Traveling with three

Traveling with three very little people is not the most fun thing I've ever done...but I guess it's not the worse either.  90% of the time, it was great.  Amazingly we didn't have an absurd amount of potty breaks (except on the airplane.  They were both terrified and amazed at the airplane potty....and I would be lying if I said I liked taking them in that nasty, stinky little box of a bathroom), there was a lot of movie watching (a HUGE treat here...our rental van had a video system.  I'm so glad we packed a few movies), and some snacking (did you know that both Nicole and Hannah can chuck a box of raisins to the front seat.  Quite amazing actually....one of them even hit me in the face with the box.  As two ballplayers, Jeremy and I were both happy to see some progress in their throwing ability).

What on earth am I talking about?  That was a long and confusing sentence! ha!!!

OK, so, what is so fun about traveling with three children you may ask?  Well, there is three of everything.

Three car seats
Three carry on bags
Three checked bags
Two extra sets of shoes to take off and put on in security
One stroller to fold up and put through the x-ray machine
And lots of extra food and drinks.

I so wish I had a picture of us traipsing through the Minneapolis airport, although I'm sure if someone tried to take a picture I would have kicked them in the shins.  But we were a sight.  Close your eyes and imagine (OK, don't...then you can't read).  Nathan hanging out in the stroller, being pushed by Nicole.  Hannah dragging a backpack on wheels, stopping to look at every particle on the floor or shiny thing she sees.  Jeremy carrying two large, bulky car seats and a heavy backpack on his back, and me...wheeling three interlocked suitcases with a booster seat on top through millions (ok, not really) of people  in the biggest airport I've ever walked.  I think the Minneapolis airport is not laid out for families of 5 who need to rent a car.  We walked from one end of the airport to other, up and down floors and used the little subway too.  I really don't think I'm exagerating when I say it took us nearly 30 minutes to get to the car rental place from the baggage claim area.  It would have been better if my sweet, curious little two year old didn't feel the need to look at every single thing on the floor.  Anyway, by the time we got to the car rental place, I was ready to have a little pitty party and cry...or scream...or something (Dr. Pepper and chocolate anyone???).  Our bags were heavy, our children were slow and we had to walk so far!!!! 

OK, enough whining.  THAT was the worse part of the trip...and if that was the worse part...then, that means we had a pretty good trip.  We did not make the 6 hour drive to Canada like we hoped because were exhausted, hungry and tired.  I did eat Chipotle for the first time in my life....pretty good.

Oh, the airplane.  It was fun... for about 15 minutes.  Then, the novelty wore off but the girls did pretty well. They had books, crayons a video game system (I scored at Goodwill for $3...a leapster 2 for my mommy friends out there), and of course our iphones with games.

Nate however, changed into crazy baby.  He does not like to fly.  He wasn't screaming his head off the whole time, but it was a tremendous amount of work to keep him from doing that.  But, as soon as the plane landed, he was my sweet little laid back boy again.  Weird, huh?

So, our first day of vacation was NOT relaxing, but we didn't think it would be.  No false hopes there.  It was a bit more stressful than I anticipated (mostly because of that walk, rolling and carrying heavy things and little Ms. Pokey Little Puppy)  We only made it to Orr, Minnesota, about an hour form the boarder.  By the way, Orr is a very cute little town, we stopped on our way back (to get some free fudge) and it's just adorable.  I would have liked to have spent another hour or so there.  And, they have a cool hotel with a waterslide.  It seems that Minnesotaians like water slides, we saw them a lot.

The view from our hotel in Orr, Minnesota.  We ate breakfast outside.  We were weird, everyone else was inside because it was....

COLD....like, I think in the 50s.  But we soaked it in.  Every ounce of coldness we could get we did, because we knew what was waiting when we got home.  

Friday morning, we woke up and made our way to Nestor Falls, Ontario, Canada where we would spend the next 6 days in an insanely HUGE home on a beautiful lake.  More to come on that though later.