Catching up

For Christmas, Greg and Christine ( Brads oldest brother and his wife ) gave us all tickets to go to Spring Training down in Arizona for the weekend of St. Patty’s day. It was a great time spent with family, however quite the headache to make it down there.
Brad and I woke up early on Friday morning to make the attempt to get to Seattle from Billings. Honestly, we didn’t think we would make it, but we did. However, making it from Seattle to Phoenix would prove to be the harder flight to make. We spent the morning trying to get on flights and it wasn’t working. Once Greg and Chris and the kiddo’s made it to the airport, we brainstormed on what to do. We all tried to get on a flight to Tucson together, but only I could make it on and Brad would try to get on the phoenix flight later. Greg and Chris and I made it to Tucson and rented a car and made the 3 hour drive to Phoenix, found the house that Don and Ferol bought and got settled all while waiting to see if Brad made it on a flight to us. Chances weren’t looking very good and my folks were ready to put Brad up in a hotel for the night so he wouldn’t have to sleep in the airport. Instead, he made it on the last flight to Phoenix and got in around 1am.
The next morning, we were woken up by Esther and Jadon running down the hall at 7 am wanting someone to play with. Esther politely knocked on our door and asked if we would get out of bed to play with her and Jadon. Lol. It’s hard to resist that little girl. We eventually got up and started our day. We walked down to the park to play with the kids for a little bit and then started our way out the door to the baseball game.

The game itself was good. As always the Mariners lost, but it was a wonderful experience and fun times had by all the Irelands. After the game, we drove to Grandma Ireland’s house to celebrate her 89th birthday and Kaley’s 28th birthday. Two St.Patty’s day girls. I think it’s quite fitting that Kaley married and Ireland boy when her birthday is on an “Irish” holiday. ☺ We had pizza and cake and celebrated and had great family time then it was time to make our way back to Apache Junction to sleep.Greg, Don, Brad and I all woke up at 3am to venture BACK to the airport to try and fly back to Seattle. We got on to Seattle but once again, it was going to be difficult to find a flight that wasn’t full anywhere to Montana. Brad and I brainstormed before and thought about maybe getting on a flight to Bozeman and renting a car or taking the bus to Billings, but THOSE flights were booked full and it was going to cost an arm and a leg to rent a car. Next option was to just have Brad try and get on a flight and I stay back with my parents till I could get home. We couldn’t even do that. So we gave up, called my mom and she came to pick us up.
We stayed at a hotel near the airport and hung out with Nicole the next day. It was so nice to see Nicole and her son Malachi. It’s so fun to see Nicole and spend time with her. She is one of those friends that you never run out of things to talk about and she is always willing go out of her way for you. I don’t know what I’d do without her in my life. Needless to say, I’m stoked that she is moving to Wyoming and will be THAT much closer to me. Instead of a 16 hour drive, it’s only a 7 hour drive, with Denver close for shopping. ☺
Brad and I made the choice to take the train home since the next day was going to be our 2 year anniversary , we may as well spend it together and NOT in an airport. It was quite nice actually. We splurged and got a sleeper car with all of our meals included. Once we started moving, our train car supervisor guy came through and gave us two small bottles of champagne and told us there was orange juice as well. So to start our trip home, we enjoyed some Mimosa’s. The first few hours we went along the water front up to Everett and went through the mountains during dinner time. This was a much better way to spend our anniversary than with my parents OR in an airport being frustrated. We spent our evening hanging out, talking about our trip and just enjoying each other for our FIRST anniversary together.

It was quite the task to sleep on the train. We had a fold away bed that was nice, however it was a little bit bigger than a full size bed . . . with two full size adults sleeping on it. Hard. We woke up in Montana and the actual day of our anniversary and had breakfast with a nice elderly couple. After breakfast, Brad made the attempt to shower, over our toilet while the train was moving. Lol. Not something you get to try every day. After lunch, I tried and boy is that hard.

We made it to Malta, Montana at about 3pm where one of Brads army buddies was there with our car to pick us up. Malta is far up north, close to the Canadian border and a 4 hour drive from Billings. It was very nice to Eddy to come and get us, as that was going to be the hardest part of getting home. Malta is also a one stop light kind of town, so a rental car was out of the question as was a bus ride. Thank goodness for friends.

Overall, it was a nice quick visit but it went from a 2 day visit, to a 5 day long trip. I guess that’s the life of an Ireland.

My next adventure is only a few short weeks away. I’ll be flying to Seattle to stay a few days with my parents and then my mom and I are off to Hawaii for a greatly over due mother daughter vacation. I love that I have such a wonderful relationship with my mom. No one can replace her, nor would I want her to be.

Brad’s parents came out for a quick visit on the 28th of March and stayed for a day and a half. Don hadn’t seen our apartment yet and wanted to see where we lived and called home. We showed him around, filled up our beer jugs down the street at our local “beer store” as brad likes to call it. Played a few games and hung out. Ferol and I went to a fabric store to get some fabric so I could make a wall hanging. I am a new sewer and my mom bought me a pattern that was difficult for a self taught beginner sewer. SOOO, I am bringing my new fabric and easy pattern to seattle so my mom can teach me there. Thanks Ferol for the fabric. I’ll share the pictures when I have a completed project.

So my next post will be about my awesome trip to Seattle and Hawaii.