Arizona. Travel Commences.

When Grandma and Grandpa Faiola bought a time share to a lovely Marriot in Arizona, it seemed like a fantastic idea to join them to frolic in the sun, laugh and enjoy quality family time. The logistics of getting us all to Arizona were a little daunting for our family of four though.

 The first night, we stayed in Tukwila and for a $149 price, we were able to keep our car at the hotel for the entire week we were gone in Arizona. Plus, a pool!

The kiddos can't swim yet but with life jackets, they were excited about the hotel pool (!). They were so happy to jump into the water and paddle around. Of course, this meant that we had wet life jackets to pack in the suitcases the next day. This was less than smart planning on our part.

The kids have never been down an escalator!This was exciting and scary but they did it (!). Also, fun story: Jamisen and Grandpa Faiola were on two escalators, side by side. Grandpa Faiola said, "Let's race! Who do you think will win?" And Jamisen said, "These escalators are going down at the same rate. We will get there at the same time." He's four people. Four. The kid is clearly a genius.

The kiddos both got their own carry-ons that they can also ride on. They were so cute walking through the airport with their little tiger and ladybug. American Airlines (US Airways) didn't let us board at the same time as a family - nor did they let us board early - so that was stressful. I walked down the gangplank with Lily in my arms, while Jamisen screamed, "Noooooooo, Mommmmmmyyyyyyy don't goooooooooo." It was traumatizing for us all. And AA was uniquely not interested nor did they care about how sad the entire thing was for our family or the other people on the plane.

Lily didn't want to wear her shoes once we got off the plane. It was not worth arguing with her over so she wandered through the entire airport in her socks with her little suitcase. So cute (!). She's wearing a brand new outfit for her airport trip too.

Lily also got tired of walking and pulling her own suitcase so we pulled her along for a bit and then Grandpa Faiola took the joy on ... on his shoulders. He is the only one that carries the kids like this and they seem to enjoy pulling on his hair and their high vantage point.

Jamisen also tired of pulling his own suitcase so Daddy lent a helping hand. Isn't that photo so cute? Overall, the kids were fine on the airplane. We even got one compliment about how well behaved they were. We had snacks for them, books and then a downloaded movie on an iPad. Lily didn't have a very long attention span for the movie but Jamisen loved it so that helped. We fed them gummy worms to get them chewing on the ascent and descent and no ear problems plagued them. So while it was a bit of a logistical challenge to get us all on the same flight, the actual flights and airport times went just fine.