Am I Crazy? Vacation Planning

I don't see the problem with flying with these kids. You can check in from your phone. You drop off baggage, which takes only a few minutes. Your kids are big. You are not carrying any of them and you're well out of the stroller age. What is the big deal? They stand on their own feet.
Baggage does not always 'get lost'.
After dropping off your bags you spend some time at the airport, comfortably fly over and be on your merry way.

If you don't like to fly, that's one thing, but now you're just creating problems that are not there

I think he and the kids will have a fantastic time!  Ask him to send you a postcard.  

At this point you not going will be the vacation lol!  

I agree 100%...especially to Vegas.

I feel particularly qualified to respond to this post. I have four kids, we celebrated our 20th three days ago (and I just booked our getaway), and I grew up in Vegas.

HELL NO.

For real. Dry heat may be slightly better than humid heat, but it’s still effing hot. Vegas isn’t super kid-friendly. Take the extra thousand you’re paying for airfare, plus the extra hundreds you’d be paying to do shows for 6 at Vegas prices, and use it to pay for a sitter and splurge on yourselves.

You’ve been married for twenty years. That’s an accomplishment. You’re raising four kids. That’s difficult. Take some time to celebrate your relationship, ALONE.

What you're describing is not a vacation. It's simply mom-ing in a different location. I have 3 kids and when I have to take them somewhere and manage them and cook for them and clean up after them, that's exactly what it is--it's a work trip. NOT a vacation.

To me, driving is more stressful. I like to get where I am going and enjoy as much time there as possible. I hate sitting in the car and staring at the road for hours on end.

We live where we have no family, and the 2 times that we left our son with family they fed him ice cream. He was only 2 and 4 months old.

candleangie ....her kids might be interested in watching yours.

Aww heck no! There would be no cooking on a vacation or I'll just stay home. And for 6 people?! Nope!
It's not just cooking, it's planning the meals, locating a grocery and buying and hauling all of it to wherever you're staying, prepping the food, cooking, then cleaning up and putting everything away. That's just doing your everyday life in a different location.

Also, I have been to Vegas in June and it was FUCKING HOT. Dry heat does not matter when it's over 100 degrees.

I guess that would depend on your airport.  I can leave my house 75 minutes before my flight, get luggage through, get through TSA and wait 45 minutes for my flight.  The flight is about 90 minutes and getting my luggage in Vegas is always quick.  It takes longer to walk to the luggage carousel.  Uber has me at my hotel in 12-15 minutes.  I've been to Vegas close to 20 times and find the easiest vacation getaway.  We often find $99 flights there too.  I guess it all depends on where you live and what you find fun.  A car ride with four kids (10 hours x 2) sounds horrible.  As a kid, we always had to take trips in the car and I hated them.

This is us. It isn’t that we don’t trust anyone, it’s that the family we have close to us logistically aren’t good options (alcoholics or otherwise unstable) and we don’t want to impose on our friends, most of whom are considerably older than we are. Some of our friends are old enough to have kids close to our age (as in late 40’s-early 50’s), some have health issues that would make it difficult, etc. We just don’t feel right asking, so we don’t. And they never offer either.

I am another that was the go-to babysitter when my older siblings had all their kids, but by the time I had my kid they were decades past all that and couldn’t be bothered. The only one of my siblings that would even be willing is the one who lives five states away, so yeah. That’s not happening.

DH and I have spent nights away with friends separately over the years, but we have never spent a night away together without our kid since she was born. It is what it is, we had her later in life and knew this was what we would be in for going in and it’s totally okay. We had 25 years alone together before she came along when we were young, so I think we ended up with the better deal overall.

It really depends on where you are going and where you’re flying out of. For us, we’re flying out of MSP and the lines for TSA are always awful. DH refuses to fly on Sun Country ever again which means American or Delta, which equals $$$. Going from here to just about anywhere is going to be at least 2-3 hours minimum flying time not including any time changes. And NOTHING is cheap either! I think we paid something close to $1300 for the three of us to fly round trip from here to Orlando (on nonstop flights). Yes, I know it can be cheaper taking one with a layover but DH is just not going to do that. It’s the seventh level of hell for him even being in a plane at all, but having to transfer from one to another puts him right over the edge.

LOL, once when his grandpa was sick he flew with his mom from MSP to Chicago O’Hare and between the wait times, the flight and an unexpected delay it took over eight hours. He was so ticked off and I remember him saying to his mom afterward, “Next time just let me drive. We would have gotten there two hours faster!” Sadly, he was right. From here to Chicago it’s about a 90 minute flight. That took ALL DAY. 

So I get that you are stressing about it, but I think you are overthinking it.  

Granted we have only been a family of 6 for just under a year.  But in that time we have flown to Disneyland (from SFO) twice, to Boston, to Cabo, and to Denver. 

We tend to fly 4-6 times easily a year. I think the last time we had a luggage issue was 10+ years ago. 

With kids the ages of yours the older two should easily be able to pack for themselves. Even at a week trip everyone should be able to pack everything they need in a carry on suitcase + backpack. 

Honestly, the idea of driving 10 hours with 4 kids is way more stressful than flying to me!

Damn, I hate DIA.  No, the Colorado Springs airport has 11 little gates and I fly out of there whenever possible.  It is about 12 minutes from my house.  Sometimes I end up going through Chicago or somewhere in Texas, but I get out much faster than driving 90+ minutes, parking, and going through TSA purgatory.  I think we are headed to Grand Cayman this summer out of DIA, but it is a direct flight and worth it.