DELAYED-- our new favorite word.

Holy. Worst. Experience. Flying. Ever.

We got to the SLC Airport 2 1/2 hours early because there was a storm coming in and we wanted Alene (who was SO nice to drive us to the airport) to be able to get back to Provo before it hit. (not to mention get back in time to watch the Las Vegas Bowl Game)

Our plane was delayed in getting there. Of course. But it eventually came and we only boarded 15 minutes late. We were thinking "great! we will still be able to make our connecting flight in Las Vegas!" We taxied out to the run way..... then sat there for an hour. Yes, delayed 1 hour. The storm just kept getting worse and they had to de-ice the plane for a while. Just when we thought we would be stuck there all night, they were able to take off. We were starting to get a little nervous about making our connecting flight. We talked to a flight attendant about it but he was not helpful, even a little bit RUDE.

(Sub plot: Brian was by the window and I was in the middle. Our flight was full and an older woman sat next to me who smelled r e a l l y w e i r d. On top of that, she ordered coffee, which I cannot abide the smell of. Not a good combination...)

Due to adverse weather conditions, our 1-hour flight took 2 hours. We had long since given up hope of making our connecting flight. Also due to adverse weather conditions, our flight was more like a roller coaster/elevator on steroids. I am not usually prone to motion sickness, but combined with all the lovely odors coming from the woman next to me, I was rather ill. I will spare you the details, but I will say that I hope I never have to use the little white bags in the seat-back pockets again.

But wait. The drama is not over! We landed in Vegas. If you were watching the Las Vegas Bowl Game BYU vs. Oregon State, you know that Vegas was experiencing winds upwards of 60 mph. Apparently winds like that make it hard to fly airplanes, so the Vegas airport only had 1 runway open. The place was mass chaos. Every flight was delayed. We had completely missed our flight to Pheonix, but after a lot of talking and negotiating, we were finally able to get stand-by tickets on a later flight, that also got delayed.

I still wasn't feeling well but sweet Brian braved the mobs and bought me over-priced food and very over-priced motion sickness medicine (the drowsy kind), which knocked me out until we arrived in Pheonix at 11:15 pm (3 hours after we should have been there). I hope I am worth it.

We got to the baggage claim and couldn't find any information about our flight. Finally, an announcement came on: "Passengers of flight 3926, your baggage has been delayed. Thank you for your patience."

By the time we got our baggage it was midnight. My poor grandparents who were picking us up! We are so grateful that they were willing to come get us!

We are just glad that we've finally made it to Tucson. It was a rough trip-- and it's debatable if it would have been faster to drive or not-- but I'm just glad we're here!