TR: And now for something completely different - a WDW Family did DLR *(new - 4/15: HK Disneyland)*

[purplelover88]

Also a bit of a theme to our jack-o-lanterns

Love these!

I did id get ahead of what Disney themed clothes we had:

Well, that's always the most important step one right?

Ultimately did use one big checked bag and then 4 carry one plus 4 personal items plus the diaper bag

Just reading this makes me worry about getting it all through the airport

Fortunately the police officer let us off with just a warning (the fact that Olivia was freaked out by the whole thing and kinda crying saying how scared she was of the situation might have helped our cause)

That's terrible that Olivia was upset, but if it worked to your advantage then making lemonade out of lemons right?

In the morning Olivia asked her Grandmother to make her waffles, which of course she agreed to

Of course, what are grandmothers for if not to meet their grandchildren requests when they are around

I had pre-arranged to leave the car at a nearby hotel which cost only $40 for the entire week

Great Deal!

which, by the way we realized we had forgotten at home but Judi was able to borrow one from her sister

Oh no, thank goodness you could borrow one or that would have been a disaster!


Can't wait to see how the actual flight goes.

 

[missangelalexis]

Great Halloween costumes!

Sorry that was first day was a little stressful.

The picture of Olivia/Peter in the car is priceless...polar opposites haha

Glad you made it to the airport ok and enjoyed a nice meal while you waited. I can't imagine how chaotic it is with 3 kids plus all the belongings!

 

[MarbleBob]

The family costumes are awesome. Terrific job on those!

And I love a good game of car packing Tetris too!

I love the photo of Peter all smiling and Olivia being annoyed at you taking pictures. I'm all too familiar with that situation. Having three kids, at least one of them is usually annoyed with me taking too many photos...

That's a pretty cool idea to leave the car at the hotel. I've never heard of that, but certain cheaper than the typical airport parking!

Bar Symon looks fun. It's been years since we've had cable TV, but I remember watching him win the the "Next Iron Chef" TV show and I had been rooting for him, despite his annoying laugh. Hahaha! Been a fan ever since. So yeah, I'd love to try that place out. (I had a chance to try one of Bobby Flay's restaurants in Las Vegas a few years ago and it was awesome. And now I really want to try Morimoto's new place in WDW!!!!) And wow, those parmesan fries look super tasty!

Looking forward to your next installments

 

[horse11]

Well let me first say how cute you guys look in your costumes!!! I just took the boys to see Pan this weekend so I am really liking your costumes even more!! In our house hold I do the planning and the packing. In fact I usually have things packed two weeks in advance because like you I love to have Disney theme clothing when we go. My son Noah seems to be following my lead. If you remember our trip to Disney he had his bag packed even before mine and was checking it daily lol!! Bill would be at a complete loss if something happened to me and he had to get things ready so I understand your stress. I can actually picture this in my head lol!!! Seems that just getting through the packing, dropping off the dog, and getting to the airport would be enough to make anyone exhausted lol!!! Seems it did not effect the kids one bit though!! Love the picture of the kids in the car!! I have been known to make our kids cry from taking too many pictures but they are the first to want to see the albums lol!!!
We were rooting for the Cubs but should have known they would not get to far.
looking at your pictures from Bar Symon Taphouse I can not help but think those fries remind me of the ones at Steak and Shake and I love them!!! Note to self: do NOT read your trip report unless I have eaten LOL!!!

 

[afwdwfan]

Olivia wanted to do a group costume as a family so we did that for the first time. Some came out a bit more "Disneyboundingish" than full costumes, but we think it works - some might say, we look "Darling" Also a bit of a theme to our jack-o-lanterns

Cool costumes! Our kids actually went as Peter Pan and Tink this year.

(spoiler alert: we needed that space)

You always need that space.

so having the packing to focus on kept me from stressing thinking about the game to come.

Why were you stressing about the game? Were you supposed to play in it or something?

