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Big Kid’s Travel Adventures

by Jill Jarvis Leave a Comment

This week the kids and I went on our biggest adventure yet. We flew from Texas to New York. With three kids, all under five, and one adult. It all went very smoothly and I survived to tell the funniest of the travel stories.

When we arrived at security in Houston, the man who looked at our tickets asked if I was the only adult in the group. I said yes and he said he would pray for me. We then had to pick between three long lines and chose the middle one. A minute later I looked back and the other lines were a mile long and NO ONE was willing to go behind me. I joked about it with a very nice mom who came behind me to help us through security. And, I’d like to point out, it wasn’t even us who help up the security line with a bag check. Those other travels bet on the wrong line!

 

The rest of our day was filled with nice strangers who helped us along on our cross country adventure. A grandma on the first plane jumped up to help as soon as she saw us come in. Flight attendants took the kids to see the pilots without me asking. A young man offered to wheel my bag the million miles through the airport.

 

My favorite story of kindness is of the grandfather in Cleveland. We stopped to pick up a sandwich and the kids were playing nicely. This grandfather saw us and commented that I had my hands full (in a nice way). We waited and waited for the sandwich, and when we were about to leave for the gate, this grandfather came back with a bag from next door. He gave it to me and told me to enjoy it quietly, by myself, when I got to where ever I was going. It was full of Godiva chocolates. I’m guessing this is the same gentleman who anonymously paid the check for the Army man in the restaurant. I think we both plan to pass along this kindness.

 

Let me also share a couple of travel tips. One practical, one funny. Before this trip I bought the Britex car seat travel cart and was able to pull one kid through the airport without a stroller. It was very handy and I highly recommend it.

 

When I got the cart to our first plane, I just picked up the car seat, popped it on the airplane seat, tightened the buckle and was done. Brooke was then safe (uhh, trapped) in her chair and quickly fell asleep. It was after the flight, when I tried to undo it that I found the problem.

 

I had been able to buckle the seat, but if you remember, airplane seat belt latches must be flipped up to release. Once inside my carseat, there was no room to flip it up. Many people tried to remove it, but it was stuck stuck stuck. Finally maintenance was called. After ripping off the plane seat cushions they were able to get enough slack in the belt to undo the latch.

When I got off the plane 10 minutes after everyone else, the crowd waiting to get on the plane looked at me with funny smiles and I think they were trying not to laugh. Don’t worry, I was trying not to laugh too because at this moment I remembered my sister telling me to be sure to use the seatbelt extender.

My very favorite part of the adventure was on second flight. It was on a little puddle jumper propeller plane. We had to go outside and walk up the stairs to the plane (which was so cool according to my kids). Once we took off on our hour flight, we had terrible white knuckle turbulence. I was a little worried about how my kids would react, but I looked over and they started laughing hysterically and said, “We’re astronauts!”. And so now we know the Big Kid travelers love turbulence.

 

It was a long day of traveling, but it was a great adventure. Joe says his favorite part was eating on the airplane on the little meal tray. Brooke just repeats what Joe says. The next day when we woke up, Joe asked if he could be a pilot instead of a fireman that day. Brooke too.

 

Filed Under: All, Travel, Vacations December 16, 2011

About Jill Jarvis

Jill Jarvis is the owner of JillBJarvis.com, a BigKidSmallCity.com and Things to Do in Houston, with Kids, blog!

She is the mom of 4 and started the website years ago... when she was tired of constantly cleaning up the same mess in the family room.

Another mom showed her that you could just go do fun things in Houston, without hours of planning.

This inspired the blog and changed everything about how she enjoyed life in Houston, with kids!

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jill-jarvis-bigkidsmallcity-circle-300 Welcome!  JillBJarvis.com is the go-to blog for things to do in Houston with kids!  It is upbeat and dedicated to making our big city feel small.   START HERE!    

On this website you will find a full list of Houston weekly events, things to do around the city, travel ideas and resources for parents.

I know just what it’s like to be overwhelmed by work, life and family. I spent a lot of years traveling for work, missing big milestones for my kids and feeling bad about everything.

I started this website to make a list of all the events happening around Houston and then pick one to enjoy with my kids. And instead of thinking of all the things I was missing, I started to enjoy the things we were doing together.

If you are a parent that is feeling overwhelmed by all the things you could be doing in Houston… please just use our weekly lists and daily posts as suggestions. Pick one thing to do with your family and intentionally ignore the rest!

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