When my husband first suggested that we go to Colorado on vacation, he assumed it would just be the two of us. It was a lovely idea, but I didn't find it completely realistic. I'm breastfeeding our second child, who is 10mos. old and I was afraid that if we left him for 8 days, not only would I exploded, but he would decided he didn't want to wait around for me to come back. So he suggested we take our second and leave our first son with family. I was afraid our oldest would be jealous, and I also didn't think he would take being left with family very well. When we were in the hospital having Kai, our youngest, my oldest, Ayden was taken care of in our home by my MIL. We don't know what happened while we were gone, but Ayden was devestated. We were told he cried a lot and when we finally got home he would not leave our sight. Even to this day sometimes, he won't go to my MIL or do things with her unless one of us is there with him.
Anyways, it was obvious that we were going to Colorado with two kids in tow. We bought a seat for my husband, myself and Ayden and Kai was going to sit in one of our laps. As the time for our trip neared, we went over the list of things we were going to need to bring. Portable crib-check, two car seats-check, luggage for us and the boys-check, double stroller-check, cameras-check, carry on with snacks and activities-check. Sound like alot? It is! Luckily, my brother in law, whom we were going to be staying with, was able to get us a portable crib. Unfortunately, our double stroller exceeded airline guidelines. So, instead of one stroller, now we needed to take two.
Fast forward to the day we left. We parked the car and got a shuttle to the airport, where we really realized how much stuff we had. Thank Heavens for Skycaps! They checked all of our baggage that we weren't carrying on, right on the sidewalk. We now only had to worry about two cameras, one car seat two kids, a purse, a diaper bag and a backpack with snacks and activities. Piece of cake! Fortunately, I grabbed my baby backpack, which freed up my hands for the carryons.
We let the kids play and crawl, until it was time to board the plane. I had read articles about air pressure and little one's ears prior to our trip, so I was prepared. My husband and I each had our gum, my oldest had a drink and my youngest breastfed. I had also read articles about breastfeeding on a plane, which included a story about a woman being asked to leave a plane for breastfeeding. I was ready for a fight if they tried to tell me I couldn't breastfeed my son. I'm happy to report that only once during my roundtrip plane experience did I have a flight attendant approach me about it. She politely asked if I needed a blanket to cover up with, which I politely declined and said I was just fine.
Once we landed in Denver, we now had the task of collecting all our belongings and some how getting them to the rental car pick up area. We struggled to get our stuff to the rental car desk inside the airport, only to find a note saying to report outside to the shuttle area. At this point, we were tired, hungry and wishing we didn't have so much stuff. When we finally reached the rental car place, we were unable to find our confirmation letter. The staff was unable to find our reservation and we were starting to panic. My brother in law, didn't have a big enough vehicle for us and all our stuff and our travel agent wasn't home when we called. After about 10 minutes of searching, our reservation was found. There was an extra A in our lastname. It then took, another 15 minutes, while the agent tried to convince my husband to get a larger vehicle. Finally, we were in the rental car and on our way to Colorado Springs!
The weather was, as I was told, not typical Colorado weather. It was about what the weather back east was. You could get away with a t-shirt, but not shorts. We went through about five memory cards taking pictures and two cans of Gerber Lil' Crunchies during our trip. Those lil' crunchies were our saviours at times. Most of the things we did required sometimes two hours in the car at a time and the kids seemed contents as long as we had those crunchies at hand. Of course we did include some activities the kids would enjoy, like the zoo and Chuck E. Cheese.
Somehow the journey home seemed a lot easier than the journey there. All in all, the kids were very well behaved on the plane and never had any complaints from fellow fliers. Now, having survived traveling with two young kids, we are trying to adjust to the time change and wishing the vacation could have been a little bit longer.
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