Given that we left a bit latter than planned, we plotted into Waze the best way to go and it had us go a different way than normal which took us through a State Park. We soon found that the speed limit while in the park was lower than when the same road not in the park when we saw some flashing red and blue lights behind us. Fortunately the police officer let us off with just a warning (the fact that Olivia was freaked out by the whole thing and kinda crying saying how scared she was of the situation might have helped our cause) - so yeah, stressful packing, leaving later than wanted, pulled over by cops - trip was off too a stellar start

Well, at least you didn't get a ticket. You sure don't like to do things the easy way though!

In the morning Olivia asked her Grandmother to make her waffles, which of course she agreed to.

Of course! Grandma always agrees.

Peter was excited to get going - Olivia was already getting annoyed of me taking pictures:

Once we got to the start of the where we had to go to get to the security lines we realized we would have to leave luggage cart - so Judi strapped Emma into barrier (which, by the way we realized we had forgotten at home but Judi was able to borrow one from her sister) and then we put the car seats and personal item bags on the stroller and divided up the carry-ons with Olivia and Peter each responsible for one.

That is some impressive stacking. And this is what I hate about flying.

My bacon cheeseburger and the Parmesan fries:

Oh wow. I'm hungry and this isn't helping. Looks delicious.

 

[Leshaface]

Olivia wanted to do a group costume as a family so we did that for the first time. Some came out a bit more "Disneyboundingish" than full costumes, but we think it works - some might say, we look "Darling" Also a bit of a theme to our jack-o-lanterns

Love the costumes! And the pumpkins - did you find an online stencil for those? You did a great job!

and storage bins as we had brought out fall clothes but wanted more summer stuff as weather was hot in California

I never even realized that folks need to put away clothes for different seasons! The only clothes items we have in a bin is our Disney clothes because there is a lot and we only where them to DLR/WDW.

spoiler alert: we would need to do this)

(spoiler alert: we needed that space)

So many spoiler alerts

(the fact that Olivia was freaked out by the whole thing and kinda crying saying how scared she was of the situation might have helped our cause)

Way to go Olivia! Seriously though, that does sound like a stressful morning between packing and getting pulled over.

WOAH!

OH MY GOSH, the difference in their faces is hilarious!

I had pre-arranged to leave the car at a nearby hotel which cost only $40 for the entire week.

That is a great price!

Ultimately it worked out ok as they were planning to shut one security line down so had us be the last group there which helped as not feeling like we were delaying anyone behind us.

Ugh, even with our one kid, I wish they would shut the security line down behind us! I'm always stressing that i'm not going quickly enough for others behind me.

 

[Cando86]

Yay, love your report !!!

Ah, I want to go to Disneyland so so badly so I'm very excited to read about your experiences!

 

[Vernie822]

Hey, Phil! I have some catching up to do but I'm excited to read all about your trip to DLR. I can't imagine traveling with 3 car seats (plus the kids and all of their stuff) is an easy task, haha.

PS.. I can't believe how much Emma has grown since your last trip. So sweet!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I love the family Halloween costumes! How fun!

so yeah, stressful packing, leaving later than wanted, pulled over by cops - trip was off too a stellar start

Goodness, how stressful. I hope you don't have any more run-ins with the police on this vacation!

This picture is AWESOME! Happy child, annoyed child...

I'm incredibly impressed at how much stuff you managed to drag through the airport with three kiddos.

Your burger and fries look really good! I LOVE parmesan fries!

 

[gluestickgirl]

I absolutely adore your Halloween costumes - they all look great!!

And I am suddenly SO thankful that we are beyond the car seat stage and all three of my boys are old enough to carry their own backpacks and pull a suitcase or two at the airport!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Love the family costumes!

Wow, you sure know how to start your trips out the stressful way! Glad it was all okay!

Thanks! it was definitely fun to do - and glad we didn't go too over the top with the costumes. Was funny though when that was the theme Olivia wanted to do as she never really expressed much interest in actual Peter Pan (beyond what is on Jake and the Neverland Pirates) so for her to want to be Wendy was a bit surprising, but hey, it worked!

