Home

We're back. As I dozed in the back of the Super Shuttle van, I woke up and instantly recognized where I was, something I would not have been able to do a year ago.

On our shuttle ride to the airport at the beginning of this trip, our driver was pretty reliant on his gps and missed a turn or two. I would have never realized this fact a year ago. What was once unfamiliar (Denver) is now home.

It was a wonderful trip, full of family, food, games, and general good times. But 5 states and many hours of travel later, it is good to be home. We were in transit for about 12 hours yesterday, during which the following happened:

• while waiting to print our boarding passes and check on our delayed flight to St. Louis, a small dog in a tiny duffel bag puked something green its owner's bag and the floor surrounding her
• the woman in front of us helped clean it up, just after a clueless young man rolled his bag through it
• our flight to St. Louis, which originally got pushed back so far we couldn't make our connecting flight, left earlier than expected
• while waiting for said delayed flight, two small boys filled my heart with joy: one ran in circles with total abandon, flapping his arms and giggling like crazy. the other sprinted away from his dad, had an amazing giggle, and had a father who was willing to play with his kid as long as he wanted to
  
• when we got off the plane in St. Louis, we walked the 10 steps to our next gate to hear, "the plane that will take you to Denver is landing in 10 minutes and we'll board as soon after that as we can." We high-fived victoriously to celebrate.
  
• before this, some folks on our St. Louis flight with a serious attitude problem made life a challenge for all surrounding passengers. Please, may they have made their Oklahoma City flight so that no other airport employees had to feel their wrath (I don't understand how being rude and grumpy makes people want to help you [see my last post]).

Once in Denver, we waited an hour for the next shuttle, and two hours later, we were home at last! It was wonderful to travel and see family, but walking in my front door and knowing that this was where I felt safe and happy (even with the over powering scent of incense coming from the college kids downstairs) was an incredible feeling.