Life Lesson For My Little Men #31

For March Break this year, we had the good fortune of travelling to Florida with my family.  It was our first extended time away since James and Andrew had been born and so it was met with excitement and a bit of trepidation as we took on learning the finer art of planning a trip and traveling with them.  First off, I can't take a whole lot of credit for the planning piece.  Being immersed in the tail end of my course and at work full time, I wasn't the most helpful when it came to the final stages of preparation.  Before I go further, let me add that included in family are my mom, dad and sister.  The plan was for my mom and dad to drive down and for my sister to accompany us on a plane and meet them there.  That's not really a part of this story as the plans on that end worked out almost perfectly.  What is a part of this story are some of the learnings of first time travellers with twins.

Lesson 1 - When you book your ticket understand that your airline will not necessarily take into account the geographic location of extra oxygen masks for your little ones.  While this isn't an issue for folks with only one toddler but for those of us who are lucky to be blessed with two or more the tip is that there is only one extra oxygen mask per group of seats.  So, if you want to sit together, you need to choose two aisle seats beside each other.  For us, we got to play a magical game of musical seats and organization as we looked for a row without another baby in it.  In the student affairs world, this is what we call an ice breaker.

Lesson 2: Checking bags, customs and security with little ones...equals Yikes!  It was mostly related to our date of travel, but we happily arrived at the airport 3 hours before our flight and made it through with an hour and a bit to board the plane.  No major melt downs, thank goodness...but all in all not really the most pleasant experience for us all.  Unless you count the moment when a bag full of those little green round mints erupted into a line-up of people waiting to check in...I am not sure Adrienne will agree with the assessment that this was fun...but it gave us all a nice chuckle.  With that sorted we began our journey.  Currently, we have two amazing flyers.  I say currently, because the next time...who knows?!?! For now, I can happily say that on the way down they slept for the better part of the journey and there were absolutely no tears.   

Lesson 3: Travelling with Twins is not relaxing...probably not a surprise to many of you, but I can't remember a holiday where I spent more time "doing" stuff.  Adrienne and I are very active people and so we have always been on the go even while on holiday, but this hit a new level.  We were constantly heading to the pool, to the tennis court, to the beach, and this was inclusive of the couple of hours we left the boys with Oma, Opa and Auntie Meghan.  All in all it was a week-long adventure in time management.  Now before this sounds like complaining, recognize that it is definitely not.  While there was little rest on this trip, there was tons of reward.  The first time James and Andrew touched sand, the first time they saw a palm tree, their first trip in a plane, etc.  One amazing moment after the next. So, the saying R&R does not necessarily stand for Rest and Relaxation but could easily be Reward and Relaxation

Lesson 4: If you are traveling to the a touristy destination, like Florida, check into renting equipment before you go.  We rented high chairs, toys and beach toys from a company that rents everything from bikes to bed rails.  An amazing way to cut down what you bring and what you have to pack/unpack/find/pack/unpack.

So, while this list is not exhaustive and I welcome others to contribute more to it, I will end the lessons for others and add one for my little men.  What I have learned is that often, when we just relax and let things happen, we get what we need.  What I mean by this is that, going into this trip I was busy...crazy busy...and I thought I needed some time to rest and unwind.  The night before we left, I actually said to your mom that I didn't know how much I was looking forward to it, given that I would come back feeling worse and more rushed than when we left.  What happened on the trip was by no means restful but so rewarding that I got what I needed.  Walking away from this adventure having spent an entire week playing, giggling, laughing and smiling put me in a place to return to regular life feeling not only physically and mentally healthier but better as a person.  Being able to share that experience with you, your mom, Oma, Opa and Aunt Meghan, certainly was something that couldn't be replaced by anything in the world.  It is amazing how things can come together at just the right time, to give you just what you need, even when you are expecting the opposite.  And though I won't pretend that there wasn't a lot of hard work that went into the trip (your Mom is a pretty fantastic packer), we as a family are certainly feeling the benefits even a month later. 

Lots of Love,

Dad

PS - The cat's litter scoop is not a shovel, and what is in it is not sand...that is all.