I know really? Guess starting with stress and getting that out of the way early is not the worst order to do things in

Uh oh, you lost Emma! (I just noticed that baby mirror showing an empty seat).

And to think I sometimes feel it's hard to travel with ONE child.

Were you bringing all three on the plane? Or gate-checking? Just curious.

Dinner looks quite good for airport food!

Yeah, Emma decided to find her own way to the airport Nah, she just hadn't been loaded in yet - I think one reason I was taking pictures was to keep Peter and Olivia busy while the rest of the car got loaded up.

yeah, definitely can be more challenging with the 3 vs one kid .... definitely now that Olivia can help some that helps. Just a lot of stuff to keep track of!

So not sure if you could tell from the picture but we had 2 car seats fit in one red gate check back, so we would be gate checking those and the stroller and then just taking one car seat on the plane - next update will cover who actually utilized it

Definitely dinner was pretty good for an airport! A little pricey, though guess that helped ease in the Disney prices for food to come

Loving the family costumes. Glad you got out of a ticket- I got one on our first trip to WDW somewhere in Virginia. Put a damper on the beginning of the trip for me, but I quickly learned how to use cruise control!!!

My DH is at game 5 right now and I'm biting my nails off at home watching! #LGM

Thank you! Sorry to hear about your ticket - definitely could see that negatively impacting the trip!

Sorry your DH didn't have a better outcome to the game he was at! Frustrating that we gave up leads in 3 of the games (the Mets actually led 11 more innings in the series than the Royals) - but that Royals team just does not give up! Frustrating at the time but still fun to have an exciting season that lasted a lot longer than recent seasons have for the Mets!

Love these!

Well, that's always the most important step one right?

Just reading this makes me worry about getting it all through the airport

That's terrible that Olivia was upset, but if it worked to your advantage then making lemonade out of lemons right?

Of course, what are grandmothers for if not to meet their grandchildren requests when they are around

Great Deal!

Oh no, thank goodness you could borrow one or that would have been a disaster!

Can't wait to see how the actual flight goes.

Thank you! I think the pumpkins came out pretty good - especially since we were running out of time and did it all the morning of Halloween!

Definitely was a lot to get through the airport but we managed. Really was just the car seats that made it challenging since Olivia, and Peter to some extent, can at least take a rolling suitcase themselves

Definitely glad we were able to borrow a carrier. I think if not we might have bought something out West - though it really helped in the airport, that would have been tough if we weren't able to have Emma strapped in, so maybe we would have just stopped somewhere on the way to the airport to buy one, thinking back on everything!
Actual flight coming up next update!

Great Halloween costumes!

Sorry that was first day was a little stressful.

The picture of Olivia/Peter in the car is priceless...polar opposites haha

Glad you made it to the airport ok and enjoyed a nice meal while you waited. I can't imagine how chaotic it is with 3 kids plus all the belongings!

Thank you! Was fun to do the group costume!

Definitely a bit stressful - but we made it!

yeah, it's funny how they can be like that - and sometimes it is reversed that Olivia is all into something and Peter doesn't want to participate!

Chaotic is a good way to put it, just trying to get all the stuff through all the stages at the airport. Definitely glad we allowed as much extra time as we did!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The family costumes are awesome. Terrific job on those!

And I love a good game of car packing Tetris too!

I love the photo of Peter all smiling and Olivia being annoyed at you taking pictures. I'm all too familiar with that situation. Having three kids, at least one of them is usually annoyed with me taking too many photos...

That's a pretty cool idea to leave the car at the hotel. I've never heard of that, but certain cheaper than the typical airport parking!

Bar Symon looks fun. It's been years since we've had cable TV, but I remember watching him win the the "Next Iron Chef" TV show and I had been rooting for him, despite his annoying laugh. Hahaha! Been a fan ever since. So yeah, I'd love to try that place out. (I had a chance to try one of Bobby Flay's restaurants in Las Vegas a few years ago and it was awesome. And now I really want to try Morimoto's new place in WDW!!!!) And wow, those parmesan fries look super tasty!
Looking forward to your next installments

Thank you! it was fun to do the group costume thing!

