Vacation posts #1 - Heading to Florida!

I am such a horrible procrastinator! I'm sorry. It is something I'm working on, and have been working on forever. Except when under pressure or when I have a deadline. If something HAS to be done by a certain date or time, it will be done. Other than that, I put it off.

We had to be packed and I did not want to forget anything so I was actually organized for a change. This is all of our clothes, shoes, and toilettries for the 10 days we were to be gone, as well as our carry on stuff. As I was finishing my final count of things Timmy decided he was going to help.

Or he figured out we were leaving and was trying to put a stop to it.

And look, I got ALL of that in these bags. And I had room left over! I was proud of myself.

We had to get up at 5:30 to be able to get to the airport on time for security and such - and actually we ended up spending more time in the Starbucks line for my coffee than we did in the security line. Our wait to board was about an hour, but it went by so quickly.

And then we finally got to board...I haven't flown a lot, I still get really excited about it. When we got there we found out that in addition to the layover in Pheonix we would be having a stop in Reno - well actually we found out about the stop when the pilot said something after we were on the plane and pulling away from the gate. Kinda scared us that maybe we were on the wrong plane, but the number matched our tickets and they know what they're doing right?

It turned out to just be a stop to let some people off, board others, and we didn't have to get off. We actually got to rearrange and no longer be stuck away from each other. Robert and I split up the kids with each of us taking one. I had Carus from Portland to Pheonix and then Adam from Pheonix to Orlando.

The kids did really well on the flight. I let the kids decide what to bring in the carry on's with a few suggestions and Carus didn't want to, didn't hear me, or thought 'nah' when I suggested her markers/pencils and some paper. She colors, draws, and writes ALL the time. Luckily I had a pen and little notepad in my purse. Their carry on's had a small pillow and blanket, their gameboys/Nintendo DS, MP3 players, and books to read. Carus also had 2 stuffed animals ('babies').

She drew her little tiger kitty. I'll have to get a picture of that...

Adam got bored and I pulled out the camera to try to occupy him a bit. I ended up with a ton of pictures of his fingers and of the safety info from the back pocket of the seats.

And then finally we got our first glimpse of Florida. It was covered in patches of water and it was really green.

We got off the plane and found our way to baggage claim, then to get the rental car. The Orlando airport is really big. There is a hotel in the airport. You take a train from the gates to the terminal (or vice versa).

The second we left the air conditioned airport we were surprised to feel like we were stepping into a sauna or the bathroom after a hot shower. The sun was just setting but it was still very warm and very humid. We were told it was going to be humid, just surprised at how humid. We got to the car and turned the AC on as fast as we could. We didn't want to melt :)

Then we tried to find our way to the vacation house, and Robert's phone tried to get us lost - I was using Mapquest on it and Mapquest decided to change the street name on me without telling me and I had us heading down the right road to a wrong location for a bit before realizing it. But it didn't take us long after getting real maps from a convience store (pricey!) and getting some more clear directions to find our way. Florida's road system is surprisingly easy to read, learn and travel on. And they are so smooth! They have toll roads, but if it means that there are no potholes I think I am a fan!

When we got to the house we ate something since we were starving and then jumped in the pool. Peter, Charley, and Carie got in soon after we did even though they left our side of the US the night before us and we ended up joking and playing in the pool until 3 in the morning Florida time, which was midnight our time.

About Peter, Charley, and Carie's flight, I feel SO bad. They way I had to book their flight had them traveling overnight with 2 layovers. One layover in Las Vegas that was 4 hours and one in Memphis that was 3, and they flew into Montgomery, Alabama so then they had to drive about 8 hours to get to Orlando and the vacation house. I am so sorry guys! I hope you still had a good time!

Vacation pics from Florida can be found on my Flickr and I'll write more later. (Soon I promise.)