The Flight

When Karen and I booked the flight, we were thinking... let's get to Florida early so that we won't waste the whole day traveling. We weren't thinking... we are traveling with two infants and waking up at 3am to get to the airport for 4am for a 6am flight probably isn't ideal. So there we were at 4am, getting dropped off at the airport.

We knew how much stuff we had... but when we were left at the airport door with 2 babies, a stroller, 2 suitcases, 2 car seats, 2 car seat travel bags, 4 carry-ons and a stroller travel bag we felt a little overwhelmed. Looking down at our pile of stuff we knew we needed a plan. Karen decided to ask a TSA man if it was possible to leave the car seats at the front of the line so that we could lighten the load a little. But all she got was "you need to keep all of you luggage with you at all times." So we managed to get through the airport line with everything. Even the car seats, but those may have been kicked through the line.

We cruised through security and were at the gate with an hour to spare. We decided to get give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done and enjoy some Dunkin'. As we were eating our bagels I mentioned to Karen that I needed to pack up the stroller. I didn't want to be all frantic getting the stroller into the bag while they were starting to board.

Emma and Amelia relaxing before their first flight.

Not a second later we heard them make the announcement for pre-boarding with infants, wheel chairs, etc. AHH! At that point, our food gets thrown into one of the carry-ons and Karen grabbed both girls out of the stroller. I am down on the floor, taking wheels off the stroller, trying to jam it into the bag. It's not fitting, I need to turn it over. As the stress is building, I flipped the stroller with my kung foo moves... except I didn't expect Karen's face to get in the way when she started to reach into a bag on the floor. Just imagine, WWF. Macho Man Randy Savage picking up the folding chair and wrapping it around someones head. Except this was real, she took the hit and kept moving. Ouch!

Once I had the stroller fitting snug into the bag, I looked up. Karen had both girls and she had started to move to the gate. I grabbed the stroller (29 lbs) and all 4 carry-ons and started to make my way too. A paci was down. I dropped everything and reached down to get it! Then finally I caught up with her. And in slow motion... my bagel came out of no where and landed on the floor. Everyone in the airport stopped and looked. There was no way I was going to drop everything I was holding to get the stupid bagel. We stood there for a minute, just looking down at the plain bagel, toasted with cream cheese. Silence. Then some woman who felt bad for us, got up and tucked the bagel back into my bag. Crisis averted. The bagel was saved and we were on our way! The girls were so good on the plane. They fell asleep before we took off, pretty much slept the entire time and arrived happy and ready to hit the beach.

Mommy and her baby girls.

Emma and mom looking out the window at all of the clouds.