I was worried at first that all the extra car seats wouldn't fit ... plus being the "L" shaped piece that can sometimes be the hardest to fit, but we made it work!

It's funny in that more often it is Peter that doesn't want to have his picture taken - guess I caught him at a good time. Bit of a spoiler alert but I was glad how often all the kids cooperated for pictures at DLR ... though not 100% of the time

We've done that a few places and it definitely helps out. Was glad at how cheap I found it this time and was super smooth process - just have to give yourself a little extra time incase there is a delay in the shuttle but this time it was really quick.

I'm a fan of burgers and beer so getting good versions of both at the airport appealed to me. Michael Symon has a new show on called Burgers, Brrew, and Que - which covers burgers, beer, and barbeque joints, that is pretty good. Definitely want to try Morimoto's place - the menu looks really good, though was somewhat disappointed to hear that the regular seating only provides a limited sushi menu vs eating at the sushi bar area.

Hoping to get the next installment up today!

Well let me first say how cute you guys look in your costumes!!! I just took the boys to see Pan this weekend so I am really liking your costumes even more!! In our house hold I do the planning and the packing. In fact I usually have things packed two weeks in advance because like you I love to have Disney theme clothing when we go. My son Noah seems to be following my lead. If you remember our trip to Disney he had his bag packed even before mine and was checking it daily lol!! Bill would be at a complete loss if something happened to me and he had to get things ready so I understand your stress. I can actually picture this in my head lol!!! Seems that just getting through the packing, dropping off the dog, and getting to the airport would be enough to make anyone exhausted lol!!! Seems it did not effect the kids one bit though!! Love the picture of the kids in the car!! I have been known to make our kids cry from taking too many pictures but they are the first to want to see the albums lol!!!
We were rooting for the Cubs but should have known they would not get to far.
looking at your pictures from Bar Symon Taphouse I can not help but think those fries remind me of the ones at Steak and Shake and I love them!!! Note to self: do NOT read your trip report unless I have eaten LOL!!!

Thank you! Did you like Pan? It seemed interesting, though not sure if any other version will top Hook for me

Glad I gave you a chuckle picturing your husband having to do all the packing. I think we just don't have enough extra clothes to pack that far in advance ... usually we are a bit better about having the lists done earlier and at least piles of clothes started earlier .... just been super busy lately so hard to find the extra time and when we do we just collapse on the couch or in bed

Hey, the Cubs had a great year too and I think both the Cubs and the Mets are set up to be pretty darn good for the next few years! Also sometimes just about match-ups.

haha - definitely feel that way reading other reports as well ... sometimes also makes me start investigating menus at Disney even when I don't have a trip planned!

Cool costumes! Our kids actually went as Peter Pan and Tink this year.

You always need that space.

Why were you stressing about the game? Were you supposed to play in it or something?

Well, at least you didn't get a ticket. You sure don't like to do things the easy way though!

Of course! Grandma always agrees.

That's pretty cool! Guess Peter Pan themed costumes are always somewhat in vogue - saw a few others out and about when we were trick-or-treating.

I didn't tell you I am the back-up third baseman for the Mets?

No, never the easy way ... that would be way too boring!

That is some impressive stacking. And this is what I hate about flying.

Oh wow. I'm hungry and this isn't helping. Looks delicious.

Thank you! Definitely learn how to pack and fit things (or "teach them to fit" as we put it) when you have kids

Word of caution, this might not be the best TR to read on an empty stomach

Love the costumes! And the pumpkins - did you find an online stencil for those? You did a great job!

I never even realized that folks need to put away clothes for different seasons! The only clothes items we have in a bin is our Disney clothes because there is a lot and we only where them to DLR/WDW.
So many spoiler alerts

Way to go Olivia! Seriously though, that does sound like a stressful morning between packing and getting pulled over.

Thank you! We did find a stencil online for them - gotta love the internet!

