Getting There

Parker has become quite the little traveler, both within the US and now internationally as well. (He has 2 country stamps on his Passport!) 

Lucky for Keith and me he loves planes, trains, and automobiles, which makes things a little easier for us when traveling. While we still have our meltdowns and issues (who doesn't when traveling with a little one?!), what works for us is keeping P engaged in something- exploring the airport (moving sidewalks and ramps are huge hits!), sitting next to the window and looking out at everything going on, unwrapping a new car to play with in route, reading a favorite book (Richard Scary's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go"), or playing with stickers just to name a few.

Pinkberry doesn't hurt either. ;)

When possible scheduling flights/train rides/drives during naptime and/or bedtime has usually been a success and gives us a little downtime (because keeping an active toddler engaged does take a lot of energy).  

When all else fails there's always the iPad (or as it is now known in our house- the tablet)!

Organization, patience, and flexibility are key! So when you have an unexpected bump (or 100) in the road you don't totally lose your mind. Let me give an example.

 

To get to Spain we were to take a flight from Nashville to Philadelphia where we had a 5 hour layover before hopping on an overnight flight to Madrid. We'd spend the day in Madrid and then take an evening train to Barcelona. That didn't happen.

 

On our first flight, an hour away from Philadelphia, the flight attendant announced that we were taking a detour to Columbus, Ohio (which was 30 minutes away) for an emergency medical landing. First of all, there wasn't really an emergency. There was an elderly man on board who we think was having somewhat of a panic attack so he was getting oxygen from the tanks on board. Second, in case you missed it, Columbus was 30 minutes away (in the wrong direction) and Philly was only one hour. A difference of 30 minutes. In any event, we went to Columbus. When we landed there were no emergency crews and no one was in a rush to get this gentleman off the plane. We sat on the plane for a over an hour and were first told that we'd be back in the air when maintenance replenished the oxygen tanks. Then we were told that Philadelphia had a hold on incoming flights due to weather. They assured everyone that no one's connections were in jeopardy. This continued until those with connections to Germany were told to they should go to the gate and rebook their flight. The rest of us continued to wait. Then they decided we all needed to get off the plane and go to the gate where the ONE agent would re-book everyone on another flight going to Philadelphia that was ahead of ours in the queue. By the time we made it to the ticket counter that flight had already left. We ended up on a flight to Charlotte. Once in Charlotte we were put an overnight flight not to Madrid, but to Frankfurt, Germany. THEN we finally boarded a flight to Madrid. By this time we had missed out on our day in Madrid and missed our non-refundable train to Barcelona. 

 

None of this was ideal, but we managed with P just as well as we would've managed without him (that's not to say that I didn't cry when we found out we were being re-routed to Madrid via Charlotte and Frankfurt, but I am pregnant). Having plenty of distractions and snacks (see above) and being able to tag-team were lifesavers. And P was mostly just really cooperative. After all that what's the big deal if P wanted to push his stroller everywhere or not want to sit still while we tried to eat a meal, right? ;)

 





Sorry for the poor quality of these photos. With the exception of one, they are all iPhone pictures.