"-Merica" -- There and Back Again

I won't bother with any excuses as to how we've had a 4 month dead spot in our blog, because I know excuses would be a bother to read.  I'm sorry!  But to catch up, we traveled to America at the end of May and returned to Indonesia at the end of July.  Jet lag was horrible....there's just no easy way to help 2 small children adjust to a 14 hour time change.  However we had a wonderful time and made some great memories!  This blog post is dedicated to the experience of traveling with small children....

People asked me "How was the trip?"  I answered "Vomiting, diarrhea, and tantrums, oh my!" We had all 3, although no pictures of these events as we were busy dealing with it!  Here are some of the other fun details.....

When you are traveling with small children, it's best to travel as light as possible....ha, ha!  For carry-on luggage we had 2 strollers and 2 backpacks and 1 small roller suitcase.  It's still too much considering we had to somehow carry the 2 grumpy children also!  We found that during our layovers, we had to just choose a place to park and then stay there because lugging around possessions + children was not worth it!

For the most part, Joshua was a very jolly traveler and napped and nursed when he was supposed to.  His only problem was that he started in with diarrhea about an hour after our first international flight -- 4 poopy diapers in about 2 hours!  The diarrhea continued for about 10 days -- I'm pretty sure it was rotavirus. 

We almost lost Jonathan at the Jakarta airport.  I had gone to change clothes with Joshua while Dave shifted some of our belongings.  Jonathan was with Dave playing on this very cool airport golf cart.  When I came out of the bathroom, Jonathan had disappeared and Dave had just started looking for him.  Fortunately an airport employee quickly pointed him out "driving" an identical golf cart across the way.  This was our first trip not using Jonathan's safety harness so we learned to keep our eye on him at every second!  Uhm....I know....you'd think we would have learned that by now but he's gotten faster!

We had an eternal 5 hour layover at the Jakarta airport, during which Dave suffered a nasty ramp vs luggage cart vs shin collision and we made a difficult terminal change.  Here we are waiting for a microwaved snack at this little cafe.

 

The boys got a lot of love at the Jakarta airport.  Here Joshua is getting a handshake and a cheek pinch from the airport security lady.  

It's nice to have a travel companion!

We flew on Taiwan's EVA AIR line which we do highly recommend.  Tip to travelers:  If you ever have a choice between an American airline or an Asian airline, go ASIAN all the way.  The service is always superior.  This was our airplane!  Taiwan is obsessed with Hello Kitty and Eva Air has responded by commissioning 5 Hello Kitty jumbo jets!  Inside the passenger safety cards all have kitty ears, too!

 At the Taiwan airport there is also a Hello Kitty theme children's area complete with a pink playground and a Hello Kitty rainbow mini-amphitheater playing continuous Hello Kitty videos!

Soon after boarding, the stewardesses bring around toys for the kids!  Jonathan got a cool puzzle/construction toy and a sticker/color book with crayons!

Ah, it was so sweet!  Eva airlines has special children's meals!  Jonathan loved the spaghetti-- unfortunately his stomach said "No thank you" since he was eating at the equivalent of 2 am and it all came back up with great fanfare a few minutes after this photo was taken.

My sweet husband let me take a rest at the Taiwan airport while he walked with the boys.  This picture is priceless....  Shortly after this photo Jonathan woke up and had the mother of all meltdowns....it's better left forgotten, but I'm afraid I'll never forget it!

 An eternity later we arrived in Seattle and were picked up by Dave's parents.  Grandma Arlette immediately presented Jonathan with a copy of "Go Train Go" which we also have at our house.  He was so happy to see something familiar he kissed it!  It was Grampa and Grandma's first time to meet Joshua so hugs all around. 

Jet lag with 2 small children ...this picture says it all.  One sleeping baby on back, one grumpy toddler in front and a rather dark circled, aged, wan looking mommy in the middle!  But I will say our jetlag experience this year was better than last year thanks to Jonathan being a little more mature and me not being pregnant!

Fast forward.....sharing now two fun pictures from our return trip.  Our return trip was nice, actually.  Neither of the two international flights were full so we had a lot of room to spread out and run around which made all the difference in the world.