Definitely have different clothes for different seasons - more for the kids than Judi and I, though we all have different weight coats that we vary which ones are accessible depending on the season.

Hey, as someone who watches, but is way behind, the Walking Dead, I know how valuable spoiler alerts can be

Definitely a stressful start to the trip - while not fully smooth sailing going forward, that was some of the most stressful parts of the trip

WOAH!

OH MY GOSH, the difference in their faces is hilarious!

That is a great price!

Ugh, even with our one kid, I wish they would shut the security line down behind us! I'm always stressing that i'm not going quickly enough for others behind me.

Yeah, we were pretty shocked to see the gas below $2 - we are still around $2.45 up by us.

I know - Peter is funny in that he either wants nothing to do with pictures or he is pure cheeseball. definitely worked out well for that picture

Totally agree with you - especially as I travel for business a bit and have it down to a science how to get through security, etc. and get annoyed at people that seem to be taking much longer than needed/not paying attention, etc. .... not parents who are clearly doing their best, but rather those people that aren't. Made me glad to that this was on Saturday vs. a peak business travel time.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Yay, love your report !!!

Ah, I want to go to Disneyland so so badly so I'm very excited to read about your experiences!

Candace - thanks for joining and for loving the report

I think you guys would love Disneyland and have a great time!

Hey, Phil! I have some catching up to do but I'm excited to read all about your trip to DLR. I can't imagine traveling with 3 car seats (plus the kids and all of their stuff) is an easy task, haha.

PS.. I can't believe how much Emma has grown since your last trip. So sweet!

Ashley! Definitely not an easy task! The good news is as the grow it will get easier and easier ... at least I hope!

I love the family Halloween costumes! How fun!

Goodness, how stressful. I hope you don't have any more run-ins with the police on this vacation!

This picture is AWESOME! Happy child, annoyed child...

I'm incredibly impressed at how much stuff you managed to drag through the airport with three kiddos.

Your burger and fries look really good! I LOVE parmesan fries!

Thank you! Was fun to do a group costume!

Can safely say no further run-ins with the police occurred during the trip!

Definitely opposite ends of the spectrum in that picture!

Dragged is a good term - well, guess it was more pushed, but really just trying to get everything through, even by brute force at times.

Food was definitely good! That sort of thing is right up my alley though - definitely one of those foods I never get tired of

I absolutely adore your Halloween costumes - they all look great!!

And I am suddenly SO thankful that we are beyond the car seat stage and all three of my boys are old enough to carry their own backpacks and pull a suitcase or two at the airport!

Thank you! It was fun to do and we put them together pretty quickly, but pretty happy with how things worked out

The car seats really are the thing that amps up the difficulty factor. Olivia is at the point of some help, but definitely still needs the car seat, etc.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Chapter 6 - Travel Day(s) - Part 3
October 10th
Luggage Riding as an Olympic Sport!​

After finishing our lunch, we headed to our gate - and Peter decided to get his carry-on there by riding on it (thus the name of this chapter):

We got to the gate and got our gate check tickets for 2 of the car seats (they were together in the red back you can see on the stroller in the gif above) as well as the stroller and in fairly short order they said that we could head onto the plane. So Judi took the kids ahead while I had to manage the stroller with bags and car seats ... and of course the bag with the car seats it was too wade to get through the door onto the gateway so I got stuck while they were ahead and didn't notice

And of course now people behind me were trying to get through as well - so I quickly unloaded the stroller, literally though the bag with the car seats through the door, got the stroller through and reloaded and headed down the gateway. Got to the bottom of the ramp and left the car seats and stroller we were gate checking and then took the third car seat onto the plane with me along with one of the rolling bags and headed back to our seats. We tend to try to be close to the back of the plane due to:

1) Closer to the bathrooms and little kids tend to have to go a lot
b) when leaving the plane easier to go at the end since we have to unhook the car seat and just a lot of stuff to bring back
iii) greater chance of there being extra open seats so we can spread out a bit more​

So I get to the back and start to strap the car seat into the window seat in our row when all of a sudden the announce over the loudspeaker that I need to come back to the front of the plane. Did I mention we were in the back of the plane? So I basically had to swim upstream the entire way back to the front of the plan while everyone else was trying to come on to the plane and get settled ... so I roughly looked like this:

Turns out that the staff could not figure out how to fold up our stroller. Of course this is not our normal stroller, so I couldn't figure it out either and had to call Judi. Fortunately she answered and walked me through it ... and we definitely didn't make the same mistake on the way back.

