The week before Thanksgiving, we took a short trip to Utah to go to my friend, Kati’s, wedding and to have a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with family. Leading up to our trip, we talked all week with the girls about riding on a plane– they could hardly wait, although it was hard to tell if they thought we were just making things up or not.

As these things usually happen, OF COURSE the girls had to get sick with a cold a few days before our trip. The night before take off, Samantha and Amelia were snotty, coughing little sicklings and I went into freak out mode after reading online how sick toddlers’ ear drums could burst by riding on a plane while super congested. Note to self: stop reading anything online– I thought I learned that lesson after reading horror story after horror story about every possible thing that could go wrong when I was pregnant with the twins!

After a night-before-take-off 10 p.m. phone call with the pediatrician (love you, Dr. Young!), I was sufficiently reassured that everything would be fine and we got the go ahead to try a little Benadryl on the plane to help decongest them and knock them out a bit.

Samantha and Amelia were groggy but excited for our early morning flight out of Long Beach.

I figured the girls would be a little bit clingy getting on the plane, but they were total pros! At Long Beach, you walk straight onto the tarmac and up a ramp onto the plane, which the girls thought was the best thing ever. Samantha looked like she had done this all before as she dragged her own little suitcase up the ramp, ahead of us, said hello to the pilots when we boarded and stepped right onto the plane with a gleeful smile!

I didn’t get a picture of Samantha going up the ramp all by herself on our flight to Salt Lake, but here she is getting off the plane on our return trip.

Since this was the girls’ first flight, I wanted to make things as easy as possible and have clear access to the bathrooms, so we fortunately were able to book the first two rows of the plane. I sat in the first row with Amelia, while Samantha and Jake sat directly behind us.

I took a gamble and booked the aisle seat and the window seat, thinking other people wouldn’t want to book a middle seat in between us, and my gamble paid off. Both Jake and I had both rows to ourselves, so each of us could scoot over to sit in the middle seat next to one of the girls, without having anyone next to us in the aisle.

Ready for take off.

Amelia refused to hold my hand at all during take off. MOM, I’M NOT A BABY!

The girls are normally rambunctious and antsy at dinner, church, the library, or any kind of sitting down/quiet situation, so I was nervous they would get cranky quickly, but they totally surprised me! They were awesome and got tons of compliments from the flight attendants and other flyers. Way to go, girls! I was so proud.

Between taking in all the new sights and sounds, getting to pick out their snack and drink from the flight attendant, using the plane bathroom, watching a cartoon, and coloring, they were completely occupied and happy the whole time. The short two hour flight helped too. A huge bonus was that the girls loved sitting directly behind each other. They played peek-a-book between the cracks in the seats and laughed the whole time.

About a half hour before landing, we gave them a half dose of Benadryl. I had heard that Benadryl has the opposite effect on a small percentage of kids, making them hyper, and since the girls have never had it, I didn’t know quite how they would react. As it turned out, it definitely had a sedating effect on them.

Zombie Amelia. Yes, I drugged my child.

While the plane made its descent, the girls were both pretty out of it and zoned out while sucking on  lollipops.  We probably didn’t even need the meds, to be honest, but with their stuffiness, we didn’t want to take any chances. Most relaxing two hours I’ve had in a long time.

Amelia was still a little out of it when we got to Salt Lake and kept asking why we weren’t at Grammy’s house yet. I think she thought the plane would land directly at our final destination.

What could possibly top a successful first plane ride? Grandma’s house and cake, of course!

Lots of love,