The airplane ride to Arizona

Getting to Arizona was quite the EXCURSION and EFFORT. Holy cow. 

It really wasn't until the day before we left that I truly hunkered down to get us packed and going. It's honestly because for at least me, the babies, and Max we really go through the same few clothes so we needed to wait until the last minute to do laundry and then pack up all the clothes!

I'm a chronic overpacker, it's awful. So for the babies I pretty much brought all their clothes, bibs, blankets, burp rags and anything else I could think of it. They spit up so much that everything tends to get wet fast and we still are doing laundry really often so all of it just came with us. Casey and I personally super under packed more than we ever have before, I was so impressed with us. But there was so much random stuff we had to bring and then a couple Christmas presents for Max, it all just adds up so much!!! Here's some pictures of our journey. I'm for sure going to write a post on traveling with 3 under 3 on an airplane at Christmas time.

1. This is often how we coax Maxson into brushing his teeth without screaming, he gets to brush ours.

2. My huge twin nursing pillow took up WAYYYY too much space in any suitcase, it was just a little ridiculous. Casey joked that he would bring it as his carry on neck pillow. Hardy har har. 

1. We would soon find out how much these "meemoz" would be the most wonderful bribing tool for Maxson. Bless those fruit snacks. 

2. The babies DID NOT do enough of this on packing day, grr.

At the airport!!!!!! Bless the un-business and simplicity of the Omaha airport. Seriously. No lines anywhere. Just getting out of the car into the airport was a workout. The closer and closer we got to the airport the more stressed I was getting. I just knew that no matter how much we prepared, it was going to be hard. We also planned to be there 1.5 hours early and because we of course left late it was only an hour and 10 minutes. That added to my stress. We decided to not take the baby's car seats and borrow my siblings' ones instead. That did add to making the airport journey easier but at the same time harder getting the wraps correct on each of us and the babies from the car seats onto us when it was chilly outside.

Getting through security could have been worse. As soon as Maxson was out of the stroller at security he tried belting it through so many times, ha. That child was so excited to RUN! And with a baby strapped to you, it's a little more comical running after him. He was pretty happy about seeing airplanes out the window but then once he saw people entering the plane he wanted to join them RIGHT then…luckily Casey had to be the goalie on that one and I just guarded our stuff (so as not to scare employees with the possible bomb in the unattended luggage).

You can't imagine the stares we received in the airport. And faces amazement once they realized we had TWO babies strapped to us and a crazy (at times crying) toddler in our stroller. We got "you guys be crazy" looks like crazy and a few kind comments from strangers which meant a lot.

Here we are waiting to board. Casey had taken Max out of the stroller so he could get some wiggles out but ended up holding him so he wouldn't run away. At one point Max began patting Quinn on the back like he always sees us doing when we burp them and kissing the side of his face. Seriously, so cute and was one of those "this makes parenting worth it" moments.

We sat in the VERY back of the plane, the last 2 rows. We couldn't sit in the same row since there were 2 lap children. The babies really did do just fine. They cried out here and there like normal but nothing we couldn't not soothe. We switched babies back and forth throughout the flight. We did a combo of nursing and bottle feeding. We only had 1 super smelly poopy diaper. Max played on the iPad pretty much the whole time or ate a plethora of snacks. There was 1 open seat on the whole plane and luckily we got it! And seriously it was necessary. Casey did amazing taking care of a baby and Maxson's needs simultaneously while I kept us organized with the seat behind them handing them food and drinks and toys and doing diapers and bottles etc. That open seat next to us was golden. Bless the 2 men who sat in our rows. The man in my aisle was the sweetest English man and had 2 beers (one on the house) and was just so kind. And I heard the man in Casey's row just got his personal space invaded like crazy by Maxson. The Southwest flight crew could not have been more AMAZING. At one point they took Max with them up and down the aisle to collect trash. They helped hold babies, gave us extra snacks and were just so optimistic and happy we were on the flight, it made us feel so good. I will forever be a loyal Southwest customer.

And finally making it OFF the plane back to our luggage! Once the plane landed it was like a huge relief, we made it through the plane ride! What made the plane so hard was that there was 3 tiny children who needed your constant care and watch and attention (two of which should have slept much longer than they did) and only 2 of us to appease their needs AND doing it all in this tiny area where you could barely move. Like I said, there were no huge horrible instances that made it a bad experience, we just have very busy lives that I'm still getting used to. We picked up our 4 checked bags, with babies strapped to our fronts, huge back packs on our backs, Maxson in his stroller and another bag strapped to the stroller and trudged our way to the curb to await my momma.

The first thing we said to my mom when I saw her was "Next time you come to us"

**The day we traveled to Arizona, Casey was running on 2 hours of sleep from staying up to study for a final that morning and I had 4-5 hours under my belt due to a rough night with the kids. I think those factors did us in too**