It is always nice to be back home! We had a great visit with hubby’s family but the frigid temperatures and children who weren’t sleeping well for unknown reasons made us all excited to be back in sunny Florida!
And I am most happy to report that aside from our outgoing trip being delayed, running late getting to the airport and a luggage cart that now looks like this:
Our traveling was rather uneventful.
JetBlue just started a new route directly to Worcester, MA which is fantastic because I is half the distance we usually have to drive to hubby’s childhood home and I hate Boston’s Logan airport with every inch of my being and Southwest has stopped direct service to Manchester, NH.
Our flight to Worcester was delayed by 2 ½ hours do to a mechanical problem on the plane at its previous stop. Luckily the girls were very well behaved and the gate staff was excellent at keeping the mood light. When we finally did board it was over an hour past the girls bedtime but they were still in good spirits. We are still getting used to traveling with 3 kids and 3 car seats (fares were so good we bought Doodle his own seat both ways in order to keep him extra safe and me extra comfortable plus I try to never check our car seats since they can get damaged or lost).
We had the 3 car seats, 2 kid backpacks, 3 adult backpacks, my handbag and a small duffel filled with winter coats. We had a pretty good system for boarding. I did my usual baby in the sling, backpack on my back, my handbag and diaper backpack in the car seat held out front against my hips, scooped under baby’s butt. This left hubby with the two other car seats on a rolling luggage rack, his backpack and the duffle plus toddler wrangling duty. We had requested to board first explaining the large amount of stuff we had and how long it would take us to install the seats and were told we could board immediately after the “elite passengers” and luckily there were only 3 or 4 before us.
Amazingly, as we were entering the aircraft, a flight attendant offered to help me with my load! This rarely every happens I politely told her “please don’t touch anything or I’ll drop it all! But that guy behind me could probably use help…” The flight attendant grabbed a few bags and walked them back to our row for us which, also amazingly, was rows 6 and 7, not our usually assigned “kids seating” which is the very back row of the plane.
The flight crew gave us no hassle about installing the car seats either. We were on a smaller (ERJ) plane with only 2 seats on either side which worked great for us. Doodle and I sat in front of Honeybun (window seat) and Sugarplum (aisle seat) and hubby sat across the aisle from Sugarplum. This arrangement allowed us both to be able to help the girls as needed and I had easy access to Doodle when he need to feed.
As we were nearing our destination the pilot announced visibility at the airport was too poor for us to attempt a landing and we might be diverted to Boston instead. The cabin erupted in sighs and groans (I’m sure everyone on that plane was on that flight specifically to AVOID Boston!). Luckily the weather cleared in the last 15 minutes and the pilots were able to make a skillful landing.
We gathered and prepared our things and waited until everyone else had deplaned to take to the aisle and as we walked to the front, we were again offered help. This time the PILOT carried off one of the car seats for us and wished us a Happy Thanksgiving!
The return flight was just as nice. The flight crew again helped us on and off with our bags and were so patient with the girls when they took forever to choose their snacks and when our cart crashed on the way up the jetway, the flight crew (attendants and pilots) were very nice to offer help though we declined while we trouble-shot a solution.
While traveling with 3 children (and 3 car seats and 5 people’s gear) is indeed a hassle and we may never get used to it, I have to say that as long as JetBlue flies to Worcester, we will never go visit hubby’s family any other way!
