Like a pro...

Don't ask me how we got so lucky, but we sure hit the jackpot when it comes to traveling with little ones. Of course I like to joke that Leah is a seasoned pro. This last trip of ours to visit family in Minnesota marked her 23rd and 24th time on an airplane, but for Kiersten...it was her first time. And honestly the girls could not have done any better!!! It was actually smooth sailing...errr, flying! We drove down to Philly Friday night to stay in the hotel since our flight was taking off at 6:20 AM. The hotel was a disaster. I thought Leah was never going to go to sleep. Kiersten would not settle down in her pack-n-play, I put her in bed with me and she threw up all over me and the bed, and just when we had them both down a little thought jumped into my head. I rolled over, tapped on Mitch's shoulder and whispered "honey did you get the girl's birth certificates for the airport?" He had packed the flight itinerary, hotel booking stuff etc...and it just dawned on me then. Needless to say, he was up and out of bed and on his way back to NJ at 11 PM. He made it back to the hotel just after 1 AM and our wake up call was right on schedule at 4 AM...we were BEYOND Tired, but we can sleep on the plane right? Wrong...Leah was so wound up she didn't sleep so we didn't sleep. Kiersten took a short nap on her daddy's chest. I was breastfeeding her during take-off and landing and she didn't fuss a bit...Like I said, They did GREAT-better than GREAT, FANTASTIC!!!

Then there was the 3+ hour drive to Aunt Lori and Uncle Todd's house up in Grand Rapids. This is where the melt-downs are going to occur, I just know it...But nope. They were great then too. Shelby kept Leah happily occupied in the very backseat with dolls and books and I sat in the middle with Kiersten and fed her a bottle about halfway. Leah never slept, she was too excited about being in Minnesota, and she kept singing "we're going swimming". Kiersten took a half hour nap and with about 20 minutes to go she started to really cry, but can you blame her. She had been in some ones arms or a seat for almost 8 hours straight by that point and she just wanted to be on the floor to roll. We made it to Lori and Todd's without stopping, beat everyone else there and were able to enjoy a little lunch and got some unpacking done before the rest of the troops arrived. I'll tell you all about the weekend in my next post.