European Vacation 2018: Just Go With It, or London day 2 and 3

I awoke just before 8 am feeling like a new woman (despite the pullout bar under me) and giddy about the day we had planned.  We got up and showered and ready to go--but the problem was we still had 3 sleeping kids.  I'm not usually one to wake sleeping children when I try so, so hard to get them to sleep in the first place, but I also really wanted to make the most of our day in London since this was the only full day we had.  We had to get to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards by 10:30 and breakfast closed at 9:30 anyway so we did wake them. Amelie and Emmett woke up easily and willingly, but Liam is the hardest to get to sleep and the hardest to wake up from sleep and he was out cold.  So we ate in shifts and carefully packed a few extra croissants and nutella for Liam to eat on the road.  I tried the traditional English breakfast of baked beans, scrambled eggs, and sausage, but I preferred the croissant and nutella :).  Finally at exactly 9:30 we were all breakfasted, teeth brushed, had water, snacks, and sunscreen packed for the day and we were headed out.

We arrived at Buckingham palace with plenty of time to spare and it was clearly the place to be.  We snapped a few pictures in front of the iconic gates and then Spencer convinced me that we didn't want to stand around waiting in the crowd but go by the stables where the next round of guards were lining up.  This plan of action was confirmed by a kindly older British man who told us where we really wanted to be was by the stables.  I think this would have been an amazing London experience except that it was the Royal Canadian army that day, so while we did have an amazing view, it looked very much like an ordinary military parade rather than what I pictured with the red uniforms and tall, furry black hats.

We weaved through the crowds because we had a schedule to keep moving! Our plan was to walk by Trafalgar Square and pass St. James Palace, 10 Downing Street, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.  But we took a slight detour to find Emmett a potty, only to find it was really difficult to find a potty that we didn't need to pay for since we discovered we left our bag of small coins (RE: all of our Pounds) in the hotel.  The good part was that it was early in the day and everyone was amenable to enjoying the scenes of London while we tried to find a bathroom.  We did really enjoy walking around and along the way we managed to pass by St. James Palace at the end of the Changing of the Guards procession.  But it became evident that not only did Emmett urgently need a bathroom, but everyone was getting cranky and hungry, so we broke one of our cardinal Rules of Foreign Travel and ate at 5 Guys. I can't even believe I'm admitting that, but we decided that for how much we were asking the kids to stretch out of their comfort zones, we could concede and let them eat someplace "safe".  Totally worth it.

Outside St James Palace

Trafalgar Square

Fueled up and with plenty of ice water we continued on, only slightly behind schedule. The kids were brilliant walkers (the suckers I stuck in my purse didn't hurt!) which was good because we did a lot!  Traveling with kids meant we stopped to admire things we might not otherwise, like this pond in St James Park while we were trying to find 10 Downing Street (which we saw the back of but missed the front).

Parliament

  The back of Westminster Abbey          

Since we were embracing all the London classics in a short time, we walked by Parliament and Westminster Abbey but only spent enough time to snap a few photos before we rode a double decker bus to our next destination, the British Museum. The novelty of riding at the top of the bus was quickly replaced by a desire for comfort since it was HOT up on top.  I think the kids would have gladly stayed up there but I was getting sweaty and I did not want to get sweaty sitting on a bus after we had been walking comfortably all day.  We happened to be visiting London in the middle of a "heat wave" (meaning it was in the upper 70's and sunny the whole time, or the PERFECT weather) so I'm sure the top of a double decker is much more comfortable when it's not "hot" outside.  

At the British Museum we saw the Rosetta Stone and the famous murdered mummy.  As we were planning this trip to Europe, we tried to balance our desires to see certain things with things that would be meaningful and interesting for kids.  Thus Spencer would have loved to have spent time in Parliament and I would have loved going inside Westminster Abbey but beyond the limited time we had, we knew it would not make for the most enjoyable family vacation.  Whether or not they fully appreciated it, it was interesting for the kids to see famous things that are referenced in school, movies, and other things.  Liam was interested in the Rosetta Stone since he learned about it in school, and it has been interesting after vacation to point out things we saw.

Of course for dinner we ate Fish 'n Chips.  Even Liam, who doesn't like trying food he doesn't think he will like (and fish falls into that category) tried it and decided it was ok, which I call a win!  After dinner our plan was to go to Hyde Park to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and playground for kids to let them do something that was just fun.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there the park had closed for the day! I think I was more disappointed than the kids, although they were disappointed, but thankfully Spencer is good at coming up with fun ideas.  He remembered the leftover bread we had stashed for emergency snack needs and feeding the swans and pigeons ended up being a highlight.  Seriously, the kids mentioned it repeatedly as one of their favorite parts of London.  Sometimes, it's the simple things.

