The Ramsay Rally

As part of celebration and honoring our countries Indpendence, Starizon was closed all week from July 2 - 6. Lilly and I took this opportunity to set out on a mother / daughter adventure and head back to Roatan for the week, although there were several times when we thought we weren't going to make it. Starting Saturday, June 30th, Ryan took Lilly and I to the airport to depart for Houston. Not only did I have Lilly, the stroller and a 1,000 pound backpack, but also two large suitcases. One belonging to Lilly and I and the the other was full of supplies that my parents had bought in the US and asked me to bring over for them. This was all great because Ryan could help me check the bags in Denver and they would be checked all the way thru to Roatan. So we are on our way! Now we are in the air almost to Houston and the captain announces that we'll be joining the evergrowing line of airplanes hovering around Houston to land at the airport once the storm moves on. Unfortanetly, this was the beginning to a very non-enjoyable start to a vacation. We were now running low on fuel and could not make it to the Houston airport so we landed in Austin, refueled and headed back for Houston. We landed 2 1/2 half hours later than originally planned (so a 2 hour flight took us 4 1/2 hours). Our layover was exactly 2 1/2 hours in Houston, therefore we deboarded the plane and ran thru the terminals to the International terminal to find out we'd missed our flight to Roatan. I was so upset, because the airline we chose to fly on only offers 1 flight per week from Houston to Roatan, therefore the next time we could get out would be the following Saturday. I went to the customer service counter and of course, they closed at 3:00pm so my only option was to call there 800#. I was determined to make this work and we weren't getting on a plane and going back home. Come to find out, another airline had a flight to Roatan on Sunday morning. So, I was able to cancel my current itinerary and receive credit for a future flight and book a new ticket the following day, yippee! However, I still had a 14 month old who was climbing out of the stroller, fed up of smarties and kissables, the 1,000 pound backpack and needed to figure out where I was going to stay and where in the world is my luggage? Luckily, the Marriott is attached to the airport, so we were able to walk to the hotel, order room service and relax. But, I still didn't have my luggage. I called and called and finally found someone that gave me some useful infomation, so on Sunday we woke up early and went to baggage service and a nice man went to the airline I was originally scheduled to fly with and found our luggage. So we were off to check-in, but wait, of course this can't be easy. They are telling me I didn't buy our tickets. C'mon people, how much more of this do I have to deal with. After 30 minutes of the representative talking on the phone with a supervisor, we finally had boarding passes and time to get to our flight. We've boarded the plane and now we've been in the air for 1 hour and 15 mintues, Lilly's been sleeping the entire flight and things couldn't be more perfect....UNTIL....the captain announces we are turning around and heading back to Houston, WHAT??? Houstin, AGAIN! The navigation system had gone out on the plane so we had to go back, sit in the airport for another hour and then FINALLY we departed and landed safely in Roatan exactly one day later than we were supposed to arrive. It was all worth it, because we had a fabulous time and made lots of memories!

During our recent trip back to Kansas, we went to the Zoo with Grandpa, Grandma, Stacy and Maverick.

She officially took more than two-four steps on her own on June 7, 2007 (13 1/2 months old)

This petal car has a story. About 18 years ago (wow that's a long time), I went to a car show with my family. I guessed how many balloons were stuffed in a car and this is what I won. Now I get to pass it down to Lilly. She loves it so much, she was standing on it and kissing it!

The preschoolers sang three adorable songs at the barn dance and Lilly loved her chance to take a pony ride.

I sure like my aunt Brandy.

This was Lilly's outfit for the Barn Dance, however the boots could have been a size smaller, therefore she wore her tennis shoes.