We left for vacation yesterday, leaving the house around 3:30pm. I spend the entire day doing laundry, cleaning, and packing us all up, and we all know how I feel about cleaning and laundry (bad). But! Vacation!

It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport, which is just about perfect, and the kids all napped in the car, which is also just about perfect. We got our luggage checked and through security in mere minutes.

Our first flight to Atlanta was delayed about 20 minutes. Storms across the south were delaying lots of flights, and twenty minutes isn’t so bad. We were able to be picky about what to eat for dinner and had plenty of time to eat it.

On the flight, Grant and I were sitting next to a nice lady with her little tiny dog, Frankie. Frankie was nervous but really loved Grant. Grant was a perfect seatmate, he asked some questions, was very polite about looking out the window over the lady, and gave Frankie gentle pets. The woman told me, “I’ve never met a kid his age who is so loving and kind!” She was really astounded and touched. Apparently, Frankie doesn’t love kids.

We got into Atlanta around 10pm. None of the kids had slept on the plane, and the cracks were showing. Henry and Eleanor both veered towards whiny, and Grant dialed up the energy. Our flight to Orlando was delayed, with no ETA. Originally, we would have gotten into Orlando around midnight.

Grant got further and further into orbit. He climbed on Bob, he threw Stitch everywhere. He crawled under all the seats. He tried to befriend a cleaning person (who was having NONE OF IT). He picked fights with Henry (who picked fights right back). And I thought, “I will sit next to him on the plane, because he will sleep the whole way.”

We sat on the tarmac for a few hours, and Grant did not sleep.

We finally blasted off (as Grant calls it), and Grant did not sleep.

Grant watched the Paw Patrol movie, and Grant did not sleep.

The clock ticked to 2:00am, and reader, Grant finally fell asleep.

Then it went in the usual way. The plane landed, we forgot Grant’s bag on the plane train (Bob got it this morning when he went back for the car), and we got to our hotel room at a humid 4 in the morning. They did not provide linens, so almost sobbing with tiredness, I went back to the lobby and asked for sheets and blankets. The woman helped me and then said, “baby, get some sleep,” and I said, “yes ma’am,” and did that very thing.