Well, we’ve officially left for our ’09 Family Vacation. It’s always been a dream for me to RV with the fam, so I started looking for one way deals months ago. We found a great deal that would take us from Las Vegas to Phoenix for a meager $24/day! Flying free with JetBlue makes for an even cheaper vacay, so we booked the trip and prayed for low loads.The kids have been clueless about the whole thing though we’ve been talking for a week about it. We left the house at about eight yesterday with three matching little girls and a full tank of ‘get me out of here.’ Luggage got checked and we made our way to the gate. First trip was to JFK and we were golden. We rode in Row 25, adjusted our headphones and prayed for friendly skies. The girls each had a backpack with flying essentials like FLURP (noise putty), foam letter puzzles, dry erase alphabet cards, and rubber worms. They were stoked.
We arrived in New York at the new JetBlue terminal at JFK and promptly headed to drop of our bags at the JB bag room. That was awesome. We had Chinese food and I made myself a 1.3 pound salad that cost $12. It was awesome. The girls were happy to be up and around. We had a two hour and forty two minute layover in New York that I was dreading, but it really wasn’t too bad. I religiously distributed Purell all day and had antibacterial wipes poised and ready. I really need to invent a holster for hand sanitizer….
When we landed in NY we realized that we were the top five on the StandBy list. High five on that one, babe. Like one of Alex’s friends said, people must cringe when they see the Keefes on the standby list. ;) So after a little bit of anxious waiting, being sure that no one decided to take their Church Youth Group for a quick trip to Vegas, we were on. The girls were awesome at the airport….they figured out how to make a playground out of gate 1. We did some pre-flight calisthenics that I really wish were on video because we had them jumping and running, bending and hopping and just absolutely trying to wear them out before we got on a five hour flight. It was funny.
My prayer that morning as I cried great big grateful tears was that Alex and I would be able to get thru the day with sweet words for each other and that our patience for our kids would be unlimited was being answered. We were halfway there and Alex and I were still laughing and making fun of each other and really enjoying the first part of this vacation.
And then we boarded the plane to Vegas. Just kidding. We had explained to the kids that this flight would included a complimentary nap. Everyone would be napping….it was mandatory. They didn’t believe me. The flight itself wasn’t bad….the thirteen..yes…thirteen trips to the potty was interesting. We also realized about 10 minutes into our five hour and 27 minute trip to Nevada that DirecTV was not working. We were not adjusting headphones. We were surviving. It was naptime. We were tired. Our children were exhausted. So we just told them it was time to close their eyes and go night-night. Edie listened and promptly fell asleep on her Daddy’s chest. Soph passed out on my lap and Char was the last to give up the ghost. I found myself doing the headbob like I was listening to the newest T-Pain album. Anyway, I think the kids got a pretty good nap and by the time they awakened, there was only about an hour and a half left in the flight. And miraculously DirecTV was working and Ice Age 3 was up and running.
We landed in Vegas and the girls were pumped. We hopped on the tram then found our luggage. Then we hopped on the hotel shuttle and took a ONE HOUR bus ride to Treasure Island. Yes, it is like five miles from the hotel, but traffic was crazy and we dropped a bunch of people at different hotels before we got to TI. Check in took another forty five minutes. I stayed outside with the girls and watched all the beautiful people headed out for a night on the town. Charley pointed out all the shoes she liked and Sophie looked for anything possible to climb on. Edie had to pee, so I maneuvered the beast (our Graco double stroller) with our kids and luggage to the nearest potty. This is where the day got too long. I kept looking for my easy button. Three girls, one beast, our carry-ons and a giant belly does not make for an easy anything. So after Edie peed all over herself , and both cell batteries died, I gathered the children and my sanity once again and we finally found Dad. Boy, was I happy to see him. We made it to our room, I had my lack of food and sleep meltdown, then we happily headed down to the Buffet. It was 10:30pm. All you can eat Crab legs, prime rib, sushi, hummus, grapeleaves, salad, mac n cheese later, Daddy took Soph to the dessert bar. And came back with dessert….in each hand, he held two beautiful billowing pillows of cotton candy. 
When Charley saw him coming, she lost it. She squealed and hopped and crooned over that cotton candy. If I’d had that video…it would have gone viral. It was so worth the insane amount of money we paid for the buffets. We had cotton candy and our weight in chocolate covered strawberries and headed back up to the room for bed. It was the end of day one and the beginning of what is to come! Stay tuned!
