Southwest Airlines is the best!

Let's talk about Southwest airlines for a second.

They are just the best.

We love them so much, signing up for their Southwest Credit card has helped us tons, and we love earning points that go directly to flights to help us travel to see family more often!

2 free bags? Yes please.

Family boarding? Yes please?

Really nice flight attendants? Yep. I just can't say enough positive things about this company

This time coming home from our Christmas vacation we are cheap idiots and booked a flight to leave Saturday night at 11 pm and then drive through the night from Denver to Lincoln (our original plans were to be in Laramie, WY right after school for interviews and then fly out of Denver which is 1.5 hours away but interviews got cancelled because of bad roads but we still had to proceed forth with our flights, ha)

We arrive at the airport with 2 babies strapped onto us, Maxson running around (I forgot his ladybug leash backpack (man bug bag, thank you very much) at my mom's house much to our dismay, backpacks (1 on each of us), 4 luggage (one of those being a very heavy carryon full of computers, camera, and books), and 2 carseats. Ooh, we had so much stuff coming home from Christmas!!!!!

So we go check in and when we give them our confirmation numbers the agent say "Oh no, your flight goes out tomorrow night!" We couldn't believe it! AHHHHHHHH! In our minds we booked this flight for Saturday night so we could drive home Sunday morning and have a day to recover before Casey goes to school, we must have accidentally booked it on the wrong day when we were going back and forth between days of what to do. Oh man!!!!!

That kind woman goes and talks to a fellow Southwest gate agent, comes back and I hear her kinda yell back to the other woman "Ok, that's what I was thinking, it's the right thing to do." She then tells us she'll just move our flight to tonight for us. BLESS THAT WOMAN'S HEART!

She said there were 7 empty seats (in reality when we were on the plane there was 30 extra seats so it was really no big deal but still, they had no obligation to, but still did it for us which was SOOOOOOOO nice!)

Security went smooth (a million times faster than Denver's Security!), the babies were adorable in the airport waiting to get on the plane talking to all the strangers, we got stared at a ton from every stranger who couldn't believe we EACH had a baby strapped to the front of us (not small babies either I might add!) PLUS another kid with us, we were that circus. The babies slept on the flight, Quinn, who I had, went to sleep right away without a problem, Bryson chose to be awake quite a bit longer for poor Casey and after a tiny fit went to sleep in the baby whisperer's arms. Max somehow stayed awake the whole time watching a movie, he's crazy. Since it was a pretty empty flight we both had rows to ourselves which was the best!

A great thing I did this time around was hook the kids camelback's to a caribeaner onto the outside of my backpack and left them empty which made it all quick, easy, and not heavy. And then in one of my water bottles I filled it with milk for the babies.

We landed early, found our bags pretty easily. A great friend of mine in the Denver (hi Charley!) area did this tricky car situation for us and we walked out of baggage claim to our car there in pretty much the first parking spot at 1 am. IT WENT SO SMOOTHLY!

The kids all fell asleep immediately in the car, we stopped once to fill up with gas on the 6.5 hour drive. Casey drive the first 3.5 hours listening to the podcast Serial, I then drove the next 3 hours listening to what he had just heard. (we have SOOO enjoyed listening to it! can't wait to finish it! I was amazed at how easy the drive went for us all!

We got home at 8:45 am to our neighbors leaving for church. Our kids had just woken up and were going to be nowhere near letting us relax at home. But we were both surprisingly not that tired. So we packed up the crew and headed out to 9 am church getting there a bit late. We stayed in the hall the whole time not wanting to even THINK about struggling with out children inside the room our meeting was in which was good because they were all loud and needed time to roam.

I'm really glad we went to church. It's an important thing for us that our family go to church each week, we've been asked to keep the Sabbath Day holy and we're trying our hardest! Yeah, it was hard and it would have been SO much easier to stay home but that just didn't feel right. I've made covenants to keep the Sabbath Day Holy and bear His name, going to church is a very simple way I can show my love and gratitude towards my Father in Heaven!

