June 8th was the last day of school this year. Way back at the beginning of the school year, we thought that flying off on vacation after the final bell rang would be a triumph. Truly, a fitting way to end the year. Then I remembered my husband would be out of town for the week.

*screeeeech*

All things considered, I managed to accomplish my giant list of things to do before we left, despite spending hours and hours at the school, participating in field days and special events. I even squeezed in a jog that morning, before rushing home to figure out how to stuff enough belongings for five people into two small suitcases. (Hint: you can't.)

Feeling rather giddy, we finally loaded ourselves into the van and headed to the meet-up point with my parents and sister. After an uneventful trip to the airport, we did the auto check-in thing and waited to board our redeye flight.

I had all three kids dressed in flannel pajamas, which was super cute, if I do say so myself. I don't know what it is about air travel, but I can enter an airport looking gorgeous, and five minutes later, I look like a wet, mangey dog. Between my parents, my sister and myself, we managed to corral the kids and board the plane in a fairly peaceful manner. Big thanks go to Delta Airlines, for being family friendly - unlike United Airlines, who hates families.

I said we boarded fine. The whole figuring out where to sit business was a little more, uh, disorganized. We jostled and sat, only to check our tickets and stand and jostle some more. Finally, we determined what block of seats were ours, and collapsed in them. And then we noticed that my two oldest were sitting together. With no adult. Um, no.

This is why it is a Good Thing to preboard families. It took us ten minutes of hokey pokey just to sit in our assigned seats.

Anyway. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful. We arrived in Atlanta at 5 am, changed the kids into new outfits, and proceeded to the boarding gate for our second flight. Hello, little TVs on the back of each seat! Where have you been all my life? That one hour flight was super easy.

On arrival in Orlando, we gathered our mountain of baggage. I scolded my own mother for teaching my son to ride on the baggage belt, which shows you how little sleep I got on the flights. How many times have I contemplated that exact thing, and yet I was all uptight about it. Safety first and all that. Pshaw. Sorry, Mom! We lurched our way over to the rental car counters. Of the 700 rental agencies, we booked the one that you have to take a shuttle across town for. Rock!

We got the cars, and then sent my parents on their way to the house, while my sister and I kept the kids happy and waitied for my husband's flight to arrive. Everyone was a leeetle bit cranky at this point. Luckily, the hubs arrived a few short minutes later, and we were on our way.