Mini Trip, Packing & Airlines

Before we embark on the 'big trip', we decided to do a 9 day mini-trip to visit family in California, Chicago/Wisconsin & Montreal.  Not only would this enable us to do fun things like play with cousins, see our families, go to Disneyland, spend time with the boys' 94yo great grandma, and hang out on a lake, but it also allowed us to have a packing dry run.  All in all, we felt well prepared and plan to make a few tweaks like bringing more chapstick and switching the boys' headphones to something more comfortable.

As expected, air travel hasn't been quite so smooth.  After our flight home from Montreal was eliminated, forcing us to leave midday rather than in the evening as originally planned, we are now 9 hours into an unexpected and poorly explained delay at LAX.  One valuable reminder we've had is that the boys are always observing us and modeling our behavior.  Thus, despite us being given misinformation, being directed to one 2hr line, when we really should have been in the other 2hr line, and other frustrations, we are doing our best to "choose kindness" (in the words of Emma) and remain appreciative of the fact that we are well-positioned for these disruptions.

We have been so impressed with the way the boys are rolling with the unpredictable delays, long runs between terminals, hurrying up to wait and other fun airport antics.  Lewis has frequently reminded us to remain positive and be thankful that we're not missing another connection and Andrew has kept us entertained with his humor (including a comment about how the women's bathroom is so much better than the men's and smells like "cheese-its"! <barf>).

We're hoping to make it to Chicago by 2am and up to Wisconsin tomorrow.  Come on American Airlines - you can do it!Read more