End of an era.

In the last year and a half I have flown 349,352 miles!

That is the equivalent of circling the entire circumference of the globe FOURTEEN times!

That is much further than the distance to the moon.

 Crazy!

In the last year and a half we have been to:
Mexico
Israel
Chile
Canada
Costa Rica
Japan
Thailand
Columbia
Panama
Ecuador
Peru
Micronesia
Taiwan
Dubai (UAE)
France
Italy
Bahamas
Spain
Ireland
China
Australia
Korea
Singapore
And states in the US:
Washington
California
Nevada
Arizona
Utah
Idaho
South Dakota
North Dakota
Minnesota
Wyoming
Colorado
Texas
Illinois
Georgia
Florida
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
New York
Hawaii

 I'm not sure what I'm more grateful for: all the places we have been able to travel or all the things we were able to be apart of. And if I had to say, it's probably the latter. I am very thankful that these flight benefits allowed us to travel home more than monthly, and travel to and be a part of our friends and families weddings, celebrations and events.
I just made a list of "Things we were able to attend" I know I am missing many, and still, look at this long list! And that's even more impressive coming from Hawaii. Without the flight benefits I guarantee you we would have only been able to attend a very, very small handful of these events:
Kamis wedding
Matts wedding
Nightlife concert
General Conference
New born Jackson
Ingunns wedding
Thanksgiving
Mission reunion in Chile
Christmas in Utah
Visiting the Ramptons
Jessica's baby shower
Kyles wedding
Grandpas 80th birthday
Troys birth
Jessica's graduation
Keith's award dinner
Mission reunion in Taiwan
Troys baby blessing
Maggie's wedding
Johns barbershop competition
Michaels home from his mission
U of P dental school tour
Shanels wedding
Ellsworth family reunion
Michael homecoming talk
6 of Kent's football games in 3 states
Family softball
Clark's homecoming
Kylees concert
Kent's state championship
Thanksgiving in California
Michael mission reunion on Costa Rica
High school champions bowl game in Florida

Those are a lot of memories. Today I am grateful. And sad that it's over.

Sorry it is so long, but this is our journey with my job with the airlines..
Spring 2013, I became confident that I was going to marry Keith. I was just about to graduate from Byu Hawaii, and I was planning on Keith graduating from the Air Force Academy two years later. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in those two years. I knew I wanted to travel and the only feasible way to do all that traveling would be to work for the airlines. I applied to several jobs, anything connected to the airlines. Anything that would let me travel standby. I got an interview for a part time ramp agent in Denver. But a few days later all our plans changed because I got engaged! Which meant that we decided to not wait those two years but get married that summer and Keith would transfer to finish his degree. Once I was engaged, I almost forgot about the interview. Late the night before, I remembered I had the interview in the morning but figured it would be a waste to drive all the way to Denver because I knew we would move from Colorado after we got married. My dad (so wisely) told me just to go to the interview anyways. So my mom suggested we could do some wedding shopping in Denver and stop by the interview. (Man am I so glad my dad encourage me to go. There are SO many examples in my life of me thinking, "there's no way I can do that" or "I don't want to waste my time because I know it wont work out" but my dad encourages me to do it anyways. I learned to really listen to his advice because I have benefited tremendously for it.)

My mom was such a good sport when what I thought would be a quick pit-spot turned into an all day thing. I'll never forget walking into that conference room. I thought there would be a couple of chairs lined up waiting to be interviewed. Nope. It was a huge conference room full of people-mostly big, strong men wearing black. I felt so out of place as a girl walking in in a bright green shirt, skirt and heels. All I really remember is them saying, "In 14 days you can fly to Rome for free" and I KNEW I somehow had to get this job. After like 6 or 8 hours and a couple interviews later, I made it to the next round! I still truly had no idea what the job was, I just kept thinking,"Rome for free in 14 days..!"  I thought I was going to be the person inside who speaks on the intercom (aka a gate agent) but the second day I had to pass a fitness test. I wasn't real worried, I figured if any girl could pass it I probably could too. Well, It-was-so-hard. I almost didn't pass the test, but I did! The hiring and training process went in for weeks and weeks, in Denver which is a big commute, but we were all excited about the free flights!

The worst part was definitely the two week training at the airport. It was so hot and so physically hard, I kept thinking, 'I don't know if I can do this, this is a mans job.' I would come home so exhausted and tired with airline grease all over my hands. And it was so stressful! For example, they had me push back the airplanes! I thought I would be ok at it because I have backed the boat down the  ramp like once haha. But it is so much harder. One because it's a huge plane and two because you have your vehicle, a hinge, a long pole, a hinge, the plane. Hard. I felt like had such a hard time remembering the different steps for the different planes (and obviously it is critically important that you do it right) It's intimidating working around huge planes, feeling like you don't know what you're doing, the pilots looking at you for instructions, tons of heads staring at your from inside the plane, setting and unsetting the brakes under the plane, being around loud engines and props etc.

