The Christmas Journey to Cali - Part 1

This year we opted to have Christmas with Chris' family out in Napa Valley, California at the Vino Bello Resort.  A perfect way for us all to getaway to a beautiful place for the holidays - a tradition Chris had already been doing with his family when we started dating and carried through with them into our first few years of marriage.  However, with the major events of the last few years around Christmas time, we hadn't been able to carry on the tradition with them lately, but this year, we did!  This meant the girls had to fly...their very first flying experience, and our very first as caretakers of two same-aged toddlers on an airplane. I wasn't sure how this would go.....

 

After days planning out their airplane toy-filled diaper bag, I discovered I had left it at home when we arrived to the airport.  Great.  There went to the toys, the empty milk sippy cups, their favorite spoons, the travel wipes, travel diapers, special paci's we bought just to ensure they'd chew on them on the take-off and landing for the sake of their little ears, and the list could go on.

The second surprise came upon arrival to the airport - you can't travel with two toddlers on your lap in one aisle because of their only being one extra oxygen mask per row. This blew our plans to watch Barney on Chris' laptop with the girls sitting next to each other.  We had to split up.

Thankfully, Nana and Papa saved the day!  At the last minute, Nana and Papa were able to change their connecting flight schedule to join us on ours.  Nana had already brought two zipper bags full of stickers and fun things to keep them entertained on the airplane, and I had some extra necessities in the second diaper bag I did remember to bring along.  Also, we switched seats with people once we boarded, and were all able to sit in close proximity and just pass the girls around throughout the flight.  Forget sharing Barney on the laptop!  They had more entertainment than I could have ever dreamed.  Crisis averted.

 Bunnies made it.

Major crisis averted on that one.

Just a few lessons that were learned on our first flying experience.  1.)  Don't forget the diaper bag.  Hey, that's a new one!  2.) Always carry a second change of clothes no matter their age.  Milk spilled all over Savannah on the plane and she had to actually sit most of the flight shirtless.  That was nice.  3.)  Don't forget to check the diapers....the 3 hour time change thing really threw me off my regular "time to change them" schedule.  Wow!  This also leads back to #2 in my case. 

We finally arrived in Napa and are enjoying a beautiful place with daily maid service, two incredibly happy little girls, and no sleep.....oh, guess I could leave that one out in an attempt to make things sound magical, but, the girls 4 AM Pacific Time wake up has not changed since we arrived.  Other than that, magical!