Kids First Plane Ride

Last Christmas Kamrins grandma announced to us she was taking us all to Disneyland!! After going through many dates and everyone checking with their jobs we decided we would leave Tuesday October 13th in the morning and fly back Friday October 16th at night. After planning for 10 months it finally was time to go to Disneyland!! We were all SO excited. Out of 13 of us going only 1 had been to Disneyland ever so this was a pretty big deal. The night before we didnt get much sleep. After checking everything 100 times making sure we had everything we were just too excited to sleep. I managed to get the kids to bed at 7pm because we had to meet at Kamrins parents house at 5am!! That morning Kamrin and I got up and got ourselves ready before waking the kids. It really felt like Christmas cause we both wanted to wake them up together to see their reactions. We first woke Jay up and we told him it was finally time to go to Mickey Mouses house (thats what he had been calling Disneyland) and he shot up out of bed and asked "Today?" We both told him "Yes, right now" He started giggling and jumped out of bed. Maddie on the other hand was not so thrilled. She looked at us like we were nuts and how dare we wake her up. That girl takes her sleep very serious :-) When we brought them upstairs and started getting them dress Kamrin opened the door to load the van and Maddie really looked at us funny. Not only did we wake her up but it was still dark LOL. It cracked me up to see her reaction. We loaded them in the van and off we went. We all met at his parents and got all 13 of us and all our luggage into 2 vans we headed to the airport parking place and they took us by shuttle to the airport. We got there about a half hour before Jet Blues counter even opened so we all sat down and tried to entertain the kids and ourselves til then. When we finally got all our luggage checked and then we had to go through the adventure of security. The actual getting checked wasnt so bad but Kamrins mom didnt bring her id and they had to go through a long process to get that worked out and then one of his brother lost his boarding pass through security but luckily it was found quickly. What a way to start a vacation huh? When we reached the gate we all just sat around waiting. Lucky for me Kamrins dad and brother love to chase my kids around so I got to relax a bit while they walked around all the windows to look at the planes. Once we board the plane I started getting really nervous. First of all cause flying makes me nervous but also cause the kids had never flown, they were already tired from being woke up so I had visions of them screaming and throwing fits the whole time. As we were taking off it was really fun to see both of their reactions. Maddie looked so confused yet would have a big smile every few seconds. Jays face was normal until the second we got off the ground and then he got a HUGE smile and started giggling. Once we were able to get out of our seats they brought us some animal crackers and drinks were both kids were very excited about. Jay was glued to the airplane tv cause they had Nickelodeon. Maddie watched Elmo on a portable DVD player we took for each of the kids.We landed in Long Beach and it was only about 830am Cali time so we still had the whole day ahead of us! We went to go meet the shuttle that was taking us to our hotel but only had 1 there that couldnt fit us all so a few had to stay behind and wait for another to get them. We went and checked in but they only had 1 of our rooms ready so we piled all our luggage in there and went across the street to IHOP for breakfast. They had an awesome both that actually fit us all comfortably which was nice cause we usually are so spread out at restaurants we dont even get to talk to everyone. They have all the same things that the IHOPs here in Utah have but for triple the price! An omelet was $15 there!! After eating we went to the hotel and got on there shuttle to head to Disneyland!! All in all the kids first flight went GREAT! No fits or meltdowns at all! Couldnt have asked for it to go any better!

Loaded in the van to head to Grandma and Grandpas

He grabbed his backpack in the shuttle and had to pull it himself :-)

Walking in the airport with Grandpa and Aunt Pashell

She gets very thirsty when she is tired

Reading the newspaper with Grandpa waiting for Jet Blues counter to open

Settled in for his first ride in an airplane!

Glued to the tv

Headed to the hotel and she was already SO exhausted!