Australia Trip Travel Log: Day 1 - A Day Of Firsts

 Today is the day!!! We started off from Cokeville, bright and early (and drove through a small snowstorm along the way). 

 We headed to Evanston to pick up my older two (plus Celeste), and headed in two different directions.  Chris and Terra went to Ogden to drop off her truck to the pet-sitters (my kiddos have amazing cousins) and my mom and I caravan'd down to my sister's house so we could visit more cousins and hitch a ride up to the airport. It's always a good time with our crew! We were in stitches the whole way.  We stopped off at Chick-Fil-A for lunch before finishing the trek to SLC (we miss CFA since moving away from Colorado).

Once we arrived at SLC, we discovered our check-in kiosk was closed. So was the desk.  Odd, especially for this time of year, but hey, we all need a break sometimes, right?!  We claimed a corner and waited. 

Good things come to those who wait - Santa stopped by and gave us candy canes for our voyage!  Such a jolly fellow (also very sneaky, we kept trying to get photos, but he snuck away each time - it's like he wants to stay secretive or something LOL).

Once the kiosks opened up, we jumped in line and got our bags checked, and then off to security.  We make quite the line by ourselves, let alone all the other holiday travelers HA!

Security was busy but fun - we have a few first time flyers with us, so the agents they interacted with were very fun to talk to and laugh with.  We made it through security and off to our gate to watch the planes and hustle and bustle of the tarmac. We also watched our phones.  What can I say?  Pokemon Go was happenin'!

Boarding the plane was an adventure by itself.  The littles were worried at one point if the jetway would fall with so many people walking on it ("it moves, are you sure it won't fall?"). Many reassurances later, and we were boarded and off to Honolulu (via Seattle) - another first for most of us (we've never been to the islands before). My amazing sister reserved a hotel for us so we wouldn't have to sleep outside the airport overnight.  In the morning, we board a plane for Australia and my Aussie Sister is going to get smothered in hugs from all of us!

Things we've learned today:

* Sunsets from a plane are AMAZING (first time flyers were in awe)

* Meals on a plane are not necessarily conducive to allergies

* Traveling with this many people can be eventful and fun all at the same time

* Hawaii smells amazing on the breeze!

* Clouds sometimes look like icebergs when flying at night (kids creativity is so fun)