After a brief nap time on Wednesday, March 1, we loaded into the van and headed North. Last year when we went on vacation, we made the mistake of telling Asher about it several weeks in advance and every day after (several times a day) he would ask us when we were going to go. This year when we purchased our tickets and hotel back in January we decided to wait until the vacation was much closer before we told Asher. As time went by, keeping the secret from him was kind of fun for us. We told Avery about it, but he really didn't know what we were talking about other than randomly asking "Fwoda?" to us every once in a while. For Asher though, the secret continued. He had been sad the last time we saw my parents and didn't want to leave so he and Eric made a countdown calendar to the next time he would see Grandma and Papa, but he didn't know what it was we would be doing and assumed it was either our waterpark weekend with his cousins or a trip up to their house.
We hadn't really planned to wait until the actual day of the vacation to tell Asher, but as it got closer we decided to give it a go. That day we headed North and planned to simply watch Asher's reaction as he noticed that we were entering the airport. What we hadn't anticipated though was for him to fall asleep, and just a few minutes before getting to Mitchel International Airport that is exactly what happened. Asher fell asleep and missed all of the planes so when we got to the airport he didn't recognize anything and was very confused as to where we were or what we were doing. We eventually had to tell him what we were doing and where we were going and in his confusion he looked at us and said, "Are we REALLY going to Florida?"
Video: Are We REALLY Going to Florida?
We told Asher that yes indeed we were going to Florida and when he asked when we said, "right now". We unloaded ourselves and our luggage from the van and then Asher, Avery & I headed into the airport with everything (which was a little tricky since I wasn't supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds) while Eric parked the car. Soon after Grandma and Papa (who were joining us for the trip) met us and then once Eric arrived we got checked in and headed to our gate to begin our adventure.
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| Asher and Avery couldn't wait to color in the new books we got them. I told them they had to save them for our adventure, but once we got to the airport they knew they'd saved them long enough. |
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| For the trip, Asher got a new back (a Michigan backpack Eric had got on clearance a while back at Meijer) and Avery was VERY excited to get Asher's old R2D2 (or in Avery's words: "boo-boo-ate") backpack!! He insisted on carrying it everywhere throughout the vacation, so I took advantage of the situation and filled it with diapers and wipes so that I didn't have to bring a diaper bag when we went out! :) |
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This guy is ready for sunshine!  ☀️ |
We made it through the gate quickly with no issues and soon after we were on our plane to Ft. Lauderdale airport. Asher decided he wanted to sit with Grandma and Papa, so Avery got some alone time with Mommy and Daddy.
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| Asher hanging out with Grandma & Papa K. |
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| Avery checking out the plane's reading materials. |
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| Me & my little man. |
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| Before we left the airport, our plane had to get de-iced. Avery was fascinated by the process and watched intently as the truck drove around with a guy in a bucket spraying a huge hose of water! |
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| Little man wasn't very happy that big brother got to play on the iPad instead of him, so Daddy let him watch Minions on his iPod. |
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| During our flight, we had to fly over some rough weather in the Tennessee area. The clouds there were dark and rolling strangely like a thick ominous fog. |
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| When we flew over Northern Georgia it was starting to get dark out. I could see the lights of buildings on the ground, but then saw something else that was strangely glowing red. As we got closer, I could tell it was some sort of large fire (like a forest fire?) along a ridge line with smoke billowing up from it. |
Video: Avery & the iPad
Eventually Avery did get a chance to play on the iPad and he happily put some puzzles together for quite a while. His favorite part: Popping the balloons at the end!
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale at around 7:30 local time, got our luggage, picked up the rental van, ate at the SLOWEST McDonalds on the face of this planet and then headed to our hotel for some rest before our adventure continued and Day 2 began. It was a long, tiring day but we looked forward to the fun ahead!
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