Up, Up and Away

The Sanders Family is currently in Orlando, Florida. Yes, I am blogging from vacation. But really, if you're an avid follower of this blog, then you shouldn't be surprised about this fact. I have, after all, blogged from vacation before. I've blogged from Minnesota. I've blogged from Myrtle Beach. And I've blogged from Branson. Addicted to blogging? Perhaps.

I wanted to start this vacation blog series from the beginning, so this first post will be about our flight to Florida. We arrived at our small local airport Sunday night. Both sets of grandparents also came to the airport to help with the kids and bid us farewell. Sweet, I know! We packed extremely light, and booked a non-stop flight, all to minimize our airport hassles with four small children. Each child had a backpack and a rolling carryon suitcase that they were able to take care of themselves...


{Note...all of these photos are SOTC - Straight out of the camera. No editing, due to not having Photoshop on my laptop. And yes, no editing of the photos is killing me, in case you were wondering ;-)That will change as soon as we get home!}

We were good to go. Until, that is, the airport employees were running our checked car seat through the x-ray machine. They actually got it stuck. Yes, stuck! You'd think we were the first people to ever check a car seat before, and I know that's not true. The security people were laughing, noticing that they had drawn a crowd of onlookers intrigued with the fact that they had actually gotten a car seat stuck in the security check point. It really was quite humorous...

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Thankfully, after a few minutes and a security man crawling in through the machine to tug on the car seat, it dislodged. So, we were able to take Gavin with us ;-)

Although I'm sure my mom would have gladly kept Gavin at home with her. Here she is helping to keep him content and getting some last minute baby time in...

{My mom with Gavin}


And Jason's mom was helping to keep Gabe and Cooper content too, with walks around the airport to take in the sights...



It was then time to go through our final security check before boarding the plane. The kids did so well! Chloe in particular, was so funny. She had to do everything herself, with no help, being the fiercely independent girl that she is. But she couldn't quite lift her heavy backpack up onto the conveyor belt all by herself. Instead of asking for help, she unzipped her bag, took her doll out and set it up on the conveyor belt, and then lifted the backpack up. It was quite adorable really.

The kids then had the chance to look out the window at our plane waiting for us outside...



And then humored mom with a quick smile for the camera...



...before we all got on the plane.

But let me back up for a minute. We did attract a lot of attention at the airport. Our three young children, all fitted with their own backpacks and with rolling luggage in tow, followed by us two parents, me carrying Gavin and Jason pushing the stroller with the rest of our luggage, must have been quite the scene. I overheard several sweet comments, such as "Awww...what cute kids" and "What a beautiful family!" And then there were the ever-popular "Wow! Are all those kids yours?" and "You've certainly got your hands full!" I sure am glad that we can provide entertainment for our fellow travelers ;-)

Once on the plane it was smooth sailing, or shall I say smooth flying! I sat with Chloe and Gavin, while Jason, Gabe and Cooper sat across the isle from us. It worked out perfectly...





Chloe did this most of the flight...



Watching her favorites, Wall-e and The Little Mermaid. To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure she realized we were flying up in the air. Since it was dark, I don't think she actually understood that we were in a plane that was up in the sky. But she had a good time, regardless.

And Gabe and Cooper also did this...



{Thanks Damon, for lending us borrow your brand new DVD player so that we could have two!!! What a generous friend Gabe has!}

Once in Orlando, we picked up our rental mini-van, drove to Orlando's larger airport to pick-up my friend Julie who is vacationing with us for the first part of the week from Colorado, and headed to our resort, which is BEAUTIFUL by the way!

But I will continue on later. For now, it's time to get back to vacation! Stay tuned...