To The Rock We Go!

Our past road trips with the girls seem to pale in comparison to the adventure we have ahead of us, flying to Newfoundland for a week long vacation with the girls and my parents! The hardest part about packing for this trip is that EVERYTHING you need to pack must fit into your suitcases for the plane. There is no room for error and no thought of "I'll just leave this in the car, just in case". Predicting what two babies will need for an eight day excursion with unpredictable weather can be tricky. When traveling to Newfoundland you always have to remember that there is no humidity and always a chance of rain....a perfect place to travel to with 7 month old twins! Some how once we had packed up the car with the girls and our luggage we came to the realization that we had more room in our car than any previous road trip. Huh?

After a well planned stay over night in TO at the Comfort Inn Toronto Airport, we were able to pack up, have a hot breakfast, feed the girls and make it to the airport looking calm and refreshed (okay I may be slightly exaggerating).

The first part of our adventure begins with the girls first flight! Not wanting to be "those parents with the crying baby" on a two hour plus flight, we picked a morning flight when the girls were likely to be napping! This worked out well in our favour as both girls slept through take off.

Here are some things we learned from flying with the Turkettes.

1. Baby formula or breast milk are the only liquids you are allowed to bring on the flight in excess of 100mL. The flight attendants will warm your bottles for you any time during the flight!

2. Babies are allowed two baby items (e.g. car seat, play yard, stroller) but no carry on or luggage.

3. While you are allowed to keep and use your stroller right up until you board the plane, we found it a lot easier to use our Baby Bjorn baby carrier and just wear the girls. This allowed us to have both of our hands free especially helpful while boarding the plane and putting our carry on luggage away.

4. There is only one infant allowed per row due to there only being 4 oxygen masks per row, so Shawn and I had to sit in consecutive rows with our own baby.

5. (Thank you Mom for this) Having a soother clip was a big bonus because we a) always knew where their soother was and b) didn't have to worry about it falling on the floor or losing it. Soothers or drinking during take off or landing is recommended for babies since they don't know how to pop their ears on their own and this can be really painful. Both the girls took their soothers for take off and landing and had no discomforts.

6. Dressing the girls in a sleeper was great for the plane as we didn't have to worry about them getting cold, socks falling off and it was much easier when trying to change a diaper in the small little airplane bathroom. (that is a skill all on it's own!) Only the washroom in the back of the plane has a change table so it was easier to be seated closer to the back of the plane. Having small children allows you to board the plane earlier if you wish, but we just let everyone go first and tried to board the plane near the end so we had less time sitting on the plane.

7. Our Westjet flight attendants were awesome! They met with us to give us specific instructions regarding flying with infants and even gave the girls "First Flight" stickers! Our Little Westjetters did a great job flying! Looks like a trip out to Calgary to visit Auntie Michelle might be possible!!!