Surprises, Cracker Barrel, and Claw Machines.

The day after Christmas my dad woke my mom and I up, then immediately asked, "Do you want to go to Alabama?" At first I hated the idea, I mean sure I love seeing family but I hate having to leave after visiting. I didn't want to go, I didn't wan to have to cry when we left. But after waking up a bit more and coming to my senses, I decided taking a trip home to see family would be fun. We planned to leave in two days and fly from Salt Lake to Atlanta, Georgia then from there to Alabama and not tell anyone. It was going to be a surprise, and I knew it would be super fun so we all packed and two days later we got on the plane to head to Alabama.

Our plane got into the Atlanta airport at 7:05 and our flight to Huntsville, Alabama was supposed to leave at 9:15. When we got off the plane and checked our flight the display board read that the flight was delayed tim 11:36. We figured that couldn't be right so we checked the next closest display board and it still said our flight was for 9:15. We walked to the displayed gate and when we arrived there was no one at the gate, so we checked and all the display boards had updated to 11:36 departure at a gate on the other end of the airport. After walking back and forth about four times to different gates we eventually decided to ask customer service. The employee we asked had no idea what we were asking about so we finally decided at around ten, that it would be more convenient to just drive, so we rented a car and started on our five hour drive to Russellville, Alabama.

We arrived at our hotel at around 2:00 a.m. and decided we would surprise everyone the next day. The next morning we woke up, got ready and headed off to my grandparents' house to surprise them first. Both were very surprised and we spent a little time with them before they had to head to work. My dad went back to the hotel and my mom and I decided to surprise my cousin next. I told her I wanted to Skype and she explained that she was at her Nana's house and could Skype whenever. I suggested to call each other in thirty minutes before driving to her Nana's house. We knocked on the door and no one was home so I called and it turned out she had just left three minutes earlier to go to lunch. My mom decided we could go surprise my aunt then come back to surprise Alayna, my cousin later.

(Picture of my cousin and I)

We bought lunch and showed up at my aunt's house then enjoyed time with her before the three of us headed back out to track my cousin down. After many texts, calls, a trip to Walmart and three different houses we finally found her, and her reaction was great. We surprised most everyone else and ended up having a good trip. The whole family went to Cracker Barrel, our favorite southern restaurant, and had a great time. We later went to a Mexican restaurant called Casa Mexicana and my cousins and I attempted to win a stuffed animal from the claw machine, but all failed. Even though we wasted about six dollars trying to get cheap stuffed animals we knew we wouldn't win, it was still very fun.

The time to go home came around and I was sad, but tried my hardest not to cry, knowing what a great time I'd had surprising all my family and spending time with them. My trip to Alabama was great and a perfect ending to winter break. I hope everyone had as fun of a winter break as I did!

~Ariel