The beginning of our trip

I am going to follow our trip day by day.  We did a lot, but we had an itinerary to follow so that should help my terrible memory. 

 I had to take a picture of the packing because it was a little ridiculous.  I was packing a weeks worth of clothes and planned to wash half way, so we would have a second week of clothes.  However, in doing this, I have a baby which you never know how many extra clothes you many need.  And, I have myself who can never decide what to bring.  This made for some packing difficulties.

My sister-in-law taught me how to pack like this:

 I love it.  Each of my kids have an outfit (including socks and underwear) packed in a ziploc bag.  So, each day, rather than tearing the whole suitcase apart, they just grab a bag.  I have packed my kids like this for years.  My husband requested I pack him like this next time.  The trick there is I never pack for him, so I don't think it'll happen.  He was just a bit jealous.  I even put a diaper in each bag for Brady.  Marcus was excited about that because then if he dressed Brady he just had to grab a bag.  It worked.  I even repacked it this way halfway through our trip after washing all of our clothes.

Kept very organized.  Thanks Jess!  Love the idea.

Here are my kids on the way to the airport.  They were so excited.  We were taking a red eye flight, so not only were they excited, they were tired.  That always makes for an interesting combination.

Parker and Madilyn.  Love the missing tooth and glasses :)  Cute girl.

This is kind of far away.  I was trying to capture the cuteness of walking behind my family.

At the airport waiting for the elevator.  I had Brady in the stroller.  You won't see many photos of me because I was the one taking them and didn't remember very often that I needed some of me.

 

Our story about the moving walkway is that when we got near the end Parker didn't step off.  So, as he was pushing the stroller, Marcus ended up jumping over them to not fall on them.  It was crazy.  Parker says he tripped.  We're not actually sure.

Moving walkway

Brady on the moving walkway.  He constantly was being fed these fruit squeezy things.  Very convenient for traveling.

Waiting for the plane.  There couldn't be a better baby traveler.  Brady was awesome.

I was not excited about the red eye.  We flew out of town at 11:00 pm and arrived at our destination at 7:00 am (our time).  It was an ALL nighter.  All of my kids slept on both of the legs.  And, I did too.  So, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it would be.  I was literally having nightmares over it.

The anticipation of the trip helped us all be a little more tired.  Yay!

We missed having Ethan on this trip.  It WAS our first BIG trip without him.  Meaning, flying to a big family trip without him.  We've taken others within driving distance.  It was even harder seeing Sean and Jess and not having Ethan to be with Collin (I know I've mentioned this but it was THAT hard).  I am sure Ethan was with us.  I love the knowledge I have of knowing we can see our loved ones again.  We're excited to catch up the next time we see him.