After our very successful trip to Acadia, we were inspired to try another National Park. TT Dad had found a half marathon he was interested in running, along with some customers he needed to go see, so the stars seemed to be aligning.
We made a few changes based on what we had learned on our first trip in the sky. According to the interwebs, there seem to be two very different schools of thought on air travel with toddlers.
Some say it is best to schedule a flight for the child’s normal nap time. Fill up that belly just before the flight, but offer very little liquid until take off, which will help the child to clear their ears when appropriate. The thought is that you are taking advantage of the child’s normal schedule, and setting the stage for a nice nap during the flight. Clean diaper, plus full belly, plus nap time should equal a quite sleepy flight.
There are others who disagree. They believe it is best to book a flight during the child’s happiest and most alert time of the day. The reasoning is somewhat the same, but instead of hoping for a quiet sleepy flight, you’re hoping for a happily awake flight.
I thought for sure we’d fall in the sleepy flight camp, as that was always our strategy for long-ish car rides. Of course, being that our first experience on an airplane was a trip from CT to Phoenix, and required a layover in Denver, we simply weren’t able to follow the guidelines to the letter without spending our entire day in an airport.
And of course, the same would be true for the second strategy. At some point, the kids would get sleepy, and need a nap. While they are happy 95% of any given time period that they are awake, all good things must come to an end, and they will get sleepy and grumpy at some point.
So why not try both, and see which works better?
In fact, why not go a step further, and try it all?
Our flight to Phoenix had us leaving around 8am, and landing in Phoenix at 2pm. That is a lot of travel time. We started off with a flight that coincided with their happiest time of the day, and ended the day with a flight that was scheduled for their sleepy nap time.
On the flight back, we tried the opposite, leaving during nap, and then finishing up after a layover in Baltimore.
For our second experience, we made sure to book a direct flight, thinking that would avoid most of the issues we had the first time around.
Once again, our flight out would be mainly in the morning, and our return flight would be much later on in the day, leaving around dinner time, and arriving after bedtime.
I wish I could report that our skills had improved, but that is most definitely not the case.
This flight was worst than the first- and we had even brought two new tools- Amazing Freetime Tablets. We also brought our stash of other favorites- crayons, books, stickers, stuffed animals, and of course- SNACKS.
There was no sleeping on the entire way to Denver. None. Nada. Zilch.
By the time we landed in Denver, we had two very very tired children. It was 11am ish, Denver time. We knew we had to get lunch into these kids, but also that they were exhausted.
Knowing we’d be spending a lot of time hiking, and not a lot of time on sidewalks or on other neighborhood walks, we decided against bringing either of our strollers from home. Instead, we found a baby gear rental company located inside the Denver Airport- Vea Kids. We were able to rent (at a reasonable rate) a City Select double stroller, and two kid carriers. Not only did this help immensely with the logistics of moving two very tired toddlers and a few suitcases through an airport, but the gear was clean, taken care of, and the counter was located just outside the security area.
In addition to the rental baby gear, they had a selection of other goodies available for sale- including formula, pouches, diapers, wipes, and other snacks.
Next stop was the rental car. After our last attempt to fly with our Diono Radian car seats, we had purchased some lighter car seats to use for travel only. We checked them in their boxes, and the idea was that we would keep the boxes to pack them back up in on our way home. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fit the boxes into the rental, so that plan was foiled. Instead, we checked them as is. More on that later.
On the shuttle to the rental company, we rode with a lady who had a twin sister, and was also from CT! She was meeting up with her twin sister and her mother in Denver. As we walked to our rental cars, we were laughing about what a coincidence it was- to find out our rental cars were parked next to each other. We decided to take a picture of all the twins and their mothers. They were a lovely family, and it gave us hope that we may not completely mess these kids up! haha.
There was a mini nap on the shuttle, but no one was surprised when both kids conked right out as soon as we were in the rental car. It took a few minutes for TT Dad to get the seats installed, but our Evenflo Tributes weren’t too difficult.