the final interview trip

the morning before leaving on our final interview trip to springfield missouri, we tried a recipe for apple pie cinnamon rolls.  phenomenal i tell ya.  we will be making these often.  david and julie were lucky enough to get the leftovers as we dropped off our boys to stay the couple of days while we were out of town.  its so nice to have family close enough to do some kid swapping here and there.

its always nice when we have an extra seat on the plane.  bonnie liked to sit up in her very own seat. 

 this is the last picture we took before the whole trip went wrong. 

we had a layover in dallas on the way to springfield.  there was a huge storm in dallas, so we were late landing.  we had enough time for our connection, so we didn't worry too much.  once we landed, we discovered that our connection had actually been cancelled so we got on standby for another flight, which was cancelled, and then another flight which was cancelled.  apparently when there is any lightning, they pull all the ground crews and won't let anyone out again for 15 minutes and this was quite a thunderstorm.  finally we got on standby for a flight in the morning, leaving us with the issue of the whole night (even though it was already 10).  if it had just been ryan and i we would have camped out, but there was no chance of bonnie sleeping for any length of time there in the airport.  we ended up getting a hotel and by the time we got there, we got about 5 hours of sleep.  

things looked better in the morning until we were all boarded (lots of people had missed this flight due to missed connections) and then there was lightning....remember what happens when there's lightning?  we had to all get off the plane and wait at the gate again.  at this point i was very ready to rent a car and drive back to houston, but we persevered and finally made it to springfield about 12 hours late.  

this interview was with a residency program, so it was a little different than the other places we'd been.  they were so good to move everything around and still get in all the stuff we needed to see.  everyone even forgave our second day clothes and lack of showers - oh, and they of course lost our luggage in all the hullabaloo.  the program is great and the area is beautiful, so it did outshine the crummy trip.  we grabbed some clothes and essentials at target and even got to make a marginally better impression by dinnertime.  

we finally got our luggage back as we got to the airport to leave and made it home without any issues whatsoever.  we even made it back to church for cody's first primary program - no pictures to document that whole day, but he was awesome....and a whole head taller than everyone in his class.

this girl has been quite the trooper (and the charmer) for all these trips we've been on.  this one, however, did her in and she crashed for the whole second leg of the trip home. 

it didn't help that she was a bit sick and congested for this trip - even if she was bright eyed and happy all through it :) 

so now, the real battle begins of trying to decide which of these places will be the best fit for us.  we've pretty well ruled out oregon and idaho, but now we have utah, arizona, and missouri all to consider!