But soon, it all became way less stressful and way more fun. I did always dread going to work, because it's much more fun to travel than work, but I had a lot of good times at work.  It became significantly less physically exhausting because we only had to work a handful of planes a day. A lot of the time we just sat around waiting for our planes to come in. At first, I did not like vast majority of the other employees. They were rough and crude and so different from me and what I was use to. So I was quite and tried to have my own bubble. But once I decided to get to know people and let them get to know me (I looked for any opportunity to tell people I was mormon, married and I lived in Hawaii) I made lots of friends and had a lot of missionary opportunities. It was a great learning experience.

Keith was studying in china for a few weeks during the majority of my training, so it was perfect timing. I traded all my shifts away and had 5 plus weeks off when I got married and we traveled the world. I still wasn't sure how it would all work out once I moved from Colorado and to Hawaii, but I was not interested in quitting. In September when we moved to Hawaii I figured... I'll come back to colorado for Kamis wedding in a few weeks and work then, and when Alexis has her baby... Let's see how long I can keep this job. If I traded my shifts, and then orchestrated it so I work four long days, I could get 24 off. 4 days on, 24 days off was a pretty darn good schedule.

My first goal was to keep the flight benefits until our honeymoon. No problem. So then I it changed to January so that we could visit my mission in Chile and fly home for Christmas. No problem. Then I figured..see if I can keep it until summer break...then through the summer... Then through fall for Keith's dental school interviews... Then until Christmas.... Everything truly worked out better than I could have ever imaged.

Sometime this last fall we found out that Skywest lost their contract in Denver with United, which meant we would lose our jobs. And even more daunting for me, our flight benefits. The new company was hiring and paying more, but not offering flight benefits. I kept my job until the last possible day, Dec. 4th and then got put on furlough. We could fly standby for the following 30 days.

I am sad. As silly as it sounds, my life is so different today then it was yesterday. I use to spend my time trading my work shifts and planning trips. No more of that now. No more days out on the ramp. No more weekend trips to Korea or Dubai. No more going to the airport without knowing which destination we'll be at that night. No more sleeping in airports or taking full advantage of priority pass lounges. Tripadvisor may shortly fall off my most visited page and the united app may quickly lose it's place on my iPhone front and center.

Although I'm partially-totally depressed that it's over I'm much more overwhelming grateful that we got that experience. It was unreal. 20 months later, I'm still in shock that that was our life, and we had all those opportunities. And I'm proud of us for taking advantage of the opportunity given.

And although this era is over, I am sure excited for the next stage in our lives!!!

 

 

2014 in a nutshell

I can't help but think how good life is, and how blessed we've been. We had a very fun and busy year. January we resettled into our little Hawaiian home. February we took a trip to Tokyo with Ashley and my dad and I worked a lot. March Keith stayed busy with school and we both spent a lot of time acting like tourist in Hawaii. In April Keith earned himself his third consecutive 4.0 and full ride scholarship to BYU Hawaii. We started off our summer trips by traveling to Micronesia, Guam, and California. And most exciting, we flew to Arizona because our little nephew Troy Rampton joined our family. In May Keith dominated the DAT, scoring in the top 5% and we flew back to Hawaii because Keith was honored as the outstanding general chemistry and organic chemistry student. We spent an amazing two weeks in Taiwan, where Keith served his mission two years prior. My heart really beat for him as I saw him in his element with the Taiwanese people and saw how much they loved him. June was spent in Arizona, dental shadowing in Utah and Colorado, a couples vacation in Mexico with my parents, and Dubai with Ashley. July was even more busy. We went to lake Powell, Las Vegas for Keiths dads barbershop competition, Michael came home from his mission in Costa Rica (Keith and Michael finally got to meet!!) and back to lake Powell. Then we went to Venice, Paris, and on a cruise to the Bahamas. But it didn't stop there. In August we completed one blissful year of marriage, went to Georgia, Madrid, Ireland, and another couples trip with my parents to Italy. In September, after two days back at school  (for Keith) in Hawaii, we flew back to Utah to see Clark home off his mission from Argentina! October was busy with dental school interviews for Keith and a trip to Hong Kong and Australia with my parents and Ashley for me. In November we took a quick weekend trip Seoul, South Korea, and Max, Alexis and Jackson Jolley came to vacation with us in Hawaii for a few fun filled weeks! We also went to Utah to watch Kent win the football state championship, 5 days in Kona with family and Thanksgiving in California. In December Keith got accepted to Dental school in San Francisco at the University of the Pacific! We also flew to Singapore, New York, Colorado, Florida, and Costa Rica.
Whoa. 2014 was full of adventure. I hope 2015 will be equally filled with fun adventures, only different ones. Like moving, dental school and..... A baby?!?! (This is not an announcement, just wishful thinking/planning/dreaming/hoping!!)