Glad we are home!!!!!!!!!

PS- our original flight we accidentally scheduled for Sunday night ended up being delayed from 11 pm to 1:30 am!!!!!!!!!!! How awful would that have been for our little family! Tender mercy we were able to leave Saturday night!

10 tips to flying with {multiple} children- twins included!

Before I start talking about the flight back home I think it seems only fitting to include my advice for traveling on an airplane with 3 small children. Now of course, my situation is pretty unique and will be geared to my special situation of twins and a 2 year old, but, here are some of our airport/flying tips in general!!!!

1. Put your babies in wraps!
It kept the babies close to us and far away from strangers who wanted a closer look. You could bounce to calm them when they got fussy. We could strap down our wubanub pacifier within the strap when we weren't using it. Babies easily fall asleep in the wrap but if they're awake they can be perfectly entertained by looking around. It's really easy to bottle-feed  babies in the wraps with just one hand holding the bottle (it's easier to bottle-feed them in a wrap than a normal day at home I'd say!

2. Bring on as few amount of carryons as possible.
We each had a backpack and then the diaper bag beyond that. I wish we could have fit it all in just the 2 backpacks but it just didn't workout since we are too worried about packing our lap tops and DSLR camera in a checked bags. I'll discuss what to pack for the carryon at the end

3. Baby bottles
I breastfeed and bottle feed the twins. The flight there worked out way better for formula. I packed 5 bottles I think (I do have twice as many babies you see). One was a 9 oz bottle full to the brim with water- we give the boys room temperature bottles so filling them up after security wasn't what I wanted to do because the drinking fountains are cold. The security people will just take the bottle to the side and test it with something. I filled the other bottles up with various amounts of pre-measured formula of what we'd be needing so I merely had to add water on the airplane and such. On the way back home I put pre-measured water in each bottle and was going to add the formula on the plane, BAD IDEA. It took so much longer waiting on security for them to test all the bottles.

4. Don't hassle printing out your boarding passes ahead of time. 
If you have a lap child they have to re-print you another ticket anyways, Just have the confirmation code ready as a screenshot picture on your phone. Also have your ID and kids birth certificates in an easily accessible spot.

5. Getting through security
Wear slip on shoes of possible. Take everything out of your pockets and put them in your bags before you get to security to lessen the time. Unbuckle your toddler from the stroller last. You can keep babies wrapped on you when going through security. Don't try folding up your stroller to put it through the scanner check. Just tell the security people it hasn't fit before and they can hand check it instead, such a pain to fold and unfold your stroller (and it usually doesn't fit anyways!!!).

6. After security before boarding
Both parents go to the bathroom. Fill up water bottles. Get the tag for your stroller for a gate check. Ask if it's a full flight so you can plan accordingly emotionally. Change any diapers now if necessary.

7. Getting on the plane
while walking down the ramp to the plane start unloading the stroller and toddler so when you get to the end all you have to do is fold up the stroller

8. Where to sit on the plane
We sat in the VERY back rows both times and it was the smartest move (We always fly Southwest therefor we always get to pick our seats and board after the first 60 people) . Flight attendants are right there ready to help you. If you stand up to calm a baby in the aisle no one is behind you staring at your bum. It's less likely people will come all the way to the back for that last open seat. AS SOON AS YOU SIT DOWN get a clorox wipe out (I put a small ziploc bag in my husband's pocket with 2 wipes) and wipe down your whole seat area: trays, arm rests, head areas, anywhere your hand may potentially touch. The seat your toddler is seating in, make sure to get the head rest, if they turn around to look at the people behind them their mouth will most likely touch area, gross. AVOID THE GERMS

9. Take off and landing
You've heard this before but have your kids drink and/or eat on going both up and down. For the babies I'd nurse one and Casey would bottle feed the other and then we'd switch babies when I was done nursing the first. Once they were done eating it was binkie time. For Max (our 2 year old) as soon as I got on the plane, I gave the flight attendant his sippie cup and asked them to fill it 1/3 juice and 2/3 water, remember my toddlers obsession with juice? He drank it along with snacks and I've never had a problem with his ears on flights.

