Family Reunion = Craziness

Almost a month ago now my parents had a family reunion for our side of the family.  This was planned a while ago to coincide with Brianna's wedding.  Brianna was getting married in San Diego so we were going to take advantage and have fun in southern California.  We started off the trip with a nice plane ride.  (This trip will come in segments because it takes too long to do everything at once.)

 We were on Southwest so each time was a race to try and sit all together.  With 15 people that can be a bit tricky.  We also had 9 kids and 6 adults so that was kinda fun.  I only took pictures on one flight.  All of the kids did pretty well on each flight - 2 there and 2 back.  With iPads and other electronic devices and some non-electronic entertainment we were able to keep them busy.  Everyone was pretty excited at this point.

 It was even a first flight for Ian-in the red shirt.  He giggled for almost the entire take-off.

My mom, Hailee and Emma were in front of me so I couldn't quite get a picture of them.  I know my mom did so it is documented somewhere.

And this is a picture of our wonderful luggage.  With car seats I checked 7 pieces on the way out and 8 on the way back.  I love that Southwest has free checked baggage.  Alisha and Chad and my parents were similar.   Packing for 11 days with kids is tough for sure.  We originally rented vans because we knew this would happen.  Then we found out we could get a $450 savings if we just did a big car, so we switched.  Well, Todd, Alisha, and my Dad were able to sweet talk the agents into giving us vans for $5 extra per day.  So we paid $238 for 11 days with a van.  That was our pretty sweet deal for the week!!  I'm so glad we did because I don't know how we would have fit everything without the vans.  We had such a fun time.  Look for more pictures to come.