As some of you may know, we recently spent a week in California visiting Dave's dad, aka Papa Joe, and Joe's wife, Sharon. Dave and I had last been to CA just before Ellie turned two, so when we stumbled across a great deal on airfare for the 6 of us, we decided it a return trip was long overdue. So, off we went for a week away from Minnesota in January!
As you can imagine, it took a lot of planning and preparation to get this group out of town. Santa was very generous to the kids this past Christmas and brought a suitcase for each of the kids along with a Mickey or Minnie t-shirt for our visit to Disneyland, so we were geared up! We'd spent a lot of time talking to the kids over what the flight and each day of the trip would be like, and after realizing there was some apprehension over going through security at the airport, I took the kids to the airport for a quick visit a few weeks in advance to give them an idea of what it all would entail. Ellie's main concern was sitting next to a stranger on the plane, but we assured her that shouldn't be a problem.
The big day finally arrived, and with a 10 a.m. flight we were up early to get to the airport with plenty of time to get through security. The kids had a blast watching the planes take off and land, and then playing in the children's play area in the terminal.
Finally, it was our time to board. Aidan is afraid of heights and was pretty anxious as we were waiting our turn on the runway to take off, but as soon as we were in the air, he was cool as a cucumber!
And then we were off again! We'd loaded a carry-on and backpacks with two portable DVD players, my Nook, Dave's tablet, a LeapPad, crayons, coloring books, paper, and lots of snacks to help pass the time:
I was really hopeful the kids would nap at least part of the day, and though they didn't nap at all, they were actually really well behaved - we were so proud of them! The worst part? The airplane bathrooms. With 4 kids and lots of drinks, we made plenty of trips. I'll spare the details, but by the end of the day I'd perfected the art of taking a small child to the bathroom and the kids were each on a first-name basis with the flight attendants. If you ever need advice on the best way to handle this situation, I'm a pro!
That's it for tonight, I'll have to break our trip into multiple posts as I've got too many details and too many photos to cram it all into one! Next up: Disneyland's California Adventure!
As you can imagine, it took a lot of planning and preparation to get this group out of town. Santa was very generous to the kids this past Christmas and brought a suitcase for each of the kids along with a Mickey or Minnie t-shirt for our visit to Disneyland, so we were geared up! We'd spent a lot of time talking to the kids over what the flight and each day of the trip would be like, and after realizing there was some apprehension over going through security at the airport, I took the kids to the airport for a quick visit a few weeks in advance to give them an idea of what it all would entail. Ellie's main concern was sitting next to a stranger on the plane, but we assured her that shouldn't be a problem.
The big day finally arrived, and with a 10 a.m. flight we were up early to get to the airport with plenty of time to get through security. The kids had a blast watching the planes take off and land, and then playing in the children's play area in the terminal.
Finally, it was our time to board. Aidan is afraid of heights and was pretty anxious as we were waiting our turn on the runway to take off, but as soon as we were in the air, he was cool as a cucumber!
The trip out to CA was a long one: we first flew from Minneapolis to Milwaukee, where we had an hour layover - just enough time for lunch - before switching planes and heading to San Francisco for a brief stop before continuing on to San Diego. Zoe had to take her turn flying the plane at Milwaukee's play area:
And then we were off again! We'd loaded a carry-on and backpacks with two portable DVD players, my Nook, Dave's tablet, a LeapPad, crayons, coloring books, paper, and lots of snacks to help pass the time:
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| Getting a little loopy after so much time on the plane! |
I was really hopeful the kids would nap at least part of the day, and though they didn't nap at all, they were actually really well behaved - we were so proud of them! The worst part? The airplane bathrooms. With 4 kids and lots of drinks, we made plenty of trips. I'll spare the details, but by the end of the day I'd perfected the art of taking a small child to the bathroom and the kids were each on a first-name basis with the flight attendants. If you ever need advice on the best way to handle this situation, I'm a pro!
That's it for tonight, I'll have to break our trip into multiple posts as I've got too many details and too many photos to cram it all into one! Next up: Disneyland's California Adventure!
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