So we strapped Peter into the car seat and I sat on that side of the plane along with Olivia as well and Judi was in the aisle seat on the other side of the aisle holding Emma - who was quite squirmy. Made us wish we had paid for a 5th seat for her. Prior to take off, Peter struggled to tell when we were on the ground vs flying, especially for take off and asked roughly 3,267 times if we were flying while still on the ground waiting for our chance. So that started to get annoying.

Fortunately for us, the middle seat next to Judi was open so once we were in the air she shifted over and Emma had her own seat:

She was still squirmy and trying to get out of the seat and would unbuckle so ultimately we strapped her in the car seat and let Peter be in a regular seat. She even fell asleep for a few hours - and that totally helped - like a lot.

For the trip we had gotten new Kids Kindles for Peter and Olivia and I loaded it up with movies for them to watch and to prep for what was at Disneyland (including Cars and Bug's Life and Nightmare Before Christmas) - but ran into an issue in that we couldn't really hear out of the headphones even with the volume turned all the way up. Apparently this is a thing with them and sometimes if you have headphones with really long connectors it can help, but still, not great. Definitely something I wish we had tested out before the flights. They did have coloring books and we packed a ton of snacks so that helped.

All-in-all, the flight wasn't too bad - and certainly not as bad as I feared. After landing in San Diego we went to retrieve our one checked bag and then I had to figure out where the pick-up was for Budget Rental Car (all of the rental car locations are off site at the San Diego Airport). Finally found where the rental car shuttles pick up was but there wasn't a dedicated spot for any individual ones so just waitng and walked back and forth checking each shuttle that came in. Felt like the Budget one took a while, but eventually it showed up and then it took about 7 minutes to get there. he driver asked if anyone was a Fastbreak member, and I said I was so he radioed ahead and then I was able to just pick up my keys at the window of the building while everyone else had to go in and get in line - so that definitely helped! Our car was a Kia Sedona minivan. Never been in one, but it was pretty nice and definitely met our needs.

I went back to pick up Judi and the kids, installed all the car seats, and then we were off ....

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Chapter 7 - Travel Day(s) - Part 4
October 10th
Animal Style for the Win!​

.... and where were we off to? Well, despite having lots of snacks on the plane it had been a while since we had a full meal and people were hungry. Based on an excellent suggestion that come up in the Pre-Trip Report for this trip, we headed to an In-N-Out Burger located quite close to the airport.

I have to say, our introduction to San Diego was not what I was expecting. First, it was dark out so didn't really see water or palm trees or anything like that - and then I think we got to see some of the not so best parts of the town in getting to In-N-Out (including passing a few strip clubs .... and despite Judi's pleading, we didn't stop). But in about 10 minutes we pulled into the parking lot. Peter and Emma had fallen asleep (it was about 9pm or so, which was 1am EST) so I just went in and ordered.

Not sure if it was just this location but the people working there were by far the friendliest people I have ever met working in Fast Food (or maybe the NY Metro area just is full of crabby people). Just so happy and warm and chatty - very nice! I ultimately ordered a regular cheeseburger for Olivia, a cheeseburger animal style for myself, a grilled cheese animal style, and then fries and a vanilla and a strawberry shake to split.

Verdict: Pretty, pretty, good! Definitely glad I went for the animal style. For those keeping score at home (and if you are, you probably need a new hobby) we enjoyed the strawberry shake. Also, compared to similar burger places out east (Shake Shack, etc.) it was so much cheaper! I believe the entire bill came to about $18.

