Terrible Twos Times Two Flight, or What went wrong last summer?

So last summer's flight to and from Wisconsin was pretty much a disaster (well, at least in Dada's words), and since we (he) vowed never to fly again, my words needed to take a while off before writing about being an expert at traveling with twins.  Here's what went wrong and how I think (hope) it should be fixed:

• 3-1 seating.  We always have sat 3 in one row and Dada across the aisle.  This was fine when we had 1-2 kids in car seats and their legs were too short to do any damage.  No longer awesome - neither kid wanted to be with Mommy, both wanted to sit on Dada's lap.  Both spent a ton of time, especially during takeoff and landing, trying to climb across Mommy and the aisle to get to Dada who was sitting next two two business men on their way to a conference (their fault, not ours...it was open seating after all)  Wishful solution:  put the kids in the back of the plane and Mommy & Dada up front.  Probable solution:  each parent with one kid. 
• Car seat.  We didn't bring a car seat on the way, but thought it would be better to have one on the return trip.  Nope.  Neither kid wanted to be strapped in (and by this time, they both knew it wasn't a requirement at their age).  When we did strap one in, their legs were now long enough to pretty much reach around the seat in front of them and put the little girl in a full headlock.  Now, to be honest, I kinda was glad that they tried that, because this mom and her two pre-teen daughters tried to cut in front of me in the Skycap line.  And she was snotty to my boys when they got on the plane.  Kick away, dear son.
• Kicking - Ok, even without the car seat, there is just something interesting to little kids about their feet and the seat in front of them.  On the final leg of our trip, a dad with an equally spirited son of the same age said their trick is to put their son in the seat behind their daughter.  We'll try that next time.  Now we need to just figure out which son deserves to be kicked more...
• Movies - neither kid wanted to wear their headphones, so we just unplugged them and kept the sound on quietly.  But we brought new movies which was a mistake.  Maybe with bigger kids, a new movie is fun and exciting.  My boys thrive on familiarity (we watch Cars pretty much every day, once watching it four times in one day).  I'd suggest bringing a couple old and new just in case.

Here's what did work:

• On the flight out, one of the flight attendants was a mom of twins and quite sympathetic and helpful.  You can't pick the flight crew, but you can usually spot a 'friend'.  Since you're boarding early (and you should!), take a little time to be kind to the crew. 
• Same flight attendant brought us a couple plastic cups and a trash bag at the beginning of the flight.  The cups were great for entertainment (amazing what a cup can do with a little creativity and a couple two-year olds).  The trash bag allowed us to maintain some level of sanity in our row, and made it a quicker picker upper at the end of our flight.  We had at least 10 packs of those little Styrofoam yogurt puffs, many of which didn't make the mouths, so the trash bag was a huge help (also kept the wandering monkeys from eating the dropped puffs off the ick floor).
• One CEO of the Trip - I'm a planner, so the logistics have been hashed out in my head every which way from Sunday for months before the trip.  My husband hops in the car and goes to the airport, hoping I've packed his carry on bag with his headphones.  But typically, once we've gotten to the airport, he challenges, I mean 'questions', every action.  So for this trip, I ran through the 'plan' about a week before the trip, giving him that opportunity to troubleshoot or opine.  But then the rule was on Game Day, he had to follow the plan (and by extension, me) without challenge.  He could only suggest changes if Plans A-E failed or after the trip.  This worked much better for everyone. Of course, I'm the one writing about it, so he would probably say "control freak."  To some extent that is correct, but hey...it takes some control to manage twin toddlers and their parent.

Other random thoughts from that trip:

• We can't really get from San Diego to Wisconsin on a direct flight, but sometimes we can get a flight with one stop, no plane change.  I'm undecided on this.  If I can get a layover just slightly over an hour, I think I'd prefer that so we can get out, get a snack and get some wigglies out.  Sometimes without the plane change, you can get off the plane, sometimes not.
• At two years old, it's still pretty tough to find age-appropriate food in the airports.  We still did BYO everything under the sun (well mostly those yogurt puffs), just buying some water and juice once we cleared security.  Don't quote me, since every security counter is a bit different, but we were able to bring a couple sippy cups of milk from home, and were able to bring a small frozen ice pack in our insulated lunch bag.

We grounded the family last winter and will be making another attempt soon.  I'll be trying some new things with my three-year olds and hopefully all of us make it to our destination.