We have truly been blessed. The greatest blessing we have is our knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father and His plan.  Life is so good and so rich. Cheers to all 2014 gave us and cheers to a new beginning in 2015!

 

Costa Rica & Florida

Our last standby adventure was to Florida and Costa Rica. Christmas night we flew to Florida and spent a few days there with the Sasines. Kent and the Bingham football team was part of the first ever High School  Champions Bowl Game. It the possibly the funnest game I have ever watched. It was suuuuuch a great game but they unfortunately lost in overtime. It was broadcasted on ESPN and I fulfilled the dream of being on ESPN haha!

 My family and Keiths family have a horrible habit of planning vacations on the exact same days, so we split up the time as best as we could. We spent the next few days in Costa Rica with my family. Michael served his mission there and before we got there they saw as many of his friends from his mission as possible. We were able to be there some of the time when he visited people and his president and I loved see Michael in his element and seeing and hearing about how much they love him. There is not much better than being with someone when they go back and visit their mission. There is so much love. We also spent time at the all inclusive resort and drank hundreds of piña coladas. We went zip lining!.. Jumped off a rope swing into a river..played in waterfalls...and swam in hot springs. They were all such good days.
New Year's Eve we flew back to Florida and landed just before the new year. We golfing them watched (some really good) college football games, played games and swam. Nothing beats family vacations.

Christmas

Mele Kalikimaka!!! We had a great Christmas in Colorado. Keith enjoyed how much basketball he was able to play with the boys. It's fun to see Keith, Michael, Bobby and dad spending so much time together. It's the first time it's ever not felt like a girl dominate family ha. Weeks before we typed up a plan for each day so that we could really maximize our days together. We went bowling a couple times, played volleyball, went over to the Fredells, had a party, made a gingerbread village, laser tag, went to the live nativity, hot tubing, went out to eat, went to breakfast with the Goodes, had extended family over, relief society dinners, saw Christmas lights, Christmas church program, got together with friends and shopped. Oh and we played a lot of Catan and hearts and watched a lot of football. 

Christmas Eve is always so fun because we play tons games- like minute to win it and other favorite games- and after each game the winner gets a gift or can trade a gift with a previous one that has been opened. It goes on for hours and is one of my favorite traditions. We also all get matching pjs, which is a common but wonderful tradition.  Grandma and grandpa came from St. George and it was so fun to have them with us. We read and talked the Christmas story in Luke 2 ended the night watching "It's a Wonderful Life".

Christmas morning always outdoes itself. This year was especially fun because cute Troy got SO many gifts and loved all the wrapping paper. That afternoon we left for Costa Rica/Florida. 

My favorite part of Christmas was when we would all be sitting around the dinner table long after we finished eating or laying around on the family room floor with Troy crawling over us. It's so rejuvenating to be with family. I'm so grateful for how often the Savior and the meaning of Christmas came up in our conversations and for the events we planned to help us remember what Christmas is all about.  

One conversation in particular about the Inn Keeper sticks out. My mom suggested that the real mistake of the Inn keeper was not that he didn't make room for Mary and Joseph in his full Inn, but that he didn't go to the stable and see the Savior. I can't specifically remember what are my own thoughts and what my mom said  (any profound ones are hers) but I've thought a lot about that comment since. I've often felt bad for the Inn Keeper. I've thought about my dads hotel and the nights that the roads would get icee and dangerous and the hotel would completely sell out. It's not his fault nor is it fair to accuse him of not allowing everyone stay at the hotel. When it is full, it is full. And that poor Inn Keeper goes down in history has "the bad guy". I'm sure there were other Inn Keepers before him who quickly turned Mary and Joseph away, at least this Inn Keeper found her room to stay in the stable. So his big mistake wasn't that he told them that they could not stay at the Inn, because there really was no room. But his big mistake was not leaving the Inn, not separating himself from the hustle and craziness of it to see the big star and to see baby Jesus in his manager. 

I don't think we know what that Inn Keeper did that night. Maybe he was there, maybe he saw the way Mary looks at Jesus and was a witness of the miracle of the Saviors birth. But how sad if he wasn't. What a huge mistake if he was too busy to notice the start shining so bright above him in Bethlehem. How sad if he was so close but yet didn't allow himself to see the prince of peace come to earth as a babe because he has guests to attend to at his Inn. I hope the Inn Keeper wasn't distracted. 

We can apply that so easily to our own lives. The real travesty of Christmas would be if we were too distracted to let the Christmas story permeate our hearts and lives. Wise men still seek him. I'm grateful for my wise mother who helps me see the most important things. And in the chaos and in the routine of my little life I hope to alway seek Him more than anything. I'm grateful for my family who are my greatest examples and for a Savior who is always anxious to receive me.