Traveling With Kids

Since I have travelled on an airplane with children TWICE now, I am not an expert.  Actually three times, but the first time was when Paul was only 2 months old, so that probably doesn't count. However, I have learned a few things that have helped us.  

#1) Bring a stroller for the little guy.  Paul is fine walking, prefers to walk, and it wears him out.  Win, win.  Charlie would also prefer to walk (or run) to keep up with Paul.  However, the kid is slow.  And the Denver airport is huge so it is a lot easier to just plop him in the umbrella stroller, take it all the way to the gate and then pick it up when you get off the plane!  We never used it once when we were in California but it was nice to have as an option. 

#2) Drink Beer.  Before you get on a flight with children you might feel nervous.  What if they scream?  Or fight?  Or won't sit still?  What if they lick the floor and get Ebola?  Beer will help simmer down these fears.  

#3) Pray for sleep.  No matter what time the flight is or what good intentions you have about scheduling around naptime, this is a hit or miss situation.  It is better to just pray or cross your fingers or bargain to give your left arm if your baby will just sleep for one hour of the flight. 

#4) Bring Toys.  Paul is in school now so is all about a backpack.  We let him fill his pack up with the toys of this choosing and he could entertain himself on the plane.  This is also nice because if the older one is preoccupied then you have two hands to deal with the younger one or drink another beer on the plane.  

#5) Technology is the shit.  We let Paul pick a movie, put it on the ipad and got ourselves some earphones.  DONE.  My friend mentioned this summer that the earphones are key because the plane gets really loud and they can't hear the beloved Disney movie and then everyone is pissed.  The earphones help with this scenario.  

#6) Food, food and more food.  This is especially true with child #2.  His attention span is a whopping 1-3 minutes.  So you have to be ready.  I brought suckers, cookies, crackers, bananas, applesauce, and more.  I would bring an entire apple pie if I thought it would help.  The sucker kept him occupied for about 6 minutes.  That was huge. 

There you are!  My very informative list about travelling with children.  Any tips you would like to share?

Fall Break California Style Part One

I am not sure Ryan and I travelled anywhere for fall break?  Usually we are at home doing lots of projects or a whole bunch of nothing, which is always nice and important.  But this year my mom found some really cheap tickets to Santa Barbara, CA (where her and my dad grew up and where plenty of my extended family lives) and we decided to do a very small trip over break.  We only travelled Saturday to Monday but it was so nice to get out of dodge and play at the beach with my favorite little dudes!  

Our flight didn't leave until Saturday afternoon so I went to yoga and we had plenty of time to pack, write the instructions for the dog sitter and get ready!  

Paul insisted on bringing his hat.  This is the only time he wore it. #ofcourse

We arrived just a touch early, so Ryan and I indulged in some red beer (it's healthy because it involved tomato juice, yes?) 

The kids were excited to be at the airport and were being super cute: 

Luckily the plane ride was uneventful.  Charlie fell asleep.  Paul looked out the window, played with his cars, and watched a show on the ipad.  

We arrived and were only a few minutes away from our hotel. The boys ran around like crazy people and checked everything out.  

We then had a dinner with all our aunts/uncles/cousins and grandparents that were in town.  It was crazy and loud but fun to see people we haven't seen in awhile.  I realized I had not been to Santa Barabra since Paul was 2 months old.  He is now 4 1/2.  Oops.  

All the grandkids and great grandkids that were in town!

I love how Paul is looking at Grandma Zena! 

We came back to the hotel and had some more wine with Buck and Kascie!  The kids did great in the hotel room and were PUMPED for the beach the next day!  Come back tomorrow for LOTS more pictures! 

Today for fall break adventures I am going to clean out our playroom and THROW some stuff away!!  

California Trip 2014!

Again, summer is my season.  I love the relaxed feel, the sunshine and of course the vacations!  We went to California with my family and the boys LOVED it.  The plane was really exciting (obviously), the sand tasted yummy (gross) and they were enthralled with the ocean! 

I was a little worried about the flight.  I knew Paul would be okay because he likes to watch movies and he is obsessed with planes.  I was right.  Charlie was our wildcard.  My friend gave me a leftover drink ticket which I promptly used to order a bloody mary.  Nothing can be that bad with vodka and tomato juice.  Again, I was right.

Charlie was just fine on the plane.  He bounced around from person to person and even fell asleep at the end.  We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves until we started driving through the mountains of Mendocino.  Then Charlie got carsick.  SIX times.  At one point I just sat in the back seat with a clean diaper under his mouth and told Ryan to just keep going.  We just had to get it over with.

However, once we were there is was a great vacation.  I love that little boys are thrilled to chase birds, throw rocks, and build sand castles.  The drive back was much more successful as in no one got sick and Charlie was a little more restless on the plane, but we made it out with little to no judgement from other passengers and I call that a win-win.

Thanks for my dad for taking all of these pictures.

Exploring! 

He is so blonde and so cute! 

The windup to play croquet.  In case you wanted to know what that looked like. 

Someone tries to keep up! 

Life is good! 

Sometimes all you need are rocks.  

Eating Sand.  Yum?

This is what you do to your big brother when he won't pay attention to you!