Day in the Life: Early Morning Solo Flight with Three Kids

Overeager mom craves warm weather and books the trip, despite having to wrangle three kids alone for an early morning flight. IT'S FINE!

Hi friends! This newsletter is (usually) a monthly-ish round-up of life things - what I'm enjoying, reading, learning, buying, doing, thinking about, and more. Today, I’m sharing about a recent-ish solo flight with the girls, another upcoming trip I’m doing alone with them this week, and some travel gear we use regularly.

Back in January, we booked a last-minute trip to the Phoenix/Scottsdale area with the kids. I was craving warm, sunshine-y weather after lots of cold, gray Nashville winter. The plan was for Eric to meet us there after a work trip in San Francisco which meant I would fly alone from Nashville to Phoenix with the girls. I didn’t even realize how chaotic and slightly aggressive that was until I went to pack and prep for the trip. Leaving the house by 5:45 AM? Driving to the airport and schepping three kids into the airport with all of our bags and car seats? A 4-hour flight alone with three young, tired, and hungry kids? Why am I like this?! 🫠

While I’ve had many (MANY) horrible travel days with and without kids, the travel day to Phoenix honestly ended up being completely fine and fairly easy, all things considered! I’m about to travel solo again with the girls later on this week, which is what inspired me to share this newsletter. Thankfully, the flight is a lot shorter (about an hour and a half) and later in the morning so we won’t have to be up at 5 AM! We’re going to my parents’ house in Ohio, which is an easier trip to pack for because they have kid stuff like car seats, a stroller, etc. and I can use my mom/sister’s toiletries and clothes if I forget something!

I wanted to share a little day in the life travel recap with you and also share some travel gear we’ve been using recently.

Some travel gear I used for this solo flight with the girls:

• We’ve been using these Ridesafer Vests as Lucy and Winnie’s travel car seats for most trips over the last two years. They are way easier to pack than their other travel car seats (Winnie would be in the Cosco Finale car seat by now and Lucy in a regular booster seat)

• I packed our trusty, lightweight Cosco Scenera Next car seat for Daisy! I won’t bring it up to Ohio, but my parents have the same one at their house for her to use.

• I checked Daisy’s car seat and the two Ridesafer vests in this XL car seat travel bag that we’ve had for years. You can wear it like a backpack, which made it slightly easier to get from the parking garage to the bag drop counter. I also threw the Dockatot and diapers in there too. For our upcoming trip to Ohio, I’ll have the girls keep their vests in their backpacks and won’t check any car seats.

• Speaking of backpacks… the girls got new luggage and travel backpacks for Christmas and they are OBSESSED! Here’s the backpack they have (Lucy’s has fuzzy hearts, Winnie’s has cheerful flowers) and here’s the suitcase they each have. When I’ve flown alone with the kids, I’ve had them share a suitcase vs. each having their own. They wear their backpacks!

• I carried Daisy in my Artipoppe carrier (this link gives you $50 off your order). No stroller this time! We have yet to travel with a stroller with Daisy, but when we have over the years, we usually bring our travel stroller (Mountain Buggy Nano). For a few trips years ago, we brought a travel double stroller (Zoe Twin+).

I’ll share another newsletter soon with what I packed for the girls to entertain them on the flight, prepping to travel with a baby, etc.

If you’re interested in more content about travel (with and without kids!), I have a ton of travel guides, resources, tips and tricks, and more saved HERE.