On the Plane

Since it had been a long time for our children to fly on an airplane they were all very excited. It didn't even phase them when we woke everyone up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time.

Whew! I must admit there was a great sense of accomplishment and relief when we arrived at our gate with plenty of time.  We flew on Southwest and were able to carry on all of our bags and two booster car seats. Which was also pretty amazing.  

Justin came up with great plan that He, Kevin & Kate would sit in one row & Kenzie, Kelly & I would sit in the row across from them.  That way all of the kids should be able to look out the window, even if they weren't sitting right by the window.  It was so fun to see the children's reactions as the plane took off, and turned, etc. You would have thought that we were on a roller coaster ride!  Everyone loved it except for Kenzie!! She hated it and did NOT want to look out of the window.  Thankfully our first flight was a short one to  Oklahoma City.  Kelly & Kenzie ended up changing seats and she felt much better about sitting in the middle, away from the window.

We had a good 15 min. +/- stop in Oklahoma City.  Kevin was dying to take a look inside the cockpit. Justin told him to ask a flight attendant before going up there, but you can imagine how well an 11 year old boy listens in situations like this. ;) He just walked right up there and started talking to the pilot!

Kenzie, happy to be on the ground in OK City.

I loved sneaking this picture of Kate. She was adding up all of the flights she will have been on by the end of our trip. She absolutely loved every minute.

Kevin was very fortunate to have the audience of a patient pilot and flight crew. He probably spent a good 8-10 minutes talking with them and sharing all he knew about airplanes and flight, etc.  They even let him sit in the Pilot's seat!

He was in heaven!!

This is the only picture I took on our flights home and I think it sums up how we all felt. :) Let me just add what a blessing it was that we could raise the arm rests in between seats. Kenzie was much more comfortable and it made everything easier that she just laid down and slept most of the way.

It was a great adventure and we feel very blessed that Justin had enough flight miles to allow us all to fly for free!!  It was another wonderful experience that we will not forget.