We leisurely strolled through Kensington Park on our way to the Tube to head back to the hotel, but along the way we decided we better find a snack to try to avoid the "I'm hungry" meltdowns at bedtime.  At that moment a Whole Foods Market appeared and since fresh fruits and veggies are often the hardest thing to get enough of when traveling, it seemed like a good enough option. I won't say our advanced planning eliminated the meltdowns, but it did minimize them.

I love this picture.  At the end of the day, this picture, not the perfectly posed picture, is the one that reminds me of the joy of traveling with kids and experiencing the world with them.

*   *   *

Last day in London.  It should not have surprised me that getting out of the hotel with all of our luggage and getting our luggage to the Bag BNB took waaay longer than expected.  It meant cutting out a stop at the Borough Market and spending slightly less time at the Tower of London than I would have hoped, but nobody went hungry and we did make our flight.  And we still did get to spend several hours at the Tower of London, which was my favorite part of London.  

First of all, I loved how old it was! 

So much history! Due to the "heat wave" the Beefeaters tour was cut short because they were worried about people fainting.  We had to chuckle since we left a real heatwave at home with lots of 90 degrees and humidity

This is my illicit picture taken in the chapel before I realized I wasn't supposed to take pictures.  Oops.

One of the oldest toilets they've ever seen ( they would see the oldest in a few days).

We did get to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tower of London too.

In order to see as much of the Tower of London as we could, we had to forgo lunch, which wasn't ideal, but thankfully I packed lots of protein granola bars and once again, everyone was very cooperative!

All to quickly, we had to leave to retrieve our bag from the bag BNB (which meant a train ride + 1 mile walk round trip), and then another train ride to the airport to catch our flight to Barcelona.  London was a whirlwind trip, but even a year later we still talk about how much we love London and can't wait to go back!

European Vacation 2018: It Begins, or London, Day 1

After months of planning, finally The Big Day arrived! It was a little bit anti climactic since the day we left involved a 2 1/2 hour drive to the airport and then an 8 hour overnight flight.  Luckily, the kids think airports are amazing and the idea of sleeping on an airplane sounded cool.  I was a little nervous about how this flight would go even if the kids were excited about it, because I know just how challenging it is to sleep in a confined space.  We gave everyone melatonin, gathered blankets, neck pillows and eye masks, and tried to get comfy.  It worked for Emmett who fell asleep before take off, and I dozed during take off, but as soon as we hit cruising altitude, the lights came back on and they served us dinner.  I was grateful for the meal (especially since when we booked our ticket on Norwegian Airlines, we didn't think we were going to get any food!) but it didn't help with the sleeping.  Unsurprisingly, the kid who had the hardest time getting to sleep was Liam, who finally fell asleep with 3 1/2 hours left on the flight--and he only slept stretched out across my lap.  Of all the lengths I have gone through to make sure that boy sleeps, I think this one tops them all (worth it!).

 On the plane and ready to go! (as a side note, we booked on Norwegian Air because it was so much cheaper and I was a little nervous that it was going to be a "get what you pay for" type situation, but it was probably the best overseas flight experience I've ever had.)

 True to Emmett, he was asleep before we took off--he was a great traveler!

 Liam, finally sleeping laying across my lap, his seat, and spilling into the aisle, but he did sleep!

The amazing thing about a long overnight flight and not getting much sleep on an airplane is that when you land someplace new and exciting, you can easily forget that you are tired.  Then the hour and half line to get through customs hit and I remembered that I only got about 3 disjointed hours of sleep.  Our sleep deprived mental abilities were tested while trying to keep track of kids and bags and keep a cheery attitude while slowly creeping through the line.  It was as though every international flight landed in Gatwick at the same time; but of course the wonderful thing was seeing so many people from all over the world coming to visit the U.K.  I liked to spy on what countries the passports of other tourists were from.  When we finally got stamped through, it was a pretty thrilling moment!

That moment when we got on the train and could see the U.K. outside our window was exhilarating. 

But we weren't quite ready to relax and enjoy our vacation yet: we still had to get the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station and then take the Tube to the stop nearest our hotel and then walk a half mile to the hotel (sounds like maybe we should have just hired a car to take us).  I like to think of myself as public transportation savvy.  My mom taught me how to use the Subway growing up and her attitude of comfort and ease taught me the same.  I also lived in Spain for a few months and D.C. for a few years where taking the metro was a near daily occurrence.  I've even taken kids -although they were babies in a stroller and not capable of independent movement--and suitcases on public transportation.  Somehow trying to maneuver 3 suitcases, several backpacks, 3 independently mobile kids and one stroller on an unfamiliar public transportation system made me feel a little stressed.  I generally like to try and blend in to my surroundings but we had a gigantic, flashing "Tourist" sign with us everywhere we went.  So I decided I would just embrace it.  We are tourists because we want to experience the world, so I would be proud of our desire to take our kids across the ocean even if it wasn't always convenient.

outside our hotel; the neighborhood was so charming!

