11:32 and all is well...

so. we made it to our first destination (the springhill suites, cheyenne), and the hotel is very...happy. :) and we're all very happy to be at the hotel. ;)

anyways - let me tell you about the plane ride! first of all, we have to give major kudos to the fine folks at Frontier Airlines; they were so amazingly accommodating and friendly and helpful! so, we get all our-selves on the plane and as soon as the "fasten your seatbelt" sign goes off, i make my way to the rear of the plane to clear our Master Plan with the flight attendants. like i said earlier, they were more than happy to help, and so without further ado and in front of the whole plane, we whip out our 23 party hats (plus kelly's sparkly one!) and sing the birthday song to kelly! as soon as the song is over, we pass out the goodie bags - all 120 of them.

do you get it?

we threw a birthday party on the plane
and
everybody
was
invited!

:) the goodie bags had all kinds of fun stuff in them (thanks to the Russells and Aerin for stuffing them all last night!) - stickers, star-shaped glasses, balloons, smarties, hershey kisses, crazy straws, those little games where you have to make the bbs go in the hole (or NOT go in the hole!), cards... it was a lot of fun and really cool that the whole plane was part of it. kelly probably got more attention than he wanted, but oh well - he deserves to be appreciated! :)

so, the plane ride was good and over-all, pretty smooth. :)

and then to the Denver Airport, which is beautiful and amazing, and we drivers took a purple Freedom Taxi to an off-site Budget Car Rental place where a very nice guy named Matthew stayed AN HOUR AND A HALF LATE so that we could get our rental cars all straightened out. let me tell you, i thought it was going to be a nightmare (i've been wrestling with Budget for about 2 months b/c our reservations got messed up the day that i made them), but the Lord totally straightened everything out and not only did we get everything we needed, but we rolled out in style! hopefully, i can get some photos of our red and silver posse and post them for y'all tomorrow...

all the people that we have met have been so kind...and happy! people in Colorado and Wyoming and happy people, we are finding. it's a welcome change. :) and the weather is another welcome change; tonight we'll be in the 50's and that's more than fine with me!

so, all in all, for our first day, i'd say...success! :) more than just "success" though - we truly are seeing the hand of God, outstretched and totally open to bless us...over and over and over.

tomorrow, we wake early (kelly says we hafta be out by 8!) and then we have the loooooong drive to Cody. Rodeo tomorrow, baybee!!!!

thanks again for your prayers - we love and miss you all and wish you were here with us!
kaulana :)