KONA, HI – Carly and Luke Elmsworth are seriously considering leaving their two young kids in Hawaii after a chaotic flight to the big island for vacation. Two exploding diapers, three hours of crying, and a cracked iPad screen were the tipping point.
The Ellsworth’s, who live in a small suburb outside of Chicago, IL, took their first pandemic era vacation, a desperately needed vacation after being locked down in Illinois for two years. They brought their two young children with them on the flight and are seriously reconsidering their life choices after a disastrous and chaotic flight out to the island state.
Their young twins, Micah and Madison, aged 3, were born just before the pandemic so the couple never really had a chance to experience air travel with them or even a vacation.
“Holy flipping mother of god,” the 33-year old Luke mentioned to a vacationing Takeoff Nap reporter in the breakfast line of the Hilton hotel, “This is sheer madness, man. Sheer stinking madness!”
The 11+ hour flight from Chicago’s O’hare International Airport (ORD) felt like the entire pandemic lockdown rolled into one flight, according to Luke’s wife Carly, who sat hunched over a cup of coffee while Luke retrieved her breakfast. Her twins both sat in high chairs, one leaning halfway out trying to reach a fallen crayon while the other simply smeared banana on his face.
After the second exploding diaper, their fellow passengers on the flight stopped being so understanding and their looks of sympathy turned to looks of hate – and there was still 4 hours to go on the flight. Even the flight attendants stopped coming around after that incident.
After landing, the couple barely managed to get to the hotel room, where the kids demanded to see the dolphins despite having 24 hours of no sleep. The next day, the kids refused to see the dolphins because they were “scared” – instead, demanding to watch Peppa Pig on the cracked iPad, then complained that the screen was cracked.
“This is the last family vacation we ever take! Luke posted on Twitter. “I don’t know how parents do this. I really don’t!”
