We made it!

After 2 weeks of being based in an empty apartment (and several trips out of state to say goodbye to family), 1 week in a US hotel, 1 day of travel, and 2 days in a UK hotel, we are finally moved into our temporary housing. We will be here until we find a house to rent, at which time all of our belongings will be delivered and we can start the process of unpacking, organizing, and settling! It. has. been. a. lot. 

I can almost physically feel myself re-learning to be adaptable. I was once so good at that, but after having kids I became a lot more particular. It's not something I'm exactly proud of. Although I know it will be a painful process, in some ways I'm really looking forward to being forced to "just let things go". I've already had to practice that quite a bit during this process.

Our babies astounded me with how well they did during all of the travel. After a nightmare flight to Alaska when our oldest was 1 1/2 years old, my expectations were extremely low. I read lots of blogs on how to ease the pain of traveling with little ones, packed tons and tons of activities, new little toys, books, snacks, treats, and loaded the iPad full of new shows and apps. Those close to us know that we are pretty careful with how much time we allow our kids to watch TV and try to limit screens in general. But an international flight and days of upside-down schedules meant that we made an exception. We also made a Whole Foods run the day before our flight and got basically every snack we could find to fill their tiny backpacks.

Honestly, I think they were both really excited to be experiencing the airplanes and airports. They jumped around, pointing at everything, noticing everything, loving every little bit of it. Everything really is so much more magical through the eyes of a child. The first flight was only a little over an hour long and they both just colored the whole time.

We even got suckers for take-offs and landings!

Studying the safety brochure

And we're off!

Our layover in Chicago was 5 hours long, and although it wouldn't have normally been past bedtimes, we had been practicing going to bed earlier for several nights in an attempt to ease our jet lag once we arrived in the UK. So a few hours into the layover, we started to feel pretty worn out. THIS is when all the prep work really came in handy. We pulled lots of goodies out of their backpacks here. When they would tire of one thing, another came out. We also changed them into pajamas and did as much of their bedtime routine as we could.

As soon as we boarded the flight, our 2 year old fell asleep. I mean...it took her maybe 3 minutes after I strapped her into her car seat. I'm not exaggerating...she was awake for maybe 5 minutes of the entire flight to England. She woke up around 2 hours before we landed, fussed for a bit and said, "I come out mommy?" I told her that she could come out for just a few minutes (I was planning on checking her diaper and having her stretch her legs). I unstrapped her and she immediately nuzzled into me and fell back asleep until right before we landed. Our 4 year old had a little harder time sleeping on the plane. We weren't surprised by this at all. She has a hard time sleeping all the time because she doesn't want to miss out on anything. She tries not to sleep during road trips, we catch her squinting to read books in her bed in the middle of the night, etc. She looked out the window of the plane, watched TV, colored, read, played, and ate. She eventually gave in and slept for around 3 hours that night. 

Don't judge the leashes backpacks! We didn't lose our kids even once.

Safe at the Heathrow Airport, surrounded with our luggage, and waiting for the next phase of travel.