Hawaii or Bust

::Drum roll please::  We’re traveling!  To a tropical place!  With the baby!  When I said this wasn’t a mommy blog, I may have fibbed.

Thus far, the baby hasn’t traveled farther than 45 minutes away from home.  A trip to Costco with the little man is still kind of a big deal, so needless to I am nervous/excited/how many more minutes until we leave already!?

I am a planner in a major way.  I plan compulsively.  I don’t like surprises (although my last birthday was awesome!), or any last minute change of plans.  I have been mentally planning this trip for the past two months.  I must admit, it’s exhausting.  But it’s almost here!

Housesitter to feed and love the fur children?  Check.  Ride to the airport?  Check.  Laundry?  Getting there.  Packing List?  That’s right, I make a list of what to pack.  I start one as soon as I know that I’m travelling somewhere, and I then I tweak it until it’s actually time to start to packing.  I told you I’m a planner.  And it’s mainly because I hate to overpack.  Nothing drives me crazier than schlepping something along on a trip and never using it.  So yes, the list I need to pack is almost finished.  And it’s never been longer.  

As soon as we had the baby I gave up any dreams of carry-on only travel, resigned to pay checked baggage fees from here to eternity.  The smallest member of our family also seems to need the most stuff, but I’m hoping that between my suitcase and my husband’s, all of the baby’s things will fit and we can get away with only checking one suitcase a piece.  Wish me luck.  We’re going to Hawaii, not the Sahara desert, so I’d rather under pack and pick something up there if we really need it.  

The biggest ticket items that are new to our travel entourage are a car seat and stroller.  Day to day we use a Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant car seat (which I adore) and an Uppa Baby Vista stroller (also love).  Up until recently, we used the Chicco adapter to attach the car seat to the Vista frame for toodling around town.  I loved this arrangement.  But as the little man desperately wants to be a big boy and sit up now, we’ve transitioned to the ‘big boy’ seat attachment for the Vista and the car seat just stays put in the car.  

We’ll be renting a car on the trip, so we definitely need to bring the car seat along (baby will be flying on my lap, save your criticism), but I don’t want to risk the Vista getting damaged on the plane.  I kind of envision wearing the little man to be more practical in Hawaii as is (beaches, and hiking, and lava flows, oh my) but that leaves us trying to carry a baby, our luggage, and a car seat through the airports and security.  Yikes.  It makes me sweat just imagining it.

A quick call to a seasoned mom friend, and bam, we have the answer.  We are going to borrow her Snap n’ Go stroller frame.  That gives us an easy way to transport the car seat, with the baby sitting in it or not, the option to have a stroller in Hawaii if we need it, and the ability to wear my little guy in his snugli when he’s in the mood, which I prefer.  

I am waiting for this to be delivered tomorrow to protect the car seat enroute.  We’ll gate check the car seat and borrowed stroller frame for free, and be relatively luggage light on the flight itself.  

We’re a happy bed sharing family (again, not interested in criticism, we’re responsible parents), so we’re not worried about sleeping arrangements or pack n’ plays and such.

First-world, mom problems?  We’ll see how this all plays out.