Last Birthday Shout Out

To my brother-in-law, McLane! McLane turns old today. And I'm sure he's excited about it!

McLane has been a part of our family for 3 1/2 years, and we have enjoyed every moment of it. He is such a fun person to be around, always making jokes and laughing. He truly has a wonderful personality. We all have a good time when McLane is there. (Otherwise, it's just a little awkward... Just kidding.)

It's easy to see the things McLane is passionate about. He does a great job of showing his love for his family and his friends. He doesn't seem to let anything get him down. He's very motivated and hard working and does an amazing job supporting his little family. I love his constant smile and postive attitude. It's such a great example to me.

Thanks for being such a great part of our family McLane! It just wouldn't be the same without you! Love you!

So Sick of Airports

Alright, it's late but I thought it'd be best to let y'all know what Lish and I have been up to so far.

We started our journey back out west on Dec. 18th. Our flight was supposed to leave TLH at 5:45pm, but Lish's mom got a phone call earlier that day letting her know about a change in her itinerary. (The tickets had been bought under her name.) Apparently our flight had been changed to 6:45pm. It didn't really change anything because we'd still catch our connection in ATL, so we just decided to take our time a little more at home and make sure we had everything ready. Lish had signed up for text alerts telling him about our flight status. He got at least 3 texts letting him know of slight time changes, and one while we were on our way to the airport telling him our flight was at 6:49pm.

So we arrive at the airport around 5:45, and the guy who is checking us in is letting us know that a bunch of flights are delayed. He told us we'd be lucky to even get out by 7, so we tried to be hopeful while going through security. We got to our gate and Lish noticed a bunch of people standing up by the ticket agent looking a little flustered, so he went up there to see what was going on. Turns out, our flight had already left. There was no change in the itinerary, it was just delayed, but we were getting those status updates and the screens still displayed "6:49pm" as their departure time. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but we weren't the only ones stuck in this situation.

Another flight was leaving to ATL around 7, so we tried to see if they had any available seats on that flight. They had 4, so we were booked on that flight. Well, turns out they were "overweight" and couldn't fit anyone else on. So then we were booked on the next flight that was supposed to leave at 7 but was delayed until 8:35pm. (Are you following me here? Yes, it was this crazy.) We were hoping maybe that flight would pull whatever our original flight pulled and leave early so we could have a chance to catch our connection.

Karen (Lish's mom) called the airline at ATL to see what the status of our next flight was, and supposedly they were going to be delayed 50 minutes. We still had a small fighting chance. We didn't leave earlier than 8:35, but we were hoping the delay in ATL was still in effect. We arrived in ATL and the gate we were supposed to pull into was taken, so we waited on the tarmac for 40 minutes. The people next to us were checking their flight connection status, so we asked them to check ours, and low and behold, our connecting flight had already pulled away from the gate. Lish and I were still trying to be optimistic (not so much me, mostly Lish), so he said, "As soon as we get off this plane, just book it to the gate we're supposed to depart at. I'll find a ticket agent and see what the status is, but you just run like the wind." And I did. I took off in that airport and was getting all sorts of crazy looks.

And it was all for nothing, of course.

The plane had already left (we weren't really surprised at this point), and there were no other planes departing to SLC that night. We tried to get on a flight for the next morning and all the flights to SLC were overbooked until 6pm on Saturday evening, putting us into SLC at 8:30pm their time. We had the agent give us confirmed seats on that flight and asked if we could be put on standby for the other flights, just in case. Of course with the way the rest of our day had gone, we weren't too hopeful. We decided to rent a hotel room for the night since we'd be spending all the next day in an airport. The airlines wouldn't pay for it though, because it wasn't their fault. Of course, right? They said it was due to "weather delays." Alright, whatever, we're tired.

We got up on Saturday morning and strode back to the airport, dog in tow and wearing the same things as the day before. (We had no idea what had happened to our luggage.) The first flight from ATL to SLC that morning was at 7:30, so we got to the airport around 5:45am. We didn't make it on that first flight. There were plenty of other flights and with the way things had gone the night before, we were due for some good luck, right? The second flight trudged along and the plane wasn't as big. However, not everybody checked in for the flight. We were high enough on the standby list that we were the first people in line! And we made it on the plane. We were so relieved.

We made it into SLC before noon MST that day. AND our bags were already in SLC waiting for us. It was such great luck! We were so excited to shower and brush our teeth and change our clothes. I've never felt so clean!

Worst. Airplane. Experience. Ever.

