one point the train stopped so a crew member could get off the train and physically inspect a bridge before we went over it. We were told there are water sensors on all the bridges and it's a requirement that they be inspected if the water is a certain depth. 

The lower portion of this freeway was closed and the bike path below had turned into white water rapids. The water was all the way up to the tree tops!

The flooding was actually intriguing to see although, I felt bad for all the people who lost property from it. We saw miles and miles of flooding. There were, trucks, farm equipment, camping trailers, barns and even an old wooden outhouse standing in feet of water. The rest of the scenery was all different and quite beautiful.

This was just one of the 29 tunnels we went though. We actually had to stop inside one of the tunnels for a few minutes. Some rocks had fallen on the tracks so members of the crew got of the train to move them. Another time a deer was on the track and knocked a brake hose loose so we stopped for about ten minutes while the crew fixed it. I loved that the staff kept us updated on why we had to slow down and few times we had to stop. In the lounge car, they also announced landmarks and interesting history as we passed.

   

The trip almost ended too soon. I had such a great time. We were talking about going again next year and taking the kids. I think they would love it!

Talk about back up plans

Every time we though we had our plans figured out, circumstances changed and we had to re-think how to get home. These are all the plans we went through before one finally worked and we were on our way home!

Plan A - Our original plan was to catch the train on Tuesday,  in Chicago, IL which was the closest train station that checked baggage. Because we had all Rusty's stuff we needed to check multiple bags (5 bags were allowed for each of us). Two days before we were scheduled to leave, we found out the train was canceled.

Plan B - With train service being canceled Tuesday, Amtrak scheduled us on a train leaving Wednesday in hopes that the train would be running again. Although, with the day change, we no longer had a ride to Chicago since our friend took Tuesday off work for the 6 hour round trip drive to get us there. We looked into bus tickets to get us to Chicago. But tickets were a lot more than we thought they would be and the time the bus was running wouldn't have even worked in time to board the train.

Plan C - We called Amtrak to change the train station we would board the train. We would have to take as much baggage as we could carry on, then ship the rest to my house since there was no checked baggage. Rusty's Dad would be able to give us a ride since that station was less than an hour away. (Rusty's mom is disabled so his Dad can't be away from her for more than a few hours at a time). The Amtrak Representative told us the only way to change the station was to cancel our old reservation and make a new one, but at that point the train was completely booked and we probably wouldn't be able to get our room/sleeper car again if it was canceled. While on the phone with the representative.... the train was canceled for Wednesday.

Plan D - We changed our ticket to the train leaving Thursday from the station we wanted and still got a sleeper car. Luckily, we got part of our fair refunded back to us because fair on that day was less expensive and by changing the station we weren't traveling as far. We bought the largest size duffle bags that were allowed for carry on baggage since we were fairly confident that the train would run on Thursday. The refunded amount of out ticket was just about what we spent on the duffle bags and shipping for what we could fit in our 4 bags. Thursday was the very last day we could wait to get back home so we needed....

Plan E - If train service was canceled again on Thursday, we were going to have to fly home. We looked at plane tickets and they would have cost a fortune due to it being last minute. Then we would have had to pay for each bag we checked in addition to paying for shipping for the rest. Thank goodness Plan D worked!!!

Summer Iowa trip

 My trip to Iowa this summer was great. Especially since it marked a new chapter in our lives. After being friends for years, Rusty and I are perusing a relationship. It's amazing dating your best friend. After visiting Iowa this year, he came back to Utah with me to live.

I flew out to visit with Rusty, his family and all my Iowa friends. We went with our friends, Justin & Lacey to pick out wedding invitations. We are planning on flying back out in October for their wedding. Rusty will for sure since he is in the wedding party and I will too if I can make it work. I felt like I couldn't commit to being a bridesmaid since I'm not a 100% sure I can make it back out since the kids will be in school then.

We got to hang out with friends quite a bit and still stay home and relax a lot. Since Rusty was moving many of his family wanted to spend time with him and took us out to eat many times. I felt pretty spoiled.

Even though it was the first part of June, the weather was pretty hot. Sadly, the fireflies weren't out yet; I didn't see a single one. It felt like 100 degrees many days. We were glad to have a thunderstorm roll though and cool things down for a few days. Since it was a pretty big storm, the storm sirens started going off. I cannot believe how loud those warning sirens are, almost deafening since the tower is right by Rusty's house. It was a little unnerving and I was thankful it was for a thunderstorm and not something worse. It made me think of the people that have to run for shelter every time they hear them go off for tornado warnings.

It was fun going though Rusty's things from his childhood and hearing stories about him and his brother, Tyler.

 One of the restaurants we went to had the craziest decorations. It was decorated right out of the 80's with flower prints and pink everywhere and a bunch of random chachkies; such as a random blue fish by the welcome sign. We BBQ'd a lot at home and had many delicious meals. We also visited Tyler's grave and took flowers and balloons on his birthday.

 A bunch of us went out for hot wings one night. Our friend, John asked the server what flavor he would suggest and it happened to be the second hottest flavor they have on the menu. Personally, I wouldn't dare eat something with "Habanero" in the title but the expression on his face as he ate one was priceless! We were laughing about it for days. Altough, it was so hot and burned his mouth so he didn't eat anything else after that, so we did feel a little bad for him.

Because we had Rusty's stuff to pack and bring back with us, we thought riding the train would be much more fun & relaxing than driving nearly 2000 miles ourselves. I had not rode on a train since I was a little girl and Rusty never had. I couldn't wait.

Just before we started packing everything up, I called Amtrak to ask a question and found out our train was canceled! I was so glad to have called. The train station we were going to was a three hour drive from Rusty's and it would have been terrible to have some one drive us all that way only to find it was canceled. Due to flooding on the tracks in Nebraska the train was not able to run. We had to change our plans a few times and were worried we wouldn't be able to ride the train at all. Though all our crazy running around in the last couple days, trying to make our travel plans work, we did take some time so enjoy the scenery and visit a beautiful park to relax a bit.