10. During the flight
My 2 year old stayed watching a movie on the iPad the whole flight home. The first flight we tried to bring out a few bonus activities to entertain him but in reality, just keep it as simple as possible- stick with a movie (we didn't give him headphones for the movie and the airplane noise drowned out the sound just fine for the other passengers). If they'll use an electronic device the whole time then DO IT, don't get all complicated and fancy with wrapped toys (1 year old? Yes, fancy new/old wrapped toys is a must but I'm not writing abut 1 year olds now am I?). No matter the age (except tiny infants) I do take the child on a walk up and down the aisle to get some wiggles out and it's a great form of entertainment to see all the passengers. Do whatever it takes to keep your child happy as awful as that sounds. Be courteous to fellow passengers. No one appreciates a crying baby/toddler, if you can appease their needs then do so. Your toddler wants another cookie and won't eat the fruit chips you packed him? Fine cookies it is. The baby is fussy and it's only been an hour since they ate? Feed him! You get the point.

But on the flip side- don't freak out if you're child is crying or being difficult. Roll with the punches, don't stress out, the flight will end and you will all survive, yes even cranky passengers beside you will survive. I've actually yet to sit by anyone who hasn't been super duper kind and patient and eager to lend in a helping hand with our situation and kids- normal people get that kids can be unpredictable at times.

Don't order a complimentary drink.

Do slightly unscrew any bottle you have that has liquid in it from take off to mid flight or else it will leak all over!

Don't drink very much water before or during the flight to avoid having to use the bathroom during the flight.


What to bring in carryons:
-Diapers-always overpack diapers
-Wipes
-Extra clothes for everyone (just shirts for parents just in case)
-a trash bag (in case the worse comes to worst with someone's clothing)
-A ton of variety of snacks (the fruit loop necklaces were a hit. We also never buy fruit snacks so the "nemo" fruit snacks were the best form of bribery ever. Max called them "meemos) Snacks for parents and kids!
-iPad
-Additional toy entertainment as needed
-burp rags
-nursing cover
-2 small swaddling blankets (one for each baby)
-hand sanitizer
-clorox wipes
-Kids birth certificates
-water bottles for parents (with carabiners on to easily attach to backpacks)
-Kids sippie cups or bottles for baby.
-a small bag of various medicines (for us- kids and adult tylenol, tums, nasal spray) anything you often turn to

Bonus tip!
A note on kids carseats.
We were lucky enough to just use various family member's car seats once we got to Arizona so we didn't have to bring any of ours. I have seen people strap carseats to strollers or baggage with bungee chords for easier transportation from the car to whichever point you're needing it to go.

Checking in (notice Maxson's photo bomb? Toddler typical…)

The best terminal we could have ever asked for at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. A whole wall of glass windows to watch the planes take off. It entertained Max the entire time it was so heavenly he actually stayed put and just played all around the glass area pointing out planes for a solid 45 minutes.

Our stroller turned into our pack mule while waiting. My beloved diaper bag strapped to the back!

Bryson mid flight

SO HAPPY TO HAVE CONQUERED THE PLANE RIDE AND BE DONE!

EXTRA EXTRA BINUS TIP
I really do think Southwest is super awesome and accommodating to families: 2 free bags per person, easy going flight attendants, family boarding, complimentary snacks and drinks. We have the southwest credit card and at the beginning of the year they send you free drink coupons for alcohol and special beverages on the flight. We don't drink alcohol but we do bring the coupons to give to the passengers who so kindly choose to sit by us an endure the "kid zone" on the airplane. Just a kind gesture. I wish I was getting paid for this advertising…

Well wishes to your future flights with kids!!!!!!!

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**