Traveling To South Africa

We made it to South Africa.  It took us about forty-one hours from the time we left our house in Texas to arriving at my parents house in Pretoria.

Traveling like is not for the faint of heart - but totally doable if you have no expectations what so ever.

It is insane, and all I wanted to do when we got to their house was take a week long shower and nap.

Even though it was hard, and tiring - all of it was so worth is seeing the kids excitement when they spotted my parents at the airport - grandparents are so special.

We got the airport, checked everything, said our crying good-byes to Nate (yes, we are a crying family) and headed through security.

I knew it was going to be an ok trip, when after we got through security and was busy shoving my laptop and liquids back into my bag when a guy stopped me and complimented me on how well behaved my kids were, and that we look like we got this.  Thanks random dude for affirmation :)

Anyways we hung out at the gate for a little while - finishing our lunch and watching the airplanes land and take off.

The beginning of our journey...

We had a little flight (1;30 hour) to Houston,  It was a breeze.

A disclaimer - I am totally a techno mom on this journey, because a) there is one of me and two of them b) it makes them happy, and when they are happy the entire flight is happy c) it is a special occasion d) when someone gifts them kindles we are definitely going to use them e) I don't really have to explain myself, and if you want to judge me - please go ahead.

We had an hour layover in Houston, hustled through the airport - took the skyline (my kids loved trains) and made it to our gate.  Out flight was slightly delayed.

This was our first 10:30 hour flight to Munich.  The kids where amazing.  We had dinner on the plane(I packed something because airplane food is gross, and we always end up with the crappy meals that no one wants because we are in the back of the plane) we watched a movie and colored a picture.

Then they slept.  They actually slept for about eight hours on this flight - it must be nice to be be able to curl up into a ball half your regular size and lay down.

We made it to Munich, and pretty much spend the day here at the airport - eating crappy airport food, camping out in the quiet areas, and scouting out kids play areas, to zap some energy from them.

All I can say is this was a LONG day!

We also had a fun encounter with the German airport police - but that is a story for another day ;)

Airport life. 

We had a little sit down dinner, to kill time since our flight only left at nine that night, and everyone was exhausted at this point.

they pretended that this was a tiny beer :) oh, germany we miss you so much!

We changed into some clean clothes, freshened up to kill time (hello dry shampoo, and baby wipes) plus the family bathrooms in Germany are incredibly clean and this process killed about and hour of time - and anything that kills time while travel with kids in my opinion is a friend.

We parked at our gate, where Hayleigh proceeded to pass out... bless her heart!

and Ian watched more planes land and take off.

Hello second 10:30 hour flight and also the longest, the hardest, and it felt like time stood still.  The kids did fine, but they were also done, and a little over tired which makes them way emotional.  But I managed to get them to sleep for a little bit....

We made it to South Africa, and as the plane started descending in preparation to land, everyone's spirits lifted a little.   It was a welcomed change.

I am beyond proud of the kids for sucking up the discomfort and tiredness like they owned it.  They were rockstar travelers, and made it so easy on me.  I am so blessed to be the mama of cultured little travelers, who loves adventures more then anything.

I'll leave this little video here to put a smile on your face... you can go ahead and thank me because it so cute.

* it was hard maneuvering our baggage and trying to capture a video, but it is better then nothing.

We are so happy to be in South Africa, to see family and friends, and add to our little memory collection.

We miss Nate already, but we are confident that he can take care of himself super well, and that he will finish up school with flying colors, and be all done when we return home, just in time for Christmas.

Watch this space for all our South African adventures.

Happy Monday!

Amneville Zoo, France

Our family is zoo junkies, well I think it is mostly me and I am making everyone like it.  I prefer safari's in Africa, but since that is a little far away, we make due with zoos.  Also I like the zoos here because they have some animals that I am not accustomed too, like polar bears.

We took our very last European trip (just a little day trip) and crossed the board into France, to go to my favourite zoo.  We took Ian once when he was six months old, and we said back then we have to come back before we move when he is older. Alas, that is what we did yesterday.

It is only about an hour and half from our house, the kids did great in the car, we had smooth ride, made it right to the gate as the opened, and we spend a day exploring nature and everything it has to offer.

Sure everything was in French, and we had no idea what anyone said, and could not ready anything, but thank goodness for the universal language of pictures, and kind of similar animal names.  I mean we could pretty much figure everything out.

The kids were the cutest, between the two of them Hayleigh is a little more into animals, and will beg Nate to show her some animal videos on the internet, and let me just say she will actually sit still for 30 minutes straight.  For her to see all the animals in real live was so exciting, especially since she is talking so much now.  She could name almost everything (the ones she was not familiar with, we would tell her first) and she would repeat it.  It is the cutest thing.

The enclosure are beautiful and I love that you can always see the animals, they were well taken care of, their fur is shining and thick, and all the animals (especially the big cats) were gorgeous.) The kids loved being able to go right up to the window and look at all the animals.

Ever since we rode the donkeys in Santorini, Ian has been really into donkeys and farm animals.  Maybe it is because we live in small German villages surrounded by farms, and whenever we drive somewhere we always see cows and sheep grazing in the field.  He was so excited when we made it to the farm area of the zoo, and he was even more excited that he was able to touch all the animals.  He loved the donkeys and the cows.  They kept him entertained for a good while.

 

I really enjoyed all the small details around the zoo, the art, the displays, and just the overall neatness.  I also LOVED all the creativity.

Another really cool area of this specific zoo, is the monkey and gorilla camps.  We had so much fun at the gorilla camp, and all Ian could tell me, "mama, this is were Tarzan lived," and when we saw the male gorilla he told me "his name is Curjack," I loved it.  I really liked all the little details, and the fact that we could actually see a ton of the gorillas in all the different camps.

My all time favourite - hands down the polar bears.  Last time we went it was amazing.  I was a little bummed this time, the first time we walked by the enclosure they were not out.  We went about out afternoon, and walked by there on the way out of the zoo, well I decided to check and see if they were out, and lone and behold they came walked down the little hill, and right to the water.  I was so excited I could hardly contain myself, we spend the next 30 or so minutes just watching these giant, and cuddly fur balls.  I know they are vicious and ferocious but they are freaken cute, and I loved watching them swim, play, and wrestle.  Hayleigh was really into it as well, and we would just stroll from window to window following them.

Some more of our zoo adventure in pictures....

Oh, and forgot to mention no out doors or zoo adventure is complete without nature finds.  My kids are excellent at finding sticks, stone, flowers, feathers, and pine cones.  The excitement when they find something is an experience, and it usually makes me smile.

I am happy to say our zoo day was a huge success.  Even though we had to deal with tears because it was time to go home.  I will forever cherish these moments with my family, and all our little trips and travels here.  Big change is ahead for all of us, so it was nice to spend this time together.

We have no entered "the oh crap, it is really happening phase," yes reality is setting in, the movers will be here on Tuesday, then we will move into a hotel for a week, while we wait to fly out of Germany on 31 July.

I reminiscing more and more on our beautiful seven years here in Germany, and the closer it get the more II find myself struggling to catch a breath - don't get me wrong, I am super excited to move, and for our new adventure, but this was our whole life, my babies were born here, we grew up here, and I am a sentimental junkie.  Maybe a need to be broken from that?

Please keep us in your prayers as everything is starting to happen so quickly now, for a smooth transition.

Happy Thursday!