Flying Across the Country

If you’ve been following our adventures for a while, you know we like to fly. Usually our flights are in an Aerostar, and one of the kids copilots with Grandpa. Well, this trip was different.

For a quick recap of the itinerary, check this out.

This trip was not with my parents. It was with Stu’s. And we were flying from south Florida to Phoenix, Arizona. So, we hitched a ride on a big bird headed west.

The kids were interested in the idea. They had no clue what to expect at all. Riley has never flown commercial before. Reagan only has once, and she was 1 at the time. This was going to be a super adventure for them.

Just explaining simple things to them was fun. Like, no, you cannot bring 7 large stuffed animals with you. No, you cannot bring your water bottle (full) onto the plane.

We fielded questions the night before. Why do we have to wake up at 4am?! Why is our flight at 6:30am?! Why can’t the plane leave later? What do you mean ‘go through security’? How many people will be on the plane?Why do we stop in Atlanta if we want to go to Phoenix?

Good times.

Our 4am Wake Up Call

Ugh. That was early. But we had no idea how long it would take to get through security in the morning.

We flew Southwest out to Arizona. The first leg was nice and short. The layover in Atlanta was LONG. Like 2 hours long. That’s rough. The kids did not understand. And they started to get a little restless. Thankfully, there was Snapchat to keep us busy. And we walked down to the end of the terminal to see the planes land and take off.

By far, Riley’s favorite part was the baggage claim carousel. He laughed and laughed at the bags popping out and falling down onto the carousel.

DoubleTree in Phoenix

The timing of all the flights worked out perfectly. The Nashville Stus walked into baggage claim just as we were walking out. Caravan Tours sent a van to the airport to pick us up.

We were starving by the time we arrived at the hotel. Luckily our rooms were ready. We dropped our bags off in the rooms and met up at the in-hotel restaurant. I was so tired. I wanted to curl up at the table and go to sleep. Stu laughed and told me it was only 1:30pm. We had a good chuckle about it.

Our plan was to keep the kids awake for as long as possible, so they would sleep as late as possible. The 3-hour time difference, combined with our 4am wake up was going to work us over pretty good.

10 Stus took over the hotel pool for a while. I didn’t last long. That Phoenix June sun was a killer. I was afraid I would burn (even with sunscreen)… and get a decent sunburn the first day. That is not the way I wanted to start this trip.

It did not take long post-pool for the littlest Stu to pass out. Lucky for us, they slept until about 5ish (local time) the next morning.

Next up:

Exploring Montezuma Castle