Six months earlier, we started planning a trip to visit Jennifer, Samuel and more importantly Leah. . . for her first birthday. The calendar was clear . . . so we bought our airline tickets and booked our hotel room.
Little did we know then that the timing would be so bad in so many different ways.
I did not know that I would have elbow surgery less than two weeks before we left. (Who needs to straighten their arm just to travel?)
We did not know that our ward conference would be moved to that weekend.
We did not suspect that there would be an announcement of a BIG meeting just before we left that had to deal with the lines being redrawn for the wards in the valley.
It did not occur to Paul that his boss’ boss would decree that no one could go on vacation while the legislature was in session (though his boss did approve his time off.)
We did not consider that our trip would take place during Mardi Gras . . . we were heading to Louisiana after all.
Why would that stop us? How many first birthdays does your first grandchild have?
Our bags were packed and I discovered the perks of having your arm in a sling. . . I was the first one on the place. I had my pick of just about any seat!
We flew to Las Vegas . . .
then Amarillo . . .
(having so much fun!)
and finally to Dallas . . . .
where we picked up our rental car and our adventure would continue . . . 
