Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Travel Day Check List

It's always important to have a checklist when preparing for travel -especially international travel with small children. I created several lists (shocking!) in a notebook for what we needed to purchase, what we needed to do, what items were packed in which pieces of luggage, and a master checklist of the number of each type of item we had for each person. It felt like too much stuff, but averages to approximately 1 pound of luggage per day that we are gone. So, maybe that's ok? Time will tell!

Our travel began on Friday August 7 as we packed up a rented minivan to drive with Jeff's parents from Macomb to Cedar Rapids, where we switched all of our luggage to a borrowed suv to travel with my parents from Cedar Rapids to Hastings. This was no small feat, even with only half of the luggage travelling with us at this point! Ten hours later we made it safely, with all of our belongings.

On Sunday, August 9, we headed to the airport in Minneapolis to travel on two flights: first to Iceland, and then to Denmark. It is here where our travel checklist begins.

Check in to flights: check.
Check 9 suitcases; check.
Told by check-in agent that one carry-on bag won't fit and must be  checked: check.
Broke shoe and had to throw them away: check.
Breeze through security thanks to kind agents: check.
Remember that kids dramamine and tylenol and applesauce for flight are all in aforementioned checked carry-on: check.
Find airport gate playground: check.
Baby throws up too many doritos: check.
Look outside at airplane while waiting to board, see one of our bags on the tarmack: check.
Board plane, install carseat: check.
Get kids to sleep: no check.
Eventually get baby to sleep 90 minutes before end of flight: check.
Land in Iceland: check.
Go through customs: check.
Board plane to Denmark: check.
Get Torben to sleep on plane: check.
Get Anders and Svea to sleep on plane: no check.
Land in Billund: check.
Retrieve luggage and meet pastor friend who will drive us to Rodding: check.
Meet taxi driver who did not get cancellation message and wants to drive us: check.
Buckle three kids into car seats for 1 hour drive: check.
Kids sleep: check.
Arrive at new home! Check.


The trip here was an adventure, nothing bad happened, and we did fine without any medicine for the kids on the planes. They loved watching the plane take off and land, and the flights themselves went by quickly.



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