The Big Trips

Chapter 1 (part 1 - The Bahamas) : A Trip?

             I'm Katie, I am telling this story. I am Elaine's older sister and the KKK stands for kids, kids, kids. I have six more siblings, their names are Elaine, Graham, Andrea, Carson, and Sophie. My mom and dad's names are Arden and Phillip Braily. I am almost in college and when I am, I will go to Auburn University in Alabama. Andrea is in college at Belmont University in Tennessee, so she is not home very often, but it is SUMMER! Graham is in going into tenth grade and Elaine is going into in seventh grade, Carson is going into third grade, and Sophie is going into kindergarten. Mom is having another set of twins! We don't know what the babies gender are going to be yet.
            Enough about my family, lets move on to the part you want to hear. It was a normal summer day, which means we were doing absolutely nothing besides sitting around. Graham was playing X-Box while Carson was yelling at him because he wouldn't let him play, and then mom yelled at us to come downstairs, so we all looked at each other awkwardly and went downstairs. Mom and dad were standing at the table with so many things on the table you couldn't even see the surface of the table! We gathered around the table and were so confused. Elaine asked "What is all this stuff?" As she picked up the map that was laying on top. "The Bahamas?" Andrea said looking at the plane tickets. "Five hours of a plane ride? Ughhhhh!" Said Carson. "Nice job Carson!" Mom said as she high fived him. Carson just learned how to read.                
          "Kids, it is time we take a family trip, when the twins come, we will not go on very many trips..." Dad began to say. "We have decided to take a trip to the Bahamas!" Mom jumped in. "Yay!!" Andrea doesn't get to go on most of the family trips because she is away at college. "We will leave tomorrow at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, so that means to go pack right now." When mom says that, she means it. After everyone had packed it was time for the bag check. What a Lindsey bag check is, mom has a checklist, we line our bags up, and she checks our bags. We each receive a checklist and whatever is checked off we need to get, whatever is not checked off is the stuff we already have. It's really a good process.
             Oh! I completely forgot to tell you ALL the information you need to know about our environment. We live in Florida, the Florida Keys actually. So Andrea lives really far from us, but the Bahamas are close. It's the first day of summer and we are leaving to go to the Bahamas! It's amazing because we have a big family so we don't take a lot of trips. Especially when the twins come along we will hardly ever take trips that cost a lot. Elaine goes to Southern Keys Middle School, also known as SKMS. Graham goes to SKHS, and so do I. Carson goes to SKE and so does Sophie.
                                            The Next Day...
           Finally, morning couldn't have come any faster. "Wake up everyone!" Mom yelled from the bottom of the staircase. We all got up in a hurry and got in the car as soon as we had breakfast. It was currently 6:00 in the morning and somehow we were all awake and ready to leave as soon as possible. In the car, which was defiantly packed full, I looked around and everyone was doing what they normally do on a car ride to a 30 minute away place. Elaine, graham, and Andrea were all listening to music. Carson and Sophie were drawing in the Trip Binder my mom made us a while ago. By the time we got there, it was 6:45 and we had to check in our bags. We had gone through security before the whining started. "Mommy I'm hungry, and i want to sit down." Carson complained. "Me too mommy, can you carry me daddy. Please, pretty please?" Sophie asked.
         "Carson, we ate breakfast an hour ago. Wait until we get on the airplane and then we can get something." Mom said, acting like she was patient. "Ok." Carson and Sophie said at the same time. It was about an hour delay until we finally got on the airplane. First we had to go up to Tampa and then we went straight to the Bahamas. It was 1:00 by the time we were on the plane to the Bahamas, and it was really boring, except Elaine looked like she was having fun. She met a girl named Tessa. It everyone called her Tess. They ended up switching spots with me so they could sit together. They talked about what they were going to do on the Bahamas trip, and of course one of the days matched up. This was the plane ride from Tampa to the Bahamas so it's four and a half hours and we already flew thirty minutes from our airport Tampa airport. It was four hours of listening to them talk about everything. Tess is from Tampa Florida, so we live far away from her. Which made it worse because now we will have to go to Tampa to visit Tess at least once a year. That will be fun.
                         Elaine's  P.O.V...
I was having so much fun with Tess on the plane flight that I didn't even realize two hours had already passed. We have already tried to convince our parents to move closer to each other even though that is never going to happen. Only two and a half hours until we get to the Bahamas. Tess has told me everything about her, I am so happy that we are both going to stay in the same hotel. She just made this Bahamas trip more fun then I thought it was going to be.
                     Back to Katie's P.O.V...
          We finally arrived at the Bahamas International Airport! It is so pretty here, and best of all, I don't have to listen to Elaine describe her life to Tess. "Ok everyone, let's go get our rental car. It is a mini van just like we have at home, but a little bigger." We had to walk to the monorail to get to the other side of the airport just to get a rental car, which took about forty five minutes. Then we had to get the rental car, which when having to wrangle six kids, takes a while, so we were there for about thirty minutes.
              When we were finally on the way to our hotel, everyone, including me, was complaining about being hungry. We haven't had anything to eat since 1:00 and it's 6:30. So we stopped at Bahama Breeze restaurant and ate outside, while listening to the band, it was really good! Me, mom, dad, Andrea, and graham had coconut shrimp. Elaine, Carson, and Sophie had Jerk chicken pasta. After ate, it was thirty minutes to our hotel. When we got there, we were mesmerized! There was free breakfast, indoor and outdoor hot tub and pools, a spa, a game room, and the beach was right outside.
            We got in our room and mom told us the weeks schedule. "Tomorrow we will just relax and do whatever you want to do." She told us. "I want to go to the beach." I said. "Ok I'll go with you to the beach Katie." Dad agreed. "Elaine and I will go to the spa." Andrea told mom, knowing Elaine would have chose that anyway. "Yo yo yo! Me and graham be up in that game room peace." Carson said trying to act cool. "Never. Ever. Ever say that again Carson. Please, but ok I will go with Carson to the game room." Graham replied. "Mommy I want to go to the pool!" Begged Sophie. She just learned how to swim and wants to swim all the time. "Alright, but you have to wear your floaty's because mommy has three people to carry in the pool and she IS NOT doing that." Said mom, kind of aggravated.
            Our hotel is called Private Inn, and I see why. "We are on floor five room number three hundred and two." Dad told us. "Can I unlock our room?" Carson yelled. "Aw man. I wanted to do that." Grumbled Sophie. I remember when Andrea, graham, and I would always fight over opening the door. Carson ran to the room we were on and unlocked it. "Wow! This is amazing!" I heard everyone say at different times. It was amazing. There was a large kitchen, four king sized beds, two couches, a dinning table, two TVs, and one large bathroom!