A Surprise trip to Sonoma

It being January and all, I have been thinking back on 2015 often and reminiscing on my favorite events of the year. One of these lovely moments occurred when we were offered a trip to our friend's parents house in Sonoma for an impromptu weekend.

It happened while we were attending a birthday party for our close friends son when they told us they were heading to the wine country after the party to spend a weekend in their dad's house. Her father was traveling and the house was open if we wanted to join them. Of course we did!

At first, we planned on heading back home to pack, but we were already in Berkley and the Bay Bridge was swamped with traffic. Instead, we went to the local Target to buy toiletries,  a change of clothes for all of us, pj's for Luke and nighties for us. It wasn't so bad price wise either. Thanks Target!

If you have read this blog you know how we love traveling and exploring new places so it was such a treat get to stay in a new place and spend time with one of our favorite families. 

One of the neatest parts was the amazingly impressive vegetable garden behind the house itself. The yard was chockablock with towers of plants overflowing with yummy veggies ripe for the picking .  Luke had not really had the experience of picking and eating veggies from the vine and he adored it. 

What fun! We were able to make the majority of our dinner from vegetable grown right there. A pretty outrageous idea for our city kid. 

Once we finished our meal, the kids continued to play in the garden while we sipped cocktails.

 At sunset our friend led ourselves and our collective herd of boys to a local Heladeria (Mexican ice cream shop) for tasty frozen treats. This cemented the trip as not only as one of our favorite of the year but Luke's too.

Thanks M, J, Y & R!

How to Fly with a Toddler

Have you flown with a child? It’s not the best thing ever.

Recently within two weeks we had three flights, two of them over five hours. On all of the journeys we managed to keep Luke fairly occupied and entertained and it was not so bad. Julie and I were both spent but he seemed to come away from the experience enjoying air travel. So it’s a win.

Luke and I excited to board the flight to NYC.

How to fly with a toddler:

Entertaining Luke inflight was mostly a series of pre-planned time delayed activities, gifts, apps, toys, and snacks. Nothing extravagant, just items that he would find interesting and occupy his mind while on board.

Julie & Luke inflight.

Stuff we brought 

New storybooks
We picked three golden books we knew he would enjoy and pulled one out when he started growing restless. Our current faves are the new Star Wars ones I mentioned in the last post.

All times faves are

Snacks

Granola bars, fruit pouches, cheese sticks, veggies sticks. About once every thirty minutes we would ask him if he was thirsty or wanted a snack. 

 We also made a really big deal about the food cart. He got to pick anything he wanted (except soft drinks which we don’t allow yet) and any snack. He chose chocolate milk and potato chips (which we split three ways). He really loved the pringles mini-can.

Apps

We loaded the iPad with new games tucked in hidden folders that we did not show him until mid way through the flights.

 Favorites included:

Endless Alphabet

Sago Mini Road Trip

ThinkRolls

Gifts/toys

The night before Luke got to pick out a toy from the book store he got to bring along on the plane (I distracted him with this activity while Julie purchased the Golden Books for the flight). He picked a set of Star Wars action figures and really like holding them and looking at them while on the plan. Particularly during take off and landing. 

GUM

To help cut down on ear-popping and avoid Luke noticing how nervous I get during landing and possibly  taking that on himself, we let him chew his first piece of gum. He was totally in to it and was not really phased by the descent, other than enjoying watching the buildings and cars grow from tiny to big.

PROTIP: Bring your own car seat. Rental car dealers charge a lot for them.
You can check yours for free when picking up your boarding passes. It is a little bulky on the walk from the terminal to the rental but worth the savings.

Happy fliers landing in NYC.

Enjoy your next flight! Let me know any tips you have I might have missed.