For our first flying road trip as a family of 4 we planned to fly our plane to Tucson for Easter weekend to see the Robertson family and Nene.  The itinerary was to stop for two nights in Santa Barbara on the way down, three nights in Tucson and then one night in Reno on the way home.

We left on April Fools Day, perhaps this is where we went wrong…  Our goal for the first day was to make it to Santa Barbara with a halfway stop in Redding; two longer legs of 3+ hours each.  After gathering a bit of ice on the wings, a first for all of us, and moving around weather we first stopped in Portland.  We had lunch and then headed to Redding for the next stop.

The scenery flying to Redding was beautiful with Mount Shasta and many other mountains and rivers.  We decided to call it a day here and regroup to figure out a plan for tomorrow.  The airport was very accommodating and friendly.  Cooper and Nicholas rode in their first golf cart with all of our luggage from the plane to the terminal.

I cannot recommend enough the Oxford Suites in Redding.  They had a two room hotel which included a separate seating area.  This was perfect for our family to give everyone their own room.  It also marked the first time Cooper slept in a “big boy bed.”  He slept in a king bed with pillows lining 3 sides of it.  He slept great even if we didn’t being a bit nervous that he might roll out.  This hotel included a fantastic free breakfast.  Nicholas could not get enough of the yogurt.

The next morning when the weather looked like we would be battling close to 6 hours of turbulence to get to Tucson we opted to turn around and head home instead.

All family adventures are fun in their own unique way, but I think we were all kind of done flying by the time we got back to Paine.  Hard to tell in this picture, but Nicholas was also upset on the flight home and fell asleep on me during this portion of the flight.  He hasn’t fallen asleep in my arms in a really long time, it was extra special to have these snuggles with him in the plane.

Firsts: Golf cart ride, Landing in Portland, Adding California to the kids’ list of states visited, Cooper sleeping in a big boy bed, Road trip as a family of 4