Flying With 4 Kids

I'll be honest, when Justin told me we were going to fly down to California to visit my family instead of drive down, I was not happy. It wasn't because I didn't want to deal with 4 kids on a plane; that I could deal with. It was just getting through the airport, pulling all that luggage around.

I envisioned this monster sized family plowing through the crowds with their dozens of bags, double stroller, and, car seat overload. I'm sure to many people we did look like that but thankfully that was not the reality.

I was able to cram all our stuff into just 1 carry-on (didn't want to check in our luggage because although that would have been easier, it would have cost us at least $40 round trip) and 4 personal items. That helped get rid of some of the insanity.

We were able to borrow 2 car seats for the girls which was great because they were "lap children" so we would have had to gate check their car seats and I don't trust airports with my car seats. Since we borrowed 2 car seats, we only needed to bring the boys' car seats which they sat in during the flight. Handy because not only do I avoid gate checking the car seats but it keeps the boys contained.

I'm sure we still looked like a monster of a family; two kids in a double stroller, one car seat in the stroller basket, 2 personal bags in the stroller with the kids, me with Verity in the Ergo with a diaper bag on my shoulder, Justin with the carry-on with one car seat placed on top of the carry-on "just so", Logan trying to keep up with us all. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Honestly, it probably wasn't any more crazy than when we go on any of our outings...okay maybe a bit more.

Some things I learned about the airport when traveling with a family.

1) You don't need to take shoes off for kids under 12 years.
2) There's a family line for security (in some of the security checks, not all of them)
3) Double strollers need to be hand checked; they do not fit through the x-ray machine.
4) If carrying a baby in a carrier like my Ergo, you will go through security and then you have to have a "hand check" which apparently is where they run a paper on your hands and then scan that paper... still no idea how it works.
5) Early morning flights are hard to wake up for but easier for traveling.
6) Dinner time flights are annoying because you have to buy dinner in the airport.
7) Babies are the easy ones to travel with; they sleep through the whole thing.
8) You must use head phones with personal devices on the plane.
9) Car seats are a pain to install with airplane buckles but worth it as they keep kids contained.
10) All airport employees are very nice.
11) You can travel with 4 young kids.