However I expected that the locals would not embrace our Tourist identity.  And that was when I started to fall in love with London.  We were S-L-O-W-L-Y making our way through the Underground: Spencer hauling 2 massive suitcases up and down stairs, while I herded children, a small suitcase and carried the stroller, all while trying to get our bearings and figure out our directions, when someone just picked up an end of the stroller and helped me carry it down the stairs.  It was such a simple thing but to me it was huge.  We were obviously not from around there and yet this person saw a need and helped without being asked.  It wasn't the only time a stranger helped us in London either.

Phew! It took us several hours longer than we planned, but we made it to our hotel! It was in Hammersmith which was a ways west of all the tourist highlights but I loved getting a glimpse of a London neighborhood and only wish we had more time to explore the area.  We squeezed our things into the tiniest of hotel rooms, showered off and decided to scrap our previous plan for the day and head out to Picadilly Circus to find some food and wander around.

Picadilly was a great place to start exploring.  For one thing, we were greeted by a Lego store.  I scoffed a bit at first, I mean, there's a Lego store just an hour away from us, but the Big Ben built out of Legos drew me in.  It was actually a pretty cool Lego store with life size replicas of the Tube and the iconic phone booth all done with Legos.  It was a good way to initiate our kids.  We ate and of course found ice cream and lazed about the fountain with William Shakespeare.  I was amazed at how much London instantly felt familiar to me in a way that other European cities didn't.  It reminded me of parts of New York or Boston: but at the same time it didn't.  It sounds so cliche to say but it looked just like the movies. Despite our fatigue, I think we could have spent a few more hours wandering around, but we knew we needed to head back to sleep.

 Because Big Ben was under construction Lego Big Ben was the best we could do.

Nothing like Legos, Bubble ice cream (with strawberries and nutella), and playing around a water fountain to pump up the enthusiasm for foreign travel with the kiddos.

Everyone was asleep by 10 pm--which doesn't sound that impressive, but when 3 over tired, jet lagged kids are sharing a double bed, convincing everyone to settle down and go to sleep and to try and stay in your own space while not kicking your sibling is a challenge.  I was so tired, I didn't even notice that Spencer and I were sharing a slightly wider than twin size pull out bed: I fell blissfully asleep and slept the disorienting sleep of jet lag.

I wish I had taken a picture of the comically small--but very clean and tidy--hotel room, but I did think the sleeping arrangements of the kids to be quite funny.  Basically this was half the room, our tiny pull out bed touched theirs and then there was an entryway and closet bathroom.  Suitcases were shoved under beds and it was a game of tetris to get clothes out to change and then to try and leave the room.  

European Vacation 2018: Planning

When is the trip worth it with kids? For years we've generally stuck to simple vacations thinking that the kids don't much care and it's really more work for us anyway.  Living in the Midwest provides us many opportunities to take easy road trips which have thus far satisfied my wanderlust.

But 4 years ago Spencer's family started planning this cruise to Europe.  At the time Emmett was an infant and it seemed like an impossible fantasy.  Who takes children to Europe, right??  Well the reason to not go was always the possibility of babies in the family, but by February it seemed that wasn't going to be a reason to keep us from going and so we committed.  I will admit that it had been so long since I had taken a foreign trip like this that I was so giddy at the thought.  I love to travel but it's a love that requires time and money: somethings that were in short supply for the early years of our marriage and child rearing.  Thanks to the generosity of Spencer's mom (and keeping a few other vacations simple to save up), this trip was within reach.  We decided that our kids ages might be a bit young to fully appreciate Europe, but they were old enough to get valuable things out of it.  They were old enough to understand how to be flexible (even if they can't always actually be flexible), old enough to walk long distances, old enough to know stuff about history and art, old enough to understand sleeping on airplanes and not need naps, and old enough to know how to stay close and not run away.  I loved the idea of taking our kids to experience different cultures and parts of the world.  Also, a cruise is definitely the way to travel with kids so we knew the fun on the cruise would help make the less interesting (to kids) parts more tolerable.  Magically, it seemed like things were lining up nicely for a big adventure!
                                              

Passports (Amelie had the cutest passport photo)

