Traveling with Kids - Getting to Where You're Going

***Cross posted from my personal blog.***

Don't believe what the travel time says on your tickets... not when you're traveling with 2 kids, especially 2 under 2!  Our tickets may have said it was only a 2.5 hour flight but it was an almost 14 hour trip for us.  We left our house around 9:30am and we got to Gabby's (my MIL's) house around 11pm.  That is one full day of traveling!  Sheesh.

We decided on the way to the airport that the hubs would drop me off at "curbside" with

1. the kids
2. the kids diaper bag
3. the kids food bag... well, K's food bag
4. the kids toy bag
5. the stroller
6. the kids suitcase

Then, I would:

1. check that bag
2. go through security by myself with the kids
3. feed T and
4. wait at the gate for hubs

While hubs

1. parked the car
2. uninstalled the car seat base
3. rode the bus with the car seat, base, and our suitcase

So he could:

1. Check our bag
2. go through security by himself 
3. meet us at the gate with the car seat

Doesn't sound very fair does it?  But, it actually worked pretty well.  K sat patiently in her stroller, I wore T in my carrier, and all the bags fit on the stroller with K.  Security made me take everything out and put it on the conveyor belt, including mine and K's shoes, the carrier, and the stroller, which means I had to walk with K and carry T through the x-ray machine.  Thank goodness they hadn't yet installed the super crazy x-ray machines they've been talking about in the news.  Because of all this I made some poor TSA schmuck open up the stroller and another one hold T while I put the carrier back on.  The rest was a breeze... K sat in the stroller and looked around the airport while T ate and had a diaper change.  And, conveniently enough, dad met us at the gate about 5 minutes before we boarded.  We boarded first, gate checked the car seat, base, and stroller, and were able to get situated in our full row of seats since we bought K's ticket without any trouble.

K really enjoyed looking at the other plane next to us and reading the Airplane book I borrowed from the library.  I think I read it 10 times while we waited, taxied, and took off... then she was over it an onto a Dora book. 

Everyone's always worried about the kids ears during take off and landing so every few minutes I asked K to take a sip of her water... or was it juice... I have no idea.  And guess what.  She complied!  Surprise!  And no complaints about the ears.  T took his pacifier and slept so he was good.  Stupid pilot woke him up talking about some dumb mountain range or desert or something but at least he wasn't cranky.  Both kids did so well on the plane.  Luckily we had a portable DVD player and some Dora dvds that kept K entertained... and T's still easy to fly with without any fanfare and even took a couple naps, though none of them very long.  Notice there's no mention of a nap for K.  Nope - she was too excited to nap.

Once we landed we met up with Nana (my mother) and waited a thousand years for our luggage.  Good thing Nana likes to walk because K walked her around that conveyor belt many times! 

When we finally got to Nana's house we had some pizza, watched some TV, and played with some Dora dominoes and puzzles for a couple hours to give K some non travel time for the day.  We then got them in their pjs and loaded them in the car around 9pm for the trip to Rita's.  9pm?  Yep, because that was really 7pm CA time - about the time K goes down if she doesn't nap and about the time T goes down every night.  They both slept the whole way, though K did wake up a couple times but I crawled into the backseat and all was well.

When we got to Gabby's we put K in Gabby's bed and T in a borrowed pack n play.  All was good until 3am when K woke up with Gabby in bed with her and flipped out.  Apparently you should tell a kid when someone will be in the bed with them.  :-)  T woke up a lot that night too - it was definitely a restless evening.  But all was good the next morning and we were able to start our fun filled 2 week trip! 

Moral of the story - being prepared for a flight/trip with 2 kids takes a lot of bags, a lot of time, and a lot of patience.  But it doesn't have to be a painful experience.  Go with the flow and you'll get there.