Colorado

I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting my review of flying with two parents and two babies without any help from a third (or fourth or fifth) adult. Well here it is: It’s awful. In fact, we had my parents and sister to help us through security and to our gate because their flight was after ours, and it still sucked.

Getting through security was annoying, but made easier by all the help we had. But with two car seats, a stroller, four bottles of formula above 3.4 oz, and 4 pureed fruit/veggie packs also above 3.4 oz, plus a seriously active wandering toddler, it was still not ideal. And by the way, we were traveling from Vail/Eagle, which is generally pretty empty and there were like a total of 3 people on the security line.

But we made it through, and then grandma and aunt Rissi watched the planes take off and land with babies while we prepared for boarding.

Since this was the first time we flew alone with our kids, our previous plan of keeping Landen off the plane so he could run around as long as possible was no longer an option. In the past, Eric boarded the plane with a bag or two and Landen’s carseat to install the seat before we got on, and I boarded last so we could just take our seats and have less time strapped down. But in these situations, I had help from my sister or parents to carry bags or get one kid on the plane while I had the the other, or whatever. This time, we all boarded together during family boarding with our cargo of:

One 2 year old, who is refusing to be put down

One 10 month old

One stroller

One infant car seat

One convertible car seat

Three backpacks

One miscellaneous bag of lunch, snacks, and jackets

And anyone who’s ever been to Vail knows that the only way to board planes here is by walking out onto the runway – there are no indoor gates.

We got on the plane on time and everything went pretty smoothly, other than Landen trying to climb from row to row over the seats while Eric was installing his and Joey’s seats.

We had three across plus the one across the aisle, and we planned on asking the person in front to switch aisle’s with Eric so Landen would be kicking Eric the entire flight instead of a stranger, but said stranger was sitting in a row with his pregnant wife and four year old and 1.5 year old on his lap, so switching was not an option. So we spent a good amount of time holding Landen’s feet and trying to reason with our two year old about kicking strangers seats. He thought it was a game. Cool.

And then Joey’s nap time approached. Joey does not nap in her car seat. She’s pretty much the only baby ever who will not fall asleep in a moving vehicle. So she started screaming. And screaming and screaming and screaming. She was so tired. We tried feeding her in the hopes it would knock her out – it did not. It calmed her for a few minutes and then back to screaming. Eric was holding her and trying to calm her while I had Landen, who refused to leave my lap. We tried to switch, and have Landen on Eric’s lap so I could try to rock Joey to sleep, and then Landen joined in the fun. At this point, everyone on the entire plane knew that Landen wanted mommy. Oh by the way, this was all going down at the exact moment that turbulence began and the seatbelt sign was turned on and we couldn’t really get up to walk Joey around (we did anyway eventually).

Finally, Joey fell asleep and Landen settled back into my lap and everything was fine for like 20 min. Then Joey woke up prematurely and we started to descend and her ears started hurting. So, more screaming right up until landing. And everyone still wants mommy. Even after we landed, Joey would not calm down until she had mommy, and there was no way Landen was giving up my lap space.

But guys, we made it. And we’re going to do it again. Because even though the flight was terrible, everything else was great. And a few stressful hours on a plan are totally worth it for these pictures (and obviously the moments experienced in the pictures).

By the way, before I had my own blog I made a few guest appearances on Marissa’s. For a detailed account of our trip to Colorado for Eric’s 30th, check out these posts.

Colorado 1

Colorado 2

Colorado 3