Ideas for air travel...

Hubs and I are getting ready to go on a family vacation to Seattle with our two little boys...that's going to be lots of fun. I apologize in advance to any of the passengers we'll be sharing the flights with. Though one things for sure: the boys will have plenty of mommy milk to ease them during take off and landing. Of course, Baby Boy will get to eat from the tap. I'll have my Harmony with me so I can pump just enough to fill a couple of oral syringes for the boys' ears.

Any way, so this post is about how we are looking to save money while traveling. So far, I saved us nearly ten dollars on a Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory. Never heard of one? Neither had we until we started researching easy ways to travel with a toddler and infant. Is there really an easy way???

A car seat travel accessory is a nylon strap, or as the description states:

"heavyweight polypropylene webbing that will withstand 900 lbs of force"

 Wow!!! At least I know it shouldn't break should we buy this...but we didn't buy it. Remember, I said we are looking to save money. So instead I purchased a 1" x 10' Light Duty Ratchet Tie Down for a whopping $4.88 at Walmart (for loads up to 300lbs and a break strength of 900lbs) vs. the $14.75 + shipping I would have spent with Amazon.

Now I was going to get all crafty with it, cut it to the length I needed, add the small D-clips and get rid of the hooks, but then I saw this:

Go-Go Babyz Car Seat Luggage Strap. Wow! $20 plus shipping??? Really??? I just saved us even more money. But that's not the point with this find. This find showed something else I hadn't thought of. Why not just take the tie-down, run it through the car seat and tighten? But what about the top tether latch of the car seat that would keep the tie-down from slipping off our carry-on? The tie down has two hooks, one attached to the strap and one attached to a smaller strap that is attached to the ratchet.

We hooked the two ends together, but I was afraid they would come apart, so hubs suggested a zip-tie. It's not very classy, but it works. We attached the car seat to some carry-on luggage and was really surprised how well it worked. We tethered the top latch of the car seat to the hooks and it helped to distribute the weight very evenly. This was the best $5 dollars we have ever spent. No need to spend more than that for a travel accessory that you may only get to use once or twice.

And now I wish I had a picture of Little Boy in his car seat as I toted him around to see how well it worked. He was a happy camper, our lives were made just that much easier and I have a feeling once we're traveling through the airport he will be having a blast.