Flying to Arizona

Sunday April 17th Blake drove the kiddos and I to Grand Island, Nebraska. Allegiant Air flies out of there to Arizona for really cheap. So I thought it would be a good idea to jump on and go visit Grandma and Grandpa in the nice warm Arizona sun! Blake couldn't get time off because of the program he is in and I didn't want to drive that far(17hrs.) by myself, so this is what I decided to do. Saturday was spent packing and getting everything ready. Sunday after church we finished packing and got in the car to drive there.

The airport was TINY! Maybe smaller than the Idaho Falls Airport. I like this though. The people who worked there were really nice and let Blake go through security with me. They also let me check all my bags for free. So we got 2 adults, 4 kids, a stroller, 2 car seats, and 2 bags through security, then waited. I think the kids asked every 2 minutes when we were going to get on the airplane to go to Grandma and Grandpa's. Blake bought a couple drinks to share, so we filled up their water bottles with them(Allegiant doesn't offer free drinks), changed diapers, went to the bathroom and said bye to dad. I checked Parker's carseat and stroller by the plane and we boarded. We had a whole row to ourselves, all 5 seats!

Things looked good. We took off and immediately the kids started asking for their drinks. I expected this. I had them wait a little while, then went to get their drinks. The lids weren't on very well and sprite had leaked all over our bag. All our notebooks and entertainment was sooo sticky. I think it took them a total of about 10 minutes to drink everything we brought. Then they proceeded to eat all of the candy. So about 20 minutes into the flight we were out of treats and drinks and very ready for the announcement that we could turn on portable electronic devices.

Finally, they made the announcement! I pulled out our portable DVD player and it was hot. Not a good sign. Sure enough, it hadn't been turned off when we were done charging it, so the battery was dead. That made for a long rest of the flight.

Parker has always slept in his car seat, but on the airplane I wanted Alissa to be in her car seat and immobile. I didn't know before we got on that there would be room for both. So Parker didn't sleep the whole flight. He won't fall asleep in my arms. A really nice lady behind us held him for a long time and was a huge help. The rest of the kids were normal kids the rest of the flight. Alissa jumped from seat to seat, pushed buttons, played with the people behind us, and the people in front of us and only screamed for the last 10 minutes when I held her while we were landing. Remi was a huge help and later told Grandma she was really tired on the airplane, but stayed awake to help me. Sweet girl! Broden is a good traveler. He can entertain himself for hours. When we had about 30 minutes left he fell asleep on the 2 seats on his side of the isle. He just laid down and went to sleep. That was nice.

Then the plane landed. I couldn't get Broden to wake up and didn't know how I was going to carry Parker, Broden and the car seat. I finally convinced Broden to walk to the stroller. When we got off the airplane I put Broden on top of the Stroller, where the drinks go, Alissa in the stroller and the carseat, with Parker in it on top of her. We walked inside and I realized it wasn't the huge Phoenix airport I thought we were flying into. I panicked for a minute, but luckily Grandma knew which airport to come to. We were SOOOO excited to see her! Except for Parker screaming half the time our 2 hour drive back to Grandma and Grandpa's house went smoothly.

Grandma had been in Utah with Kaydi and Garrett and Baby Gibson for 3 weeks and drove home just in time to grab us at the Airport on her way back home in Green Valley, Arizona. We were so grateful for her willingness to do so much for us so we could come visit. They even bought a new car so we could all fit! They say it is for whenever anyone comes to visit them, we just happened to be the first ones coming.

When we got to their house in Green Valley Remi said hi to Grandpa, then went to bed. Alissa, Broden and I got a tour of the house and yard and stayed up for a few more hours visiting. I think we went to bed around 1:00 am-3:00am our time! Poor grandpa must have been exhausted the next day at school. Broden had a blast with him though.

The rest of our trip should be coming soon...