We knew that to make the long trip really worth it, we needed to do a lot of planning.  First off was finding plane tickets which would determine our itinerary.  We found a great deal on plane tickets to London which allowed for a few days in London--I was so excited to see London since I hadn't been before and it was near the top of my places to see.  Once we had the itinerary planned we began finding library books and doing Family Home Evening lessons relating places we would see or artists or architecture to values and personal qualities we are teaching.  I actually really enjoyed having intentional lessons that made the world around us directly relate to our kids.  We had a lesson on Vatican City and the Apostasy and Restoration; a lesson on Gaudi and using talents to glorify God; a lesson on different types of government (Monarchy, Democracy, Republic).  I think perhaps the most useful lesson though was one Spencer taught on jet lag, unpredictability of travel, and the Natural Man.  This one was fun where he showed a website that had the earth and what time it was in different places, so we showed them what time it was where we would visit and home.  He then showed a GIF of a cat falling into an empty bathtub and freaking out, using it to say sometimes we would fall into the BATH (Bored, Angry, Tired, or Hungry) and that might make us feel upset, but we didn't need to freak out.  To combat these, Spencer came up with FLIP 3T's : Flexible, Laugh, Identify why you feel that way, Plan ahead, Trust your parents, Take turns, and Thank Heavenly Father for your blessings.  I tell him all the time, but I am so grateful I have Spencer on my team: he's brilliant.  The kids were very engaged in this lesson and it set up a great narrative to base our trip on.  Having a big exciting trip to look forward to helped make it enjoyable to learn together about volcanoes, different forms of government, historical figures, artists, and how to travel.  Taking the time to learn all of this helped make us more excited for the trip too!

We also tried to teach saving money for a goal by deciding how much we would cut back in different parts of our budget to put towards the trip.  This was a little hard for them as the idea of a distant trip was not always motivating for them, but hopefully it's one of those messages that will sink in over time.

 sample packing to make sure it all fit

So much of the enjoyment of a trip is enhanced for me by the planning and anticipating.  We planned itineraries, how to get around (again, Spencer did so amazing at this), where to eat, what to pack (and how to pack as light as possible), the best kind of footwear (Keens for kids, Birkenstocks for me!) and clothing to be comfortable, how to survive an 8 hour plane flight with kids.  We had to prioritize what we wanted to see and keep in mind what would be most enjoyable for the whole family.  This meant some things were skipped (Westminster Abbey and the Vatican museum).  But of course we knew, no matter how much planning we did, we had to be willing to be flexible.  We were all really excited about this trip!

family hikes to build endurance

Epic Roadtrip 2017: South Dakota and Goin' Home

After we said good-bye to family and Cody and started journeying back home, it was easy to feel a little let down, but we still had a few fun stops planned so we couldn't get too down.

First, we drove by Mt Rushmore...

And now I can check that off my bucket list. But seriously, not as cool as I thought.  The Black Hills of South Dakota were beautiful, but I was a little disappointed I spent $10 to see this.

 I love this picture, doesn't it just express traveling with kids so well? Ha!

 We spent the night in Wall, SD, yes, home of THE Wall Drug.  Had to get our free ice water and tell the kids no, we weren't buying any of the tourist trap junk there!

 The next day we drove through the Badlands, which were really cool!

 Ate smushy peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches for what felt like the 7th day in a row, but it sounded way better than McDonalds.  Seriously, PBN sandwiches are one of my favorite road trip hacks so we can save money to eat the good stuff.  But also sometimes you just have to eat to survive so McDonald's it is! The drive through the Badlands ended up adding a lot more time than we expected but we were not giving up a stop at DeSmet, SD.

What's in DeSmet? Well as any good fan of the Little House on the Praire books knows its the homestead where the Ingall's family settled in On the Shores of Silver Lake.  Also where Laura met Almanzo and they started their family.  After the very long amount of time we spent in the car, I was beginning to feel doubtful that this was really going to be worth the extra 2 hours out of our way.

 Well it totally was!!! Not only was it magical for us fans of the books, but the whole family had a great time traveling back in time.

 the barn full of little kittens was also pretty fun.

 I highly recommend making the effort to visit the Laura Ingalls homestead in DeSmet, SD.  It might not sound like much to say it's the best thing we saw in South Dakota, but it was really fun and I wish we had about another hour there.  Unfortunately, we also misjudged how long it would take to get to our final stop of the trip: LaCrosse, WI.  It ended up being a very late night, but we made it, snapped a picture of the Mississippi River on our way out of town and made it the 6th state we took a picture in on this trip.

The last drive home was about 7 hours, and it was a little rough after being in the car for so many days.  We were all ready to be home and sleep in our own beds.  Yet even though we spent upwards of 50 hours in the car, we saw a lot of really incredible things and made wonderful memories.  The kids have become really good road trippers since living in Indiana means we take a lot.  There is nothing like a road trip to really appreciate the diversity of America--both in landscape and people.