We are here!

We are here and couldn't be more excited!  We left home at the dark and early time of 4 AM Thursday morning and the kids woke up with excitement and ready to go.  For those of you that don't know Ian, that is a huge feat!  That child is just like his momma and loves his sleep!  We got all checked in at Abilene and boarded a very full flight at the very back of the plane.  The kids were so entertained and content on that short flight that we didn't even get ipads out! 

We had about 3 hours to kill in DFW so we planted in McDonalds for breakfast and then made our spot at our gate in front of the window.  This was a good break for a couple of bathroom trips, some "let it go" singing, and a couple of 'games' of speed walking (if you aren't familiar with this made up game of BBob's, please ask to see the video!!!).  A guy came up and sat at the window near us to plug his laptop in.  We asked him to take a picture of all of us and then conversation started about where he was going and where we were going.  It was absolutely precious and warmed my heart so much for Ian and Kinzlee to be so excited to tell him about where we were going and why we were going there and all about their little brother!

So it was finally time to board and they came and asked us to board first since we had kids.  I have read several blogs and articles with tips about traveling with kids.  In more than one of them, I had read to not chose to board early- to just send one person in early to get your space ready- and I hadn't decided what we should do (although Kendon thought we should go ahead and board early).  We went ahead and boarded early and I am actually glad we did. It was a perfect amount of time for us to get our two rows situated before the aisles were so crowded with people trying to put their stuff away.

The plane ride absolutely could not have been any better!  The seatbelt like came on ONE time- ONE time for turbulence!  On our previous return trip it was on more than it was off!  So thankful for smooth air.  The kids did amazing!  They each slept for about 2 hours after our first meal was served and then Kinzlee slept again the last about 2 hours.  The other times, they were quite content with the things I had packed for them in their backpacks. 

This was one of the bigger hits with them.  I found this on pinterest and it was so easy to do- and gave us many laughs!  Sorry to those of you that ended up the brunt of our entertainment- we love you! :-)

We love you Lauren!

Another pinterest idea was these lego boxes.  This was Kinzlee's first set of little legos and she was in heaven with this priness and her horse and castle!

And of course the ipads to take pictures and play games!  The entertainment on our tvs in our seats also had a very good selection for the kids.  

There was also a mom traveling by herself with her 7 month old.  If you know my dad at all, you know that he quickly made friends with her and it wasn't too long before he had that baby in his lap.  We passed him back and forth a lot, which Kinzlee loved! 

The process in the airport was all very easy and smooth and we found the driver that was picking us up (after finding him at a different gate- thanks BBob!).  The drive to our hotel was about a hour and of course Ian fell right to sleep.  Check in to hotel was smooth and the people here are so very helpful and kind.  Most of the people at our hotel speak English well which helps so much!  We asked them to order pizza for us and it was here within about 30 minutes.  Ian walked into the room and laid down on the couch and was out- not sure he ever woke up when we got out of the van! 

Of course we had plans to stay up as late as we could in order to start getting on a new schedule.  That was shot pretty quick!  We got our pizza, everyone ate a little, we unpacked our suitcases and we all hit the sack!  The kids were awake at 2 AM so of course the rest of the house was too!  We asked Ian if he remembered anything about the hotel- he had no idea!  We had to show him everything.  It was actually quite comical. 

I am going to stop here for this post so they don't get so long..... will continue with the rest of the next day in the next post.