First BIG Vacation

Last week we flew across the country to spend 6 full days (sandwiched between 2 days of traveling) on the beach of beautiful St. Augustine, FL.  Our dear friend, Laura, is from Georgia and grew up going to her aunt Ann's beach condo in Saint Augustine.  "Aunt Ann" so kindly let us all go and stay there for the week and we had an amazing time.  I am little overwhelmed at the thought of trying to blog about such a big trip, so I am going to break the post up into days, and, depending on the behavior of my kids as I post (they are supposed to be having "quiet" time) I may have to do it in more than one post!

DAY 1 (Traveling)

On Saturday morning, June 23 we left our house at 3:00 in the morning to get to the San Fransisco airport for our 6:00 a.m. departure time.  My mom (who so kindly drove us to the airport at such a lovely hour) and Laura had spent the night so we were ready to go!  We made it to the airport really quickly (since there isn't much traffic at the time) and hopped in the line to check our one big suitcase and the 3 carseat/boosters.  The line ended up taking super long, and by the time we went through security, we walked straight onto our plane!  Oh, and as a sidenote, I am so thankful that you can gate check strollers for free, because we used ours as a luggage cart for all the kids carry-ons!

Once we were on the plane, the kids were so excited for it to take off.  I think the flight was about 4 1/2 hours and they all did really good.  No tears, a little napping, lots of snacking, and lots of checking all the new little trinkety toys and entertainment I had been collecting for weeks!

Ready for the plane to take off!

So excited for his first plane ride!

Enjoying some $1 CVS modeling clay!

Working really hard!

We landed in Atlanta, GA, ready for a 4 1/2 hour layover.  We got some lunch, rode on some escalators and moving walkways, rode the tram from terminal to terminal, then headed to our gate with about an hour left.  Unfortunately, our flight was delayed.  So for the next few hours, our departure time got pushed farther and farther back and I think they changed our departure gate 4 times!  During this time, Laura, Haley and I made a new friend.  She was three years old and named Amelia.  She was FUUUUULL of energy.  I mean, FULL.  Not that my kids are mellow, sit around the house and read kids, but this girl was ready to go out and run a half-marathon or something!   Anyway, she and her brother (who was 7 and engaged Laura in an argument about where we were going for our vacation) kept us pretty darn entertained!  And Seth was still just so excited about going to Florida.  Every so often he would say "raise your hand if you want to go to Florida!" or "Let's just get on a plane and go to Florida" (as if that was an option none of us had thought of)!  

The layover and the early rising took it's toll on Carey!

Finally, after a little over 7 hours in the Atlanta airport, we took our short flight to Jacksonville, FL.  We got off our plane and Carey headed over to get our rental van while Laura and the kids and I went to get our suitcase and boosters.  We waited and watched everyone else get their luggage of the carousel and go merrily on their way until we were the last ones standing there and the carousel was empty.  I kept thinking "oh great, we're stuck at the airport.  It's too late for any stores that would sell boosters to be open and we can't just throw the kids in the van with out them."  Thankfully, I went over the the little luggage office place and our luggage was there (apparently it did not have a 7 hour layover in Atlanta)!  We made it to the rental van, loaded up, stopped at McDonalds for a nutritious late night meal and delicious sweet tea, and headed off to St. Augustine.

So happy to be almost there!