There's No Place Like Home

It has been so fun to be home for a few days!! Truly, there's no place like home. Sorry I haven't posted anything this weekend. I've been having too much fun with everyone to stop and take the time to write about it, but I'll catch up now. I'm super sad that I have to leave in the morning, but I am grateful for the time I've had here in Utah.

My last entry was on Wednesday--that evening I went up to Angie and Matt's in Vicksburg, and we had a great evening together. Although, this was my first time driving to their house by myself, and somehow I accidentally ended up in Louisiana. As I was approaching Vicksburg, I thought that I took the right I-20 turn-off to head towards Angie's, but apparently I did not. All of a sudden I was driving across the Mississippi River, and I thought to myself, "This is not good." So I called Angie, and she got me headed in the right direction.

Then last Thursday was an eventful day as well. I left Vicksburg at about 7:00 a.m., made it to the airport in Jackson by 8:00, boarded the plane at 9:00, and took off at 9:30. We landed in Dallas at 11:40--right on time. Life was good. My plane was scheduled to leave Dallas at 1:40 p.m., then I was to arrive in Salt Lake at 3:30. Well, my plane did leave the gate at 1:40, but then as we were heading out to the runway, they grounded all flights because of an incoming severe thunderstorm cell. They thought it would be about an hour before we could leave. Try FOUR hours!!!!! It was the pits. After they grounded the flights, it was about 50 minutes before the storm actually hit, then it lasted for about an hour and a half. It was pretty crazy with wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, but then by the time it was over, there were 50 planes waiting to take off, so we had to wait again. There were crying, screaming kids in front of and in back of me. This one little guy named Jonah kept standing up on his seat, turning around, leaning down in my face, and saying, "HI!!" When we were approaching the four-hour mark, the pilots told us that four hours is the legal limit that they can keep people on airplanes. So they could take us back to the gate, BUT then the flight would be cancelled, and all other flights to SLC were full until Saturday. That definitely wouldn't have worked for me! So luckily before it came to that, we were able to take off. Instead of getting in at 3:30, I rolled into town at about 7:30. It was a long day!

On Friday, Mom and I attended the Mormon History Association conference at the Hilton in Salt Lake. It was fun to see Dr. Rugh and a bunch of other fun people there. Then on Saturday I gave my presentation about tourism to LDS historic sites, which I think went well, and then the rest of the time I've just enjoyed hanging out with my family. It was also fun to be back in our ward at church today. I just wish I could have stayed longer, but at least I've got a nice setup in Mississippi to return to. To those of you who I was able to see, it was wonderful to see you!! And to those of you I did not have the opportunity to see, hopefully I can the next time I'm in town.