THEN we flew out again on Sunday to go to California. Everything was fine with our flight out there, thank goodness. We flew back into Utah on Tuesday night, but our flight was 2 1/2 hours late because of weather conditions in Utah. But we didn't even really care. We knew our plane was en route, and we knew we had seats on the plane, and we knew the updated schedules. We were just so sick of airports. I'm glad we'll have had this week and a half break before we have to go back.

Me and airports do NOT get along right now.

Anyway, that was the fun stuff. I'll blog about the other REAL fun stuff that's been going on later. Must. Get. Sleep.

December 18th...

Thank you for coming so fast. You know I have been looking forward to having you here. Now, if you could ask the one in charge of Time, please let him know that once I get to Utah, I would like Time to slow back down. I don't want it to go faster than the past few weeks have gone. I want to enjoy every moment and be able to soak it all in. So please pass that on for me. Of course, continue to go fast while I am anxiously waiting at the airports and during the layover. But once we land in Utah, slow down!

My best regards,
Whitney

A Holiday Dance for you!

Harris Holiday Dance

Happy Holidays!
From The Harris'!

Lish is on the Nice List

I have a head cold. Stuffy nose. Itchy nose. Sneezing. Mostly, it's just my nose. It's not that bad. Really. I've actually been able to sleep at night without snoring, which is fabulous because I wake up without a sore throat. But my husband is a concerned husband. He wants me to be as comfortable as I can be. He's good like that. And he's concerned like that. He doesn't like seeing me sick.

So yesterday when I got home from work, he had made another 'sick station.' Right when I lied down on the bed, a "Gilmore Girls" episode flashed on and a Twix was in my hand. It was amazing. (Now, I know a Twix isn't something you should necessarily give a sick person, but my husband knows me well and knows that chocolate is basically a cure-all.) We had French toast for dinner, and I ate on the mattress. Essentially, it was breakfast-in-bed. And although I spent a majority of the night baking for Christmas parties (work party in an hour, ward's Spanish party later tonight), it was so relaxing. I love my concerned husband. I love how he loves to spoil me with love. That's love!

Maybe someday I'll update the blog-o-sphere about other happenings in our lives. It's not that nothing is going on. It's that so much is going on. That's life.

MIL Birthday!

Hey y'all! MIL stands for "Mother-in-law," just in case you didn't catch that. It's Lish's mom's birthday today! And this shout out is for her!

Happy birthday Karen! First of all, you are wonderful. Everything about you is wonderful. You are one of the most caring and thoughtful people I know. You're always doing things to help everybody, especially your family. And you do such a great job at it! You are so appreciated!

Karen is such an amazing MIL. I am so lucky to have married into such a fabulous family! She is so accepting and supportive. She does small things all the time to let us know she's thinking about us and cares about us. I love getting her random text messages. She makes me laugh! There are some things that are just so "Karen" (like the many Costco runs, the text messages, the laughing really hard at herself when it gets late) and I love it all!

Plus, she raised an amazing son who treats women so well. It's easy to see how much Lish loves and respects his mother. They have an extraordinary relationship and I'm so grateful to see it close up.

Karen, thank you for everything! I couldn't ask for a better MIL! You are so wonderful and I love you! Happy birthday! (And can't wait to see you in a couple weeks!)

Big Brother Brian's Birthday!

Yesterday was my oldest brother's GOLDEN birthday! He told me he's feeling old, but don't worry Bri, the rest of us are right behind you!

I love my big brother! He is amazing in so many ways. He has treated me so well over the years, standing up to my mean ex-boyfriends, helping me with my homework, being supportive of my decisions (expect maybe when I decided to go to BYU). We have such a fun relationship where we can just tease each other and say things to bug each other. It's so fun to be around him. He always has a big smile on his face and he is such a happy person.

One of my favorite memories with Brian was a few years ago when we were both taking anatomy classes. He invited me up to the U of U's anatomy lab (because it was so much better than BYU's) and we just hung out in the anatomy lab for a couple hours and then went and got burgers and root beer floats afterwards. It was so fun to do something so lame and be able to bond with him.

Because I know that Brian is such a wonderful big brother, I know he's an amazing husband and father. It's easy to see how much his kids and his wife love him and it's so easy to see how much he loves them. He does all he can to make a comfortable life for his family and he's such a great example for me to look up to. I've always admired him. I've loved watching how much he loves life and how much joy he gets out of the simple things.

Thank you Brian, for being such a great big brother! Thanks for being someone I can look up to and learn from. Thank you for all the fun memories we have and for being so supportive and accepting! I love you and hope you had a great birthday and I can't wait to see you soon!

Giving Thanks

I just wanted to take a couple minutes to share some things I am very thankful for!

