New Baby and First Flights

Due to the birth of sweet baby Avery, Skye and Ryan were unable to attend the Cunningham 2nd Biennial Family Reunion held at Jesse and Kelly's in Blackfoot, ID. Skye really wanted Reagan and Annabelle to attend the reunion, so I flew out to Virginia to get the girls and fly back with them.

On Tuesday July 24th I got up just after 3:00 a.m. and made it to the Salt Lake City Airport just after 4:00 a.m. I flew to Richmond, VA where I picked up my rental car and drove over to Buena Vista to stay with Skye, Ryan and family. The first order of business was to paint and put together the girl's Pinewood Derby Cars.

Well, that and get to know my new granddaughter, little Avery.

What a sweet little doll this girl is!

Wednesday we left early and met Ryan at work for an early lunch, then I took a very excited Reagan and Annabelle to the airport for their first flight. 

(In all honesty, Reagan has flown before but she was just an infant, so she wouldn't remember.)

Everything about the airport excited these two little munchkins...

We did have about 4 hours to wait, so we filled the time as best we could.

A very kind flight attendant made sure Reagan and Annabelle both had window seats. We were in the first row just behind first class. The girl's excitement was contagious...

The stewardess brought them each a pair of Jr. Wings...

And Miss Reagan was was intrigued with the safety guide and making sure she knew where everything was. 

When she had a question she would very politely say "Excuse me"... to the lady sitting in her row and ask her what she wanted to know. The very nice lady answered her and would smile and say how fun it was to see their excitement.

As the plane started to taxi to the runway Reagan exclaimed loudly "Hey... look out the window everyone!!" I heard the passengers in first class and right behind us chuckle a little. 

When the plane built up speed for take off Annabelle shouted with a smile "Fasten your seatbelts everybody!" and more chuckles followed. 

 "Look Reagan," she called to her sister a minute later, "We're up in the air!" as Reagan let out an excited squeal! 

Our first flight was a short one from Richmond to Atlanta and the girls stared out the windows at the clouds and the tiny buildings on the ground, etc. for most of the flight.

Reagan wondering aloud how wonderful it would be to sit on the clouds. 

That is... Until the snacks arrived..

As we disembarked the first flight Reagan looked into the cockpit and commented on all the buttons. The Pilot and Co-Pilot invited the girls to step into the cockpit and look around. I think it was the highlight of their trip. I just wish I'd had my camera/phone in my hands so I could have taken their picture.

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Our second flight was on a larger airplane and the girls were quite excited that they each had their own video screen. 

It was a late flight and after a snack they fell asleep for most of the flight. We arrived in Salt Lake just after midnight and these girls were troopers as we made our way to my van and then to Hillary and Jake's to spend the night.