Travelling tips

We have been asked how we survived the long trip across the Atlantic. First of all, we've done that several times. I think the most challenging trip was to Curacao three years ago when the boys were 1, 3 and 5. Within an hour after take-off from Frankfurt I had changed the clothing of two boys and my jeans were soaking wet from a cup of tea that was poured on my lap. And I didn't have any extra clothes.

Basically, it's just a matter of attitude. It's just a couple of hours of your life (and hopefully not the last ones). It's going to be uncomfortable, the boys are going to argue and we might end up sitting next to people who would prefer to sleep the entire flight. In the end, we've been positively surprised.

On this trip we used bribery! The boys were promised 20 dollars each if they didn't fight, my dad promised another 20. It was a challenging for them, poor kids. Once we could almost see steam coming from their heads, but all DH had to say was "20" and they walked away in different directions. We also had help from a PSP2 and iPod Touch, books and crayons. And patience, patience, patience!

Jet-lag takes a couple of days. This raging bull was with us in Florida last year, picture taken on the first day after arriving. As with the trip to Florida, also in Costa Rica we ended up carrying sleeping boys from dinner to the hotel. Oh, I remember Valentine's Day in 2005 on Marco Island, Florida. We had a dinner reservation in the evening. Risto didn't want to eat anything and just nibbled his food, and by the time we had the bottle of bubbly and sword fish brought to the table, Tuomas had a fit so we took turns eating and trying to calm down a raging 1-year-old outside the restaurant. An elderly couple looked at us smiling; the scene had brought back sweet memories from several decades back "You'll smile at this later".

PS: the number of visitors to my blog has increased significantly despite the fact that I don't update that often. I recognize a few locations of friends and family, but there are several regulars that I don't. It would be nice to know who you are! Drop me a comment!