First of all, I am thankful for my husband. He's wonderful and amazing and I am so lucky to be married to him for eternity! Secondly, I am very grateful for my family. They mean so much to me and they are some of my best friends. Next, I am grateful for my friends! I have some incredible ones who have done so much for me. I'm grateful for my home, for the comfort I get when I'm here. I'm very thankful for my dog. She's pretty awesome! And of course, I'm grateful for the gospel. I love the teachings of our church!

I have so many other things to be thankful for, such as my job, my health, chocolate, the holiday season, my glasses and contacts, my new phone, and so much more!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope yours was as good as mine!

Little Brother, Happy Day!

Happy birthday Kyle! It's my little brother's birthday today. He turns 23! So, this shout out is for him!

I love Kyle! He's so quirky and weird sometimes, and it's just him. He was always more of the goofy kid in our family. He was always trying to come up with jokes or different ways to make us laugh when he was younger. Still does. And it still works. He's so much fun to be around! He seems to always have a smile on his face, and when you're not trying to wake him up, he's always in a good mood. He's very good at finding little different ways to entertain himself too. He has such a creative mind.

Kyle is only 15 months younger than me, so even though he was always trying to bug me when we were growing up, he was always one of my best friends. Still is. He's so smart too. He can understand science like nobody's business. Maybe it's just because I don't understand science, but it's always impressive to me. He's always busy learning something new. When he sets his mind to something, he will accomplish it. He always has the most optimistic outlook on things he wants to do. It seems like everything is an adventure for him.

Kyle also has a very strong testimony of the gospel and of what our church believes in. He has taught me a lot about being an example to those around us and about not worrying what other people are thinking. He is such a strong person in so many ways.

I love my little brother! And even though he still acts like a little brother whenever I see him, I wouldn't trade him for the world. Love you Kyle! Happy 23!!

Thanksgiving-I have not forgotten thee.

I've tried to be good about letting Thanksgiving have it's time in the limelight. I really have. And compared to past years, I've done really well. But I couldn't help myself when it came to blog templates. I just love the Christmas ones! So I gave in.

But I won't decorate until a week from Friday, and I won't really start listening to Christmas music until then too. For now, it's too warm for me to think about Christmas. It's the middle of November, Tallahassee! Didn't you get the memo? I'm not complaining about the weather we are having now, I just don't feel that Christmas crisp. You know, when it cools off and all that. Maybe when my house is decorated red and green, then I will feel completely Christmas-y. But this is a start!

And Thanksgiving, I'm excited to celebrate you. A day dedicated to eating delicious food and giving thanks is always a good thing in my book.

Philly, B-More, DC

**Warning: Post contains a gazillion pictures!**

I am always so late at posting things, but at least I get to it eventually. Forgive me.

Anyway, as many of you know, Lish had an ASC (Criminology) conference up in Philadelphia a week and a half ago. Neither of us had been to Philadelphia, so we decided to make a fun little trip out of it. Lish flew in on Wednesday and I met up with him on Thursday. The night I got in was the same night as the schools' banquets. So we attended FSU's banquet and I got to catch up with some of the students and professors from his department. Then a bunch of us went out and everyone got drunk while Lish and I got some food. We went to the oldest ale house in Philly. It was pretty fun! We went home and went to bed early, compared to everyone else, because Lish's presentation was the next morning.

Lish's presentation went well. Afterward he had a couple interviews with schools. After that, we got to travel around Philly a little bit. We went to the Rocky stairs (of course, we are American), and then we met up with Maggie and Brandon and Brandon's brother that night for dinner.

On Saturday we did the historic stuff around Philadelphia. We got to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin's grave, and so on. Then we headed to Baltimore with Maggie and Brandon. We had dinner downtown and stayed with them that night and Sunday. We went to church with them and then got to see where Maggie teaches. The campus of the school she teaches at is amazing. That evening we headed down the DC to visit Vance, Casey and their children. We had dinner with them and all got to catch up. Then we stayed with the Taylors until Tuesday morning.

So on Monday we headed into DC and Lish and I played tourist for a few hours. We went to the National Archives and to the Air and Space Museum. After Vance was done with his meetings, we went back to meet up with Casey and the girls and hung out with them all night. Come Tuesday morning we headed into the District again, got on a bus and made our way back up to Philly. Then we had one last meal and headed to the airport to make our way home.

It was such a fun trip and Lish and I talked about how much we loved Philadelphia. The weather was amazing and the people we got to visit were so good to us! We had a very wonderful trip! Enjoy some pictures! (By the way, the pictures might be all out of order because my blogger has been acting strange, but you get the idea.)

So Belated, But Better Late Than Never, Right?

