Dixie's Blog: Updates

It feels like it has been a long time since I have blogged. Here is what has been happening in our lives.

Professional Pictures taken by Alecia Silva at The Portrait Place in Bonney Lake, WA.

The photo below was taken moments before Genevieve's first big bonk. She leaned over and then fell over and hit her head on the hard wood that is underneath the backdrop. We thought the entire session was over then, but she was able to pull it together for the rest of the shoot.

This just looks like a postcard to us :)

Whee!

Awwww!

Arlynn Caldwell took family pictures of us.

The whole crew

Just Grammy, Poppi and the grandkids

My sister, Jennifer and her husband, Eric

(and the little one on the way, due in May)

My brother, Travis, his wife, Sarah and their son, TJ.

(They also have a litle one on the way, also due in May)

My sister, Janelle, her husband Jon, and their two kids Dayna and Dax.

Just the Grandkids

We had a Princess Tea Party on New Year's Day. Princess Jennifer and Princess Dayna organized the party. It was originally supposed to take place at Princess Jennifer's castle, but had to be relocated to Princess Dixie's castle.

Chad and I are so excited we are finally getting Hummingbirds at our Hummingbird feeder!

Way, way too young for this! (the can is unopened by the way)

First came the snow, then the flooding. Jan. 7th

There was massive flooding in our area. Many cities had voluntary evacuations. For a while there was no way in or out of Washington state other than by plane or boat. Mail to Oregon or surrounding areas was not being delivered. Many schools had "flood days". It was crazy. Fortunately for us we live up on the hill and never had any issues other than a little inconvience of having to take a different route home and put up with extra traffic.

Here are some website's with articles and pictures about the flood.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/jan/07/washington-flood-2009-photos/

http://www.komonews.com/news/37289544.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifTg_yfYpAykFLdY6fVBnb3NeMZAD95ILN400

Chad, Genevieve and I went to Ohio last weekend to celebrate Chad's grandfather's 90th birthday. We were a little late to his birthday dinner. See below:

The crew of a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-800, flight DL1249 from Seattle,WA to Cincinnati,KY (US), declared emergency and returned to Seattle Airport after one engine failed while the airplane climbed through 11000 feet. The landing on runway 16L 24 minutes after takeoff was safe. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration N3749D resumed the flight and reached Cincinnati with a delay of 2.5 hours.

Our version of the story is about 20 minutes into the flight we hear a loud band and felt a rumble. Shortly thereafter we heard a stewardess make an announcement something to the affect of I'm sure the pilot will tell us what that loud noise was shortly. I was OK until I looked over at Chad and his face looked worried. He said he could fell the plan lowering and leaning to the left. Later the captain announced that one of our engines had stopped working and we would be returning to SeaTac airport. Most of the passengers remained very calm, however you could see that some were stressed. Thankfully we made it back to the airport were another plane happened to be available. Many people chose not to get on because they had connecting flights and would not make the connection or other reasons. The second plane was fairly empty so we got a row to ourselves which helped a lot when flying with Genenvieve. We also got free movies, woo hoo! The pilot and crew did a fabulous job taking care of us throughout.

Here are different versions:

Seattle Times reports-

SEATTLE (AP) - A Delta Airlines jetliner returned and landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Saturday morning after one of its two engines went out.Airport spokesman Perry Cooper told The Associated Press the Boeing 737 was en route from Seattle to Orlando, Fla., when it left at 8:15 a.m. The plane returned to Sea-Tac at 8:47 a.m. Cooper said the plane was ascending when an indicator light went on, showing an engine was out.Cooper did not know how many passengers were on the plane. He said 737s can carry between 115 to 170 passengers.

A passenger commented:
I was on Delta 1249 on January 10, seated in 4D. We were about 20 minutes into the flight when there was a sudden bang and shudder. We were in heavy cloud cover and could not observe the horizon, but it felt like the plane was yawing. About 20 seconds later, one of the flight attendants got on the PA, indicated the captain would tell us what had happened and to remain calm. From where I sat, it seemed everyone was exceedingly calm and quiet. I looked back at the right side engine, which was turning; I could see no smoke. The captain got on about 5 minutes after the incident and informed us that we had "lost an engine" and were returning to Seattle. We were on the ground about 15 minutes later after a safe and smooth landing. The fire brigade us on the taxiway for a visual inspection of left engine. Ground crew performed a second visual check after we arrived at Gate A13 prior to moving the jetway into position, after which everyone disembarked. Delta personnel handled the situation very professionally IMO.

Another passenger commented:

I too was a passanger on Flight 1249. I was seated in 21A on the left wing. I was looking out the window as we climbed into the clouds when I heard a huge bang, the plane shuddered and a rather large ball of fire came from infront of the left engine and rolled over the wing. It was shocking! Several people around me asked if we had hit a bird. I whispered to my husband "explosion". It was oddly calm - but I was very frightened, I had just seen an explosion in the left engine of the plane in mid-air...that is not supposed to happen! The pilot did an fantastic job of getting the plane turned around and landed with out any issue. Seeing all the emergency vehicles, we realized how serious this was. We were very lucky! We had a GREAT Crew that kept us calm, and an AMAZING Pilot that made a potentially critical situation appear like he does it every day! Thank you to the Pilot and Crew of Delta Flight 1249 for getting us home safely!

Yet another passenger commented:

I was a passenger on this flight and it had a stop in Cincinnati, it was not a straight thru flight to Orlando. I sat just behind the left wing and saw the engine explosion. It wasn't just a engine light going off in the cockpit, believe me. The explosion rocked the plane and there was a large flash of red light. We did decend for some time just after the explosion. I thank the pilot for getting us to the ground after this very scary experience. Delta did make arrangements for everyone onboard for another flight but I have to say, I was surprised and a little disappointed at the lack of apology and compensation. I felt like it was treated as if it was just another "mechanical problem". From where I was sitting, it was pretty major and I didn't want to get on another plane that day or have to ask twice for a hotel voucher, or not get offered a meal voucher to hold me over until my flight the next day.

All in all we enjoyed our trip to Ohio and we are glad we went. We trully treasured our time spend on this trip with the grandparents and Willwerth family.

4 generations