After fueling up we headed to the hotel. We were using Hilton points to stay at the Embassy Suites La Jolla (which we used Youtube to find is pronounce "la Hoya"). Took about 15 minutes to get there. Parked near the entrance to drop Judi and the kids off and check in. Then got a luggage cart, unloaded the car and we all went up to the room which was on the 10th floor.

The building has a large central atrium and the kids got a kick out of the elevators which were glass enclosed and looked out over that atrium:

(picture is actually from the next day, but apparently with all the bags, didn't take a picture of the elevator that first day)

Judi was less of a fan of the railings (you can see in the above photos) along the hallways that protected people from falling into the atrium as there were areas that kids could easily climb and thusly fall to their deaths. So just something to keep in mind if you ever stay here

The room was pretty nice. The building is all suites so we had the front living room which was pretty spacious and the couch folded out into a double bed (Olivia slept here):

And then the bedroom had two beds. We had to call down to request they bring a crib up for Emma (I asked when we checked in, but guess message got lost along the way)

The bathroom was pretty nice as well - Emma was quick to find the bathtub:

Overall the room more than met our needs and it turned out to be a great location, at least given the activies we had.

TTFN - coming up next, DOUBLE BRUNCH DAY!

 

[missangelalexis]

That gif of Peter riding the suitcase is adorable!

Swimming upstream on the plane could not have been fun, but I'm glad everything worked out and that Emma even got her own seat!

I can't believe you didn't let Judi stop at the strip club, it's her vacation too!

I'm glad you got to try In-N-Out and enjoyed it!

Love the pic of Emma in the tub, so cute!

 

[DisMom1981]

Great update! Ah the stress of traveling with kids!

 

[NJlauren]

A successful flight all in all! The not being able to fold the stroller thing, UGH THE WORST!

Emma is to cute, love her on the plane and in the bath tub!

IN-N-OUT YUM!

 

[Dugette]

Got to the bottom of the ramp and left the car seats and stroller we were gate checking and then took the third car seat onto the plane with me along with one of the rolling bags and headed back to our seats.

So, I feel like I'm some sort of superhero when I manage to get a kid, carseat, backpack, and bagged stroller down the ramp, but this just blows me away! I have no idea how you handled so many things. (Well, I guess you threw them. )

Fortunately for us, the middle seat next to Judi was open so once we were in the air she shifted over and Emma had her own seat:

Glad that worked out well! Always nice to have the extra room with a squirmy toddler.

She was still squirmy and trying to get out of the seat and would unbuckle so ultimately we strapped her in the car seat and let Peter be in a regular seat. She even fell asleep for a few hours - and that totally helped - like a lot.

And that is exactly why I always bring Izzy's carseat on flights. A restrained toddler is so much easier to manage and so much more likely to nap. And it is so easy (and fun!) for them to unbuckle those regular seatbelts on planes, so that's not a restraint at all.

.... and where were we off to? Well, despite having lots of snacks on the plane it had been a while since we had a full meal and people were hungry. Based on an excellent suggestion that come up in the Pre-Trip Report for this trip, we headed to an In-N-Out Burger located quite close to the airport.

Yum! Glad you enjoyed it.

Judi was less of a fan of the railings (you can see in the above photos) along the hallways that protected people from falling into the atrium as there were areas that kids could easily climb and thusly fall to their deaths. So just something to keep in mind if you ever stay here

So, the second I saw that atrium, it reminded me that there was a very similar incident sometime last summer - a girl on a Disneyland trip at an Embassy Suites fell. Very sad.

Gosh, that's not really what I want to end my comment with so, um, looking forward to all the fun updates!

 

[hokieinpa]

I'm glad that your flight went as smoothly as possible. That's great that you were able to find an extra seat (and subsequently a carseat) for Emma! Restraining the toddler is always a good idea!

In-N-Out Burger does sound yummy! And bonus points for such friendly staff!

The hotel does look very nice. The boys are always fans of the glass elevator so I can see why that was a big hit.

Excited to read more about your time in San Diego!