This is how we trekked through the airport. We had three Dionos (25 pounds each- we strapped them to our backs!) two rolling suitcases, a diaper bag, a purse and Chad's backpack. Plus three kids. two of whom needed to either be carried or hold someone's hand. I've heard you can check car seats for free, but we've seen how they handle luggage, and didn't want these things tossed around. Plus if they didn't make it to NY properly, we would have been in trouble. (Side note: My friend just had this happen on her flight back from Thanksgiving, and the airline gave them a free loaner car seat, then delivered theirs back to them when it got in on the next flight. So it wouldn't have been the end of the world, but we weren't taking any chances, especially since Dionos are the only seats that fit three across in the backseat.)
After the massive lameness we encountered with USAirways the last time we flew with Chad, we got wise and picked Delta this time. The pathetic looks on our faces must have helped us get pre-checked through security, but we had literally (I am using that correctly) the longest possible walk through RDU to get to our flight's terminal. Since Delta is smarter than USAirways, we got to pre-board and find our seats waaaay in the back of the plane, where there were fewer people to bother.
I had Theo on my lap, next to Chad. Andy and Natalie were behind me.
#butfirstletstakeaselfie! An amused stewardess took this for me, since I am still not the proud owner of a selfie stick. I have reason to believe that Andy is getting me a diamond-studded selfie stick for Christmas. Guaranteed to make you look like a million bucks in your selfies.
As soon as we walked out of our gate at LGA, we saw one of those golf cart things, and I asked the driver how we could go about finding a ride on one of them to ground transportation. She told us to hop on. We loaded all of our stuff and all of the kids, did a turn and the diaper bag flew off. A pedestrian picked it up for us, and it happened to be the lady sitting in front of Chad. She told me that the kids did a great job on the flight. :) Thank you Steve Jobs, because if we didn't have an iPad to distract Chad with, things could have gone worse.
And then we got to NY and promptly started tearing the place apart, and using wine glasses for baby doll throwing target practice.
We took some cute cousins pictures:
Until first Jason decided he was done with photos...
And then Natalie and Theo decided they were REALLY done with photos
Chad made art with shaving cream:
Except that I didn't take a picture of the art at the end.
We bundled up for the cold:
And Natalie sat in the "princess chair," because she is the princess of the next generation!
Her Royal Highness really liked having pockets in this hoodie
There was also a dunking, but that is a post in itself.
And then it was time to head home.
LGA, you have the coolest terminals, but this was not a child-friendly set-up. See that thing Chad is touching? Each table had 1-2 iPads attached to it that you could use for internet, games flight status updates, or even order food and drinks and have it delivered to your table. It was great, except that there was no room for our three Dionos, two rolling suitcases, a diaper bag, a purse and Chad's backpack.
Now, we didn't really need the rolling suitcases, but we did not want to pay $50 to check them both. As we were waiting for our flight, they announced that they would be willing to check rolling suitcases at the gate for free. I think I knocked a few people down in my mad dash to the desk to volunteer our suitcases. That made the next few hours a bit easier.
We got priority boarding again (but no priority security, which made things difficult) and I had Theo and Chad in the second to last row of the plane. There was no one across the aisle from us, and no one behind us. Andy and Natalie were in front of us, with no seatmate, The kind stewardess saw us board and immediately said, "I have three bananas to give away! Who wants one?" and of course they all went b-a-n-a-n-a-s for the bananas. She meant well, but they REALLY wanted the bananas and I still had to get other luggage stowed away before I could help with bananas, and Theo just couldn't take the wait and instead had a big bite of peel.
The plane was delayed on the tarmac for an hour. :( But there was no one around us and the stewardess told us we could just let them roam and play in all the empty seats around us. In her words, "Where are they going to go? They can't get off the plane!" She also brought wing pins for everyone, and bags of pretzels. Natalie and Theo climbed all over the seats, while the stewardess blocked the aisle in front of them, and entertained me with stories about her trophy wife daughter-in-law who wanted to spend Thanksgiving with her family, but compensated by offering to come over for Thanksgiving breakfast, which no, is not a new thing, it is just a way to be annoying, at least according to our kind stewardess. (I know you're dying to know how this turned out- the son insisted on spending Thanksgiving at his parent's house, because the trophy wife's family can't cook, whereas the kind stewardess makes all her own ingredients, including homemade vanilla extract and homemade brown sugar, which she was doing long before Pinterest came along, TYVM. It was an interesting flight.
We were super lucky to have checked the rolling suitcases, because when we landed, we had two toddlers who were DONE with traveling, and it took two arms just to carry each of them, which meant there were no extra hands to roll suitcases with. The suitcases met us at baggage claim, and THEN we met a kind man with a cart who loaded everything up for us and wheeled it all out to our car. Thank heavens!
Overall, flying with three kids, two under two, is doable, but it definitely raised my cortisol to a level that could seriously interfere with my CTLA-4 expression. This was risky, because I was just wrapping up an amoxicillin prescription from latest sinus infection gift from Theo. I'm glad we did it, but it's not something I'm anxious to do again anytime soon.
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