Happy belated birthday Collin! My brother-in-law celebrated his birthday on Monday, the 9th, so I am a few days behind. One of the reasons why I love him so much is because he doesn't hold grudges and is so forgiving. :)

Collin is one of those people that doesn't have to do much to make me happy. His whole being just makes me happy. He's always in a good mood. Collin seems to be the person in our family who everyone else makes fun of, and he handles it all. He makes some of the funniest comments I've ever heard. He's just such an amazing person!

Collin is also a very hard worker. He has a drive that's incredible to watch. It seems that he has accomplished so much with his job and with helping provide for him and his wife. And I love seeing how much he loves his wife. They are so silly together and it's easy to see that he truly adores her.

I'm so glad that Whitney decided to marry him! Great choice Whit! I love having Collin in the family!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody! What are y'all dressing up as? Going out or staying in? Lish and I are NOT going out. It's Homecoming weekend for FSU, plus Halloween. It's going to be a little crazy downtown tonight.

Anyway, we dressed up for work yesterday. My whole office does it. Well, most of them. One of my bosses didn't dress up and the other came as Mr. Rogers, so that wasn't much of a costume. I dressed up as a butterfly. It was fun. Then I kept the costume on for our ward's Trunk or Treat last night. We just went to see all the kiddies. They were so excited. I loved dressing up when I was younger. Still do.

The night before last, I got together with some friends to carve pumpkins. We had a good time. Carving pumpkins and dressing up isn't really Lish's thing, so that's why he's not in any of these pictures. But enjoy! And Happy Halloween!

Maggie's Big 30!

My sister-in-law, Maggie, turns 30 today! Well, the day is almost over, but not quite yet, so I am still at liberty to say that. Anyway, the big birthday!

Maggie is marvelous! She is one of the sweetest girls I have ever met. She is always so concerned about her family and friends and wants the best for everybody. She is so easy to get along with. She can make anybody feel completely comfortable around her. She is an amazing people person.
Maggie is also one of the most positive people I've ever met. She always has a smile on her face and laughs quite often. It's easy to see that she loves life and will take whatever life throws at her. She is so patient as well, which I'm sure she had to be with Lish as a little brother.Another thing I love about Maggie is how motivated she is. When she sets her mind to something, she sees it through. She is such a great example to me for that. I love being related to her now. I couldn't ask for a better sister-in-law.I love you Maggie and hope you had a wonderful birthday! We can't wait to see you in a couple weeks!

Griffith Weekend Update-Finally!

Hey y'all! I'm finally able to update from the weekend with my dad and stepmom!

So, I took a few pictures and my stepmom took a few, but she hasn't sent them to me yet. (Alisia, where are those pictures? Hm? Com'on now.) Anyway, you don't need all the pictures.

They flew in on Thursday, October 8th. After Lish picked them up from the airport, they dropped off their bags and came to pick me up from work. We went out to dinner that night and it was delish! Then we just sat around and chatted before going to bed early. (They were so tired, having woken up very early to catch their flight.)

On Friday, Lish took them onto campus so they could attend the lecture he was giving in his class. I went into work again for half a day, and when I came home, we gathered up the necessities and headed to lunch. Then we went to Wakulla Springs. We took the boat tour, like we have done with other family who comes out to visit, but this was probably the best tour we've been on. The weather was amazing, the fish were jumping, the turtles were basking, and the alligators were fighting. We also saw quite a few manatees, and several birds. It was only the 4 of us on the tour, plus two other guys, so we got to get up and move from side to side to see everything. It was awesome! After that we came back home, recooperated, and headed out for another dinner. Then we headed to the "Downtown Get-down" that is held every night before a home football game. It was fun to show them how crazy our town gets over football. Plus, it was great for people watching.




Saturday we slowly got up, then we headed out for our tee time at the Seminole Golf Course. It was a beautiful course. (The golf carts even had GPS systems in them.) We didn't play well, but we had a lot of fun. It was really humid that day and it was getting ready to rain. In fact, the alarm bell rang out as we were finishing up on our 9th hole. It was perfect timing. Our friend Brian was having another tailgate that day, so we headed over there straight after so we could show my dad and Alisia what a real tailgate looked like. As we were driving, it just started pouring rain. It was crazy! So, they got to see a real rain storm as well. (It just doesn't rain like that in Utah.) After the rain cleared up, we hung out at the tailgate for a little while, went to get some ice cream (of course), and then headed back home to recooperate again. We took a mini nap, got ready to go out again, and headed out for another delicious dinner.



We went to our Sacrament meeting on Sunday, so we could introduce some of our friends to our family. Then we just hung out and chatted until we had to take the family to the airport. It was a fabulous weekend and we are so grateful for the time, money, and energy my dad and stepmom put into coming to visit us. Thank you for everything you guys! We sure love you!