Ready to Go!

OK, so I guess it's time I delve into writing about our trip. This will take several entries, so I'll take it a little at a time. :)

Jeremy and I have been planning this trip to Disneyland and family reunion for the past year. We have kept it from the kids because we wanted to surprise them. We decided to finally tell them about it a little in advance so they would have something to look forward to. We planned on leaving on Wednesday, so the Sunday before we had the kids come and sit in the living room for a "talk". The were all nervous about what the talk was going to be about and were reluctant to come in. I told the kids in a very serious voice that there was something important we needed to tell them and they needed to listen very close. Athena and Samantha had worried looks on their faces.

I turned the floor over to Jeremy and he had all 3 older kids close their eyes and keep them closed. He then put a Disneyland ticket into each of their hands and told them to open. It was funny because Athena, Samantha, and Nathan just sat there baffled for a minute, looking at what was in their hands. Jeremy asked, "What is it?" Athena read the ticket and said, "Disneyland?" We actually had to explain to them the value of what they were holding and that yes, they were going to go to Disneyland! I expected the kids to run around the room and jump for joy. Nope. The excitement came later as the realization hit that we were, in fact, taking them to Disneyland. :)

The rest of the night and for the 3 days after that I received question after question about what we were going to do, and when we were going to leave, and how many days are left. :) I'm glad we told them - it was a lot of fun for them to know. Thank goodness we did only tell them 3 days in advance, I don't think Jeremy and I could have endured many more questions!

When it was time, Jeremy and I were packing up everything and getting ready to go. As we were packing up the car, the kids went and sat in the car and got all buckled in. I had to tell them several times to get out of the car because it wasn't time yet. I took this picture as we got in the car to begin our journey. Wednesday afternoon we drove halfway and stayed in Las Vegas. Surprisingly, the trip went smoothly with the kids and we didn't have any complaining about having to sit for so long.