Travel to USA with a 6 and a half month old & an almost 3 year old

Hello! An opportunity has come up for us to go to Tucson, Arizona in January (FIL is getting married again and they want to fly us all over there for the wedding in January). We would be CRAZY to pass this offer up. DS will be 6 and a half months old at the time and DD will be a few months off 3. Have flown multiple times around Australia with DD, so not new to flying, but have never gone on such a long flight or internationally. After any advice that you think would be helpful.

For those familiar with the USA...what is the best way to get around with a couple of kids? We will be in Tucson for most of the trip but I would like to take advantage of being in LA as well.

If we were to hire a car...do Australian child restraints fit into american cars (they are not compatible with V australia as apparently we are the only country that requires multiple anchor points and they don't accomodate that!)?

Basically we are just in the early stages of planning but I want to make sure that the trip and time over in the USA will be safe...any advice on making this easier would be much appreciated.

Are we crazy to travel that far with the kids so young? Will never have an opportunity like this again..it's not every day someone offers to fly your whole family to america!!

Thanks!

How fun!!

We took our DD when she was 19 months to Japan and the USA. We paid extra for a seat for her on the plane and took her car seat. It was fine in our rental in the USA. LA is really spread out and public transport isn't fantastic so you really need a hire car. There are a couple of rental places at the airport and others are a bit further away but have free shuttles. It's a beautiful drive through the desert to Arizona, maybe you can do a road trip?

Have a great time!!

Thanks Amber. Were you able to anchor the car seat the same in the american car as we do in Australia? The other option I suppose was to hire a car seat whilst over there so that we don't have to worry. We will have to take a domestic flight from LA to Tuscon so need to be careful of all the excess luggage as they may not allow it. Thanks again.

I can't remember how we anchored the car seat, I think it was the same as here because I don't remember DH mentioning it.
It was really great for the flight because it meant my DD had to sit still and was comfortable doing it because she was used to sitting in her car seat. And because you'll have to pay for her seat it means that you can take luggage for her so excess baggage probably won't be a problem because it will be spread out over the 3 of you (does that make sense?!)
They'll have cots on the plane for your youngest so that won't be a problem either.
I say go for it, we had so much fun we're planning another trip over for February!