New Car Seat!!! (And traveling Gear!!!)

After much indecision, I finally decided to get a Britax Marathon for Izzy. So, I went online, and found a good price, and was able to buy it through HipMonkey.com, which gives all of its net profits to a foundation that helps purchase car seats for children in need. And then, the next day, I changed my mind. Figures. So, I called HipMonkey a few times to try to cancel the order because if I wanted to get the Britax Boulevard, there was a much better price at a different site. So finally, I emailed HipMonkey, and was told that they were having telephone problems, but that they definitely could cancel the order and PRICE MATCH the Boulevard, so Yay! I got the one I wanted.

Not only that, but I have been planning out how to travel from Richmond to Milwaukee with Izzy, but not Chris, so I bought this thing called the Traveling Toddler, which attaches the car seat to a rolling carry on. I bought it through Amazon, which sent the order to HappyMothers. But then, Happy Mothers tried to send me the Tote a tot. So I called them and had it all fixed, but later realized that they were charging me for the Tote a tot, not the Traveling Toddler. So I called them again, and they said they would credit me the difference.

So I also needed a rolling carry on, and finally decided on the Eagle Creek ES Tarmac 22, partly because it got great reviews, AND partly because it has a No Haggle Lifetime warranty. So, I went to Backcountry.com, and used my 20% off coupon to get it. Then, days later, it went on sale for less than I paid, so I talked to them, and they credited me the difference.

All in all, it took a lot, but I am please not only with what I got, but also with the prices I paid for them. I hate feeling like I spent too much.

So, here are some pictures of the final products.

This is the car seat attached to the rolling carry on with the Traveling Toddler.


And here it is, tipped back, so you can see how it will roll.


Here is a top view.


And in this one, you can really see the Traveling Toddler. It's the black straps across the carry on.


And finally, here is the Britax Boulevard in Onyx.


It took me forever to get the car seat into the car, mostly because I couldn't decide if I wanted to use LATCH or the seat belt. In the end, I used both. Also, Britax uses a Versa-Tether system to anchor the car seat from the top, and I installed it per the instructions, but it didn't look right, so I went online to see what people said, and then re-installed it based on what they said. It looks fine, but I can't wait to use the seat forward facing.

So, now, I think I am ready to travel with Izzy...maybe...