Moriah's blog: Trip to Europe: Part 1

Everyone thought we were a little nuts and I admit, I thought I was too. To take a baby and little kids overseas on long flights and bring them to places that are not typically family friendly was a daunting task.
So I started on a quest to plan our trip with different perspective to make it more kid friendly. I found some really great resources along the way too!!

The guidelines were:
Do activities that both kids and adults would enjoy: for the most part
Try to have only 1-2 tours/activities planned per day and room for breaks naps
Don't try to see everything, pick the most important things.

But as much as I planned, things definitely tried their hardest to go wrong. But that's all part of the adventure!!

First I did a lot of research and found some great websites about traveling with kids. This one had not only family friendly places to stay but book lists of children's stories about each one.

Some of our Travel items

http://www.travelforkids.com

but my favorite was this one:

http://ciaobambino.com

Not only did they have family friendly ideas but very specific parks/tours/dining for toddlers and babies on blogs written by people who did it!! It was very helpful.

In preparation the kids and I did a lot of activities, read a lot of books and learned a little of each language. I made a folder with all the tickets and info organized by each location. So much fun!! Yes, I am a little OCD but everyone get's their fun somewhere...lol

Shawn's new luggage!!

Our Map of our trip and what transportation we are planning.

The Journey Begins

So, on June 13th, after a crazy stressful week not knowing for sure if one of the passports would get here in time....we boarded our first of four flights to Barcelona, Spain where we would board our cruise ship. After a little mix up with our seats, we arrived in Seattle. Our flight to Newark, New Jersey was delayed and we weren't sure if we would make it to our flight to Europe. Between our seats being mixed up again (They kept seating the kids and Christopher in bulkhead and exit rows:-) and telling us to finally board and then de-board, they suddenly said it was time to take off!

Riding the escalators was the best fun!

Grabbing some breakfast in Seattle.

Christopher slept most of the 5 1/2 hour flight to Newark.

When we arrived there, we received a message from my mom saying they had cancelled our flight!! However, that ended up just being a just a scare and we were able to board our biggest jet to London!! The kids loved that everyone had TVs in their seat and they had all the new releases: especially the Lego Movie and Frozen.

Our dinner on the plane...chicken curry, salad and some lemon cake. It was yummy!

I didn't sleep much during the 7 1/2 hour flight to London but the kids did really well and we arrived safely in London!! This is where we found out that our one large suitcase that we had checked did not arrive in London. In fact they had no idea where it was!! While most of our stuff was in our carry-ons, the diapers, babies clothes, my make-up and contacts etc were in this bag. So frustrating!!

We spent the night in London in an apartment that was a little more difficult to find that I had thought but after we got settled, we had Indian food and crashed!! Before falling asleep we met this houseguest hanging in the curtains above our bed. We didn't sleep quite as good afterward!! Giant giant spider!!!

The next morning, we boarded our plane to Barcelona! When we got off the plane however, our stroller wasn't there at the gate. It didn't come on the baggage claim and we were starting to panic. Our driver was waiting to take us to the cruise ship and we were running out of time!! Finally the lost baggage claim clerk went on a quest and finally located it in the wrong baggage claim on the other end of the airport!!! We were so relieved and excited to finally get to board our cruise ship!!!

Our first port was in Marseilles, France and we took a shuttle into the city to walk around.

We saw this amazing cathedral!

Tried yummy food at this little French Cafe!

Our second port was in Villefranche, France where we took a ferry boat into the town. We had some yummy French lunch and some crepes and headed back to the ship.

Eating dinner on the cruise

One night Mark took baby cause he was fussy and Mark was tired and this is how we found them. it was so cute!!!

Christopher turned one on the cruise ship!! He did not like his cake!!

The Dreamworks characters were on the ship!!

Sleeping with Daddy in our room on the cruise.

Zonked out!

The one long tour day we did on the cruise was to Rome. It was called Rome for Families and they took you to the Colosseum, a Da Vinci Museum where they let the kids interact with machines built from Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings, and then have time on our own after.

After we saw the Colosseum, our tour group started moving and I thought Mark was up with Joe but he had actually stepped over to look at something and didn't see us moving. We all had earphones on to hear the tour guide but Mark had taken his out for a second. Thus followed the worst hour or so of the entire trip! I went back to look for Mark but couldn't find him. So I continued with the boys and the tour group to the Da Vinci Museum while Joe went back to look. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy anything until I heard that Joe had found him. My smart brother went to find WiFi for his phone so he could text us. Some kind people helped me meanwhile and let me use their phone to find out the status of Mark and Joe. So happy that none of the horrible things I imagined were true and I have my brother safe and sound.

Playing with the inventions.

Christopher enjoying a Fruit Leather oblivious to all the drama with Mark.

The Trevi Fountain that was closed for repairs.

On our way to Pisa on the tour bus.

Back on the cruise Joe and I got away for a yummy Anniversary dinner. Really amazing and special!

Mark watched the baby and the kids went the fun activities in the on board day care. They begged and begged me to go and they loved it!

During the cruise Joe spoiled me with three spa treatments: a facial, a massage and a pedicure! I felt pretty pampered