Happy Trails...

For the third day straight, Trevor and Tatum have slept past 9:00am. That's proof of a good vacation folks. Yes, I'm sure the time change has something to do with it... but even in the Pacific Time Zone, sleeping 13 hours at night is a sweet, sweet thing.

I decided it was time to document some of our adventures on the blog. But, as I sat down to sort through pictures, the task became a bit overwhelming, so... I've decided to take it a step and a time. Our vacation could have started and ended right here:

For weeks leading up to our trip, we'd been telling Trevor all about our approaching "Airplane Ad-ben-ture." The whole thing was pretty sketchy in his mind until we began navigating DFW. He was absolutely over-the-moon about the planes, and happily told everyone we saw that we were headed on an "airplane adbenture."

Travelling with toddlers? It ain't for the faint at heart, let me tell ya. As a mommy of two very mobile, (and curiously hard of hearing) toddlers, "containment" is one of my chief philosophies. Buckling my children into our trusty double stroller is one of my most favorite things. With it, comes a kind of peace of mind that is just plain impossible to achieve while either one of them is under foot. With my Zooper, I can do anything. I can go anywhere. It's freedom, it's sanity.

The Zooper doesn't do airplanes.

Solution? Acceptance. I accepted the fact that either one or both of my children would become lost during our travels. So, I tagged them right along with our luggage:

On the back of the tag, was our flight number, phone number, and emergency contacts in Texas and California. I had looked online for a cuter, more discreet solution and found these cool Kid's ID bands. Problem was, they were only available online, and we were leaving in two days. Trevor's version was fashioned from a "self-laminating luggage tag" from Target, and our trusty home computer.

Getting on the plane and in our seats about did us in. Once we gate-checked the umbrella stroller, Trevor and Tatum ran down the aisle of the plane ahead of me, and I gave chase, leaving Nathan to handle the carseats. The carseats required him to lift them over the heads of the first class passengers and carry them down the aisle. Did I mention each one took both hands? Did I mention he had TWO of them? With a log-jam of passengers building behind him, a kind soul offered to help.

Mr. Row 1, business traveller... I salute you. Thank you for doing a job that wasn't yours. Thank you for inconveniencing yourself when the flight attendants looked at us dumb-founded. You are a jewel.

Once the carseats were in and the kids were "contained," the flight was heavenly. Both kids were wonderful. As we stood in Burbank awaiting our luggage, we received the crown jewel of comments from more than one passenger: "Wow! They were so good! I didn't even know there were kids on the plane!" Awesome.

More to come...