Two weeks ago we said adieu to the benzene laced air of Houston and headed north to greener pastures. It has been eight months since I have seen a gravel road lined by dairy cows and after that long I was feeling claustrophobic in my sea of suburbia.
We got up at 3 am to drive across the city to catch a 7 am flight out of Bush. This was our first time flying with both kids and I attempted to pack lightly but in reality thats an impossible action with a month old and a toddler. We got to the airport with plenty of time. Jared was to cheap to pay someone to help us with our luggage so we struggled to the ticket counter with five bags, two car seats, two carry-ons, two kids and a stroller. It was a feat but we made it just in time for them to tell us our flight had been canceled due to a mechanical failure. American found us a flight on another airline to Ohare that left within the hour...the catch was it left from two terminals away. Me and my pack mule (Jared) caught the tram and got checked in with about twenty minutes to spare. We stepped up to security and Jared was pulled for a random security check. I thought to myself, this really can't get any worse..... but as life goes it did. I guess the Renshaw family is a threat to national security. They frisked Jared, then me, and then proceeded to frisk Erin, which she was leary about. And the final sticker, I had Eliza in a front pack and the also frisked her. We got out just in time to make our plane.
Jared's younger sister Ashley was married in the Nauvoo temple, the same place Jared and I were married almost four years ago. We stayed Thursday night in this great Bed & Breakfast the was built in 1853 just outside of Nauvoo. Ashley was married Friday and then the reception was Saturday back in Des Moines. It was fun to see all the family again. Erin was a flower girl. Grandpa and Grandma Fenton took her to the State Fair the morning of the reception so she showed up at the reception in her beautiful white dress with the traditional Iowa State cyclone tattoo on her arm.
The 1850's guest house B&B we stayed in outside of Nauvoo
A sign on a local store in downtown Nauvoo
Erin in her dress
Erin & Aunt Ashy
Nauvoo Temple Facade
Renshaw family car decorating tradition (they are oreos)
Jared flew home a week early and the girls and I stayed with my parents. One day we to the Amish village not far from my town. I asked Erin if she had to go to the bathroom because they didn't have bathrooms. Erin looked at me and rolled her eyes, like ya right mom. And of course the first stop out she was doing her pee dance in middle of the bulk food store. The lady was really nice and pointed us to an outhouse attached to the barn. We walked in and Erin said "Where is the water?" She has this thing where she will not use a toilet if someone didn't flush, needless to say the outhouse was an experience.
Erin got to go fishing for the first time and she caught what she calls "a huge, beautiful fish"....it was a 3" bluegill out at Backbone State Park. She was so excited. We were upstream when she had to pee so grandpa just threw her over the side of the boat and told her to go in the water. That was great until we were sitting in the luggage claim office and the women asked Erin where she went for vacation and Erin exclaimed "I went fishing and I peed in my swimming suit" The lady said "but not on purpose right?" "Yes, I did it on purpose, grandpa and mom said its okay to pee in your swimming suit". I about died..
While in NE Iowa we took Erin to the Field of Dreams, the National Mississippi museum and she got her first ride on the old trolley elevator in Dubuque.
The trip home was worse. I flew alone with the girls for the first time. They did great on the plane, wish the airlines could behave the same way. I flew into O'hare and found that my flight to Houston was canceled due to another mechanical failure. I am beginning to wonder if its going to start raining American Airline planes. The first flight he gave me was an 8-hour delay in Chicago, but then with two screaming kids (and I can cry when it counts) he must have found pitty on me and booked me on a another flight that left from the next terminal within 20 minutes and gave me a $30.00 food voucher that had to be used at O'hare. We raced to the next terminal, picked up a pizza and 9 bottles of snapple ( that is all they sold and I was all about using the full voucher. I supplied the last three rows in the plane with Strawberry Kiwi snapple). Jared had the cell and I forgot my phone card so I had to call my parents 800 number and have them relay the message that I was flying Continental, which everyone in Houston knows terminal C at the Houston airport is the continental hub.....I got on the plane only to find out it was a continental express flight, which lands at terminal B.
So We finally got to Houston, Jared is a mile away waiting patiently for a non-existent flight in the wrong terminal. I finally got a hold of him and went to pick up my non-existant luggage ......all four bags and two car seats. When I really thought my day could not get any worse the luggage claim specialist asked for the claim tickets and I realized that either the guy who re-booked me never gave them back or I accidentally threw them away. We spent almost two hours at the airport attempting to round up loaner car seats and filing claims.
All of our luggage arrived the next day in the course of three different shipments....I need a vacation from vacation...And life is about to get a little more hectic..and no I am not pregnant :)
