Vacation Fun...Day 1

Curtis and I had been planning on taking a vacation with the kids for a long time and September of 2010 seemed like the perfect time. We didn't tell the kids what we were doing and I secretly packed all of their back for the 11 day trip. The morning we left, I put the older two kids on the school bus and then Curtis, Gavyn, and I packed the bags into the Tahoe. (Gavyn had no idea what he was packing..he was just happy to be helping) Then, we went to the school at about 10:00 a.m. and checked the kids out. I had talked to the teachers about a month in advance so they all knew what was going on and they had schoolwork ready for me so that the kids would be caught up when we got back.



We told the kids we were taking them to IF for lunch. They were so excited! Then, after lunch I gave them an index card to read.




This was their reaction to the card. Beforehand I had made up little poems about what we would be doing on the trip and wrote them on index cards. Every time we did something new I gave the kids a new card. It became a highlight as every time I pulled one out the kids would get extremely excited.

I asked the kids who wanted to go and only two of them raised their hands. Bryce was in tears! His first worry was about being packed. That is when we had them turn around and they realized the bags were packed in the vehicle right behind them. He was worried about missing school and he was worried about missing his grandparents. Honestly, he was a mess because Bryce is my schedule kid. He likes routine and if he is ever thrown out of his routine he panics. I felt bad for the poor guy, but it was quite funny too.

Bryce asked for the phone and then called his nana Smith. He told her we were making him go on a plane and asked her to come pick him up so he could stay with her until we got back. While he was on the phone Curtis and I kept trying to console him. We finally had to tell him that the reason we were going to San Diego was because eventually we were going to take them to Disneyland. The picture on the right is the reaction we got...I LOVE IT!

Then, we asked them again who wanted to go. This time they all raised their hands.




We went to the IF airport and waited for our plane to come. The boys were in awe.

You can tell that Bryce still wasn't quite sure about what was going on. He is my only timid little boy and I love that about him. I tried to get a picture of teh boys heading toward the plane, but they were running so it came out fuzzy as I was chasing after them.

When we got out at the airport we went to where our van was waiting and headed towards San Diego.

Motorcyclists in California aparently drive alongside the two yellow lines in between vehicles. The first time one zoomed passed us it scared me to death. I have never seen that before. After the first dozen or so I finally got used to it.

We got to our hotel in San Diego later that night and checked into our hotel. The kids were exhausted and did not put up too much of a fight to go to bed. Our vacation had begun...