~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Kids~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday, March 9, 2012

Have children. Will travel.

Can you find the stroller in this picture?


 
Believe it or not, there is in fact a stroller there.  It is buried under 2 car seats, 1 booster seat, diaper bag, insulated cooler bag, computer bag and duffle bag.

This, my friends, is how we made through the airport.  Also pictured are 4 kid-size suitcases and a backpack.

We had also shipped a box of Summer season clothes a week or so before the trip. That helped a lot and cost about the same amount of money it would have cost for another checked bag on the plane.





Saturday 2/18/12
1:15 p.m.
We packed  shoved everything and everyone into our minivan and headed for the airport.

2:00 p.m.
Potty break at a McDonald's near the airport.

2:30 p.m.
Arrived at the airport. Todd dropped me and the kids off with the stack of luggage you saw earlier. We checked our one very large suitcase and the rest were carry on bags.

3:15 p.m.
Todd had parked the van and took a shuttle back to find us. Here's a picture of the kids while we were waiting.



 3:20 p.m.
We started on our trek to security and stopped for another potty break.

3:30 p.m.
Loaded back up and ready to go. Todd carried the large duffle bag. Silas had the backpack and a pull-behind suitcase. Ellie, Avrie and Evelyn each had a pull-behind suitcase. It was slow going but it worked out really well to keep them busy lugging their suitcases around. No one ever thought to run off. I stayed at the end of our little train to make sure they were all heading in the right direction.

3:40 p.m.
We made it to security. They saw us coming and actually opened up a separate area so we didn't hold up the line. (Why would they ever think it would take us longer to get through? LOL)

I had the children dress in easy on/easy off shoes but it turns out that anyone under 12yo doesn't have to remove their shoes. woot!

They let all of our food go through, but had to rub something on each baby food jar to check it for possible explosives. On the other side of security we had to re-assemble our makeshift car seat holder. (We used bungi cords to keep everything on the stroller.) Each child was responsible for their own suitcase, so again they were quite busy. They sat and waited for us to get situated.

3:50 p.m.
We made it to the gate!  Everyone found a spot and watched planes take off and land. The kids were super excited!  I had made up snacks so we had "dinner" here. 

Our menu:
Turkey meatballs
clementines
cheese sticks
celery sticks
red bell pepper slices
bananas
grapes

We purchased a bottle of water to share.

4:15 p.m.
BEEP!  My cell phone alarm rang to remind me of our last scheduled potty break before boarding the plane.

4:30 p.m.
Once first class boarded they let us go since we had small children.  We traveled toward the plane in the same order we had been in. Todd stopped off to take the car seats and stroller apart to gate check them. So that meant that Evelyn ended up boarding the plane first. ummm  Let me just say that it's probably not the best idea to have the three year old go first.

The first seat she came to, Evelyn jumped in and said, "We're going at Florida!".

We finally made to it our rows of seats. We took up 2 rows of 3 seats each. Todd got one row with Silas and Avrie. I got the next row with Evelyn and Ellie. We passed Sadie back and forth.

That concludes part 1 of our trip to Florida. The fun was just beginning.

Have a blessed day! ~Tammy

1 comment:

Sara said...

Good Job! traveling with kids is always a "challenge."