Traveling with three kids

While Jonathan drove to Texas, I had the thrill of flying with two small children and a young baby. It was an experience. Not one I care to repeat in the near future, but definitely an experience.

Kids come with a lot of gear. I took 3 car seats, 1 large suitcase, 2 kids' backpacks with diversions and snacks, 1 diaper bag, 1 laptop bag complete with laptop, 2 headsets, & dvds. I shuffled all of the paraphernalia to the check-in counter (the shuttle didn't drop us off anywhere near curbside check-in, grrr), where I checked 2 of the car seats and the suitcase. This only left me with the laptop bag, the diaper bag, Isaac's car seat + base, and Isaac in his sling to carry. Matthew and Melissa hauled their own backpacks. I was probably hauling over 50 awkward pounds and keeping a quick pace up and down the terminals. Rachel, the urban sherpa! We had over three hours to kill until our flight so we went back and forth on the moving walkways- I wanted M & M good and tired for the flight, ate liesurely lunch, and hung out in the kid play area.

The kids did pretty well during the flight and the attendents even commented on what good travelers they were. One of the attendants even asked if my kids were cookie eaters (of course!) and wrapped up a bunch of cookies for them. Isaac slept through his first flight, all the way from SLC to Dallas. Lucky, lucky, lucky!

We arrived at the Dallas airport without much event, but things kind of went downhill from there. I've never flown in through Dallas before... it is a HUGE airport. That night it was very, very crowded as well. I sure hoping to leave with three kids, since I'd arrived with three, and I kind of like them and all. Matthew and Melissa were pleased about the sky tram that takes passengers to the various terminals, and would have liked to just ride that indefinitely. While waiting to board the airplane, Melissa charmed a lady knitting a scarf into coloring with her. She even climbed up on her lap, but the lady didn't seem to mind in the slightest. This child is so terribly shy... haha. Matthew was most unhappy to learn that he would have to get on an airplane once again. "This is the longest, worst day EVER! Hrmp!" Up until that point he was ready for adventure.

Onto the airplane! Isaac was not at all pleased about flying again. I distracted him for most of the flight, but he wailed uphappily during the last 2o minutes. I thought perhaps his ears were bothering him, but he would not nurse, so there wasn't much I could do for him. Fortunately the Dallas to San Antonio trip is quick. We got off of the plane and a kind businessman took pity on us and offered to carry the car seat for me. THANK YOU whoever you are! We got to the baggage carts, and I felt I could handle it from there, so businessman and I parted ways. We received several other offers to help after that, but were doing ok at that point. Fortunately all of our luggage appeared in the baggage carousel (after a very long wait), so I lugged all of our stuff to the shuttles for rental cars.

We got to the rental car place in short order. Whether it was the late hour, the excess sugar, or just being cooped up in an airplane; Matthew and Melissa acted as though in a pinball machine at the rental car place. Boing! Boing! Boing!

I rented a Dodge Journey. A minivan would have been more practical to fit car seats in, but my frugal side balked at the $60 a day difference in price. So it was a tight fit, but it worked. I've discovered that I am a terrible navigator at night. The GPS I rented was not much help either. The 8 minute trip to the hotel took closer to 30. The kids voiced their displeasure for the first half of the trip, but all fell asleep before the end. Finally at 11 PM local time we checked into our hotel, and I tucked all three into bed.

What a very long day!