Kia Ora, New Zealand!

Every good journey begins in the middle of the night...like when we left our cozy home at 3:20am to race to the airport to catch our first of two domestic flights.

(There's our hometown! Bye, house!!!)

(Lil Sis, the intrepid baby, ready for traveling from Spokane) 

Spokane to Salt Lake City to San Francisco took ALL morning. Luckily, we got a hotel room near the airport for our 9 hour stop in San Francisco. That was definitely worth the hotel points. Baths, naps, meals and quiet outside the terminals...it was the perfect way to break things up for the kids.

(Staying distracted and non raging during our domestic flights)

To be completely honest, there were so many times en route to NZ where I was thinking "This is insane." "Never again." "We should have stayed home!" It's not that the trip down went badly; it actually went extremely well. The girls were slightly antsy on our domestic flights, but the 13 hour flight across the pacific, the one I was dreading, turned out to be just fine. Big Sis ended up sleeping 6-7 hours and Lil Sis slept about 8 hours in her bassinet they provided. But from 6:30am Friday to 11:00pm Sunday, I only slept maybe 2-3 hours. THAT is why the journey was hard at times! Otherwise, our kids proved to be fantastic little globe trekkers. But, books, toys, food and a charged iPad helped immensely!!! (No, I never really slept in San Fran. Too much adrenaline pumping in my veins!)

(Happy on the long flight.)

Once we arrived in Auckland, we went through customs, baggage claim and biosecurity in less than 20 mins. It was amazing and probably an all time record for getting through international customs. It was 6:30am and we were ready to take on the day...but unfortunately, we had to wait around the airport until 8:30 to catch a bus to the camper van rental agency. We roamed the halls of the Auckland airport, keeping the kids happy with snacks and little videos of themselves on our iphones (Big Sis loved watching videos of herself taken at our neighborhood park and our backyard. Familiarity helps!) 

(Welcome to New Zealand)

When we made it to the camper van agency, they got us situated as fast as they could. (The staff were so great and accommodating!) We spent a couple of hours in the parking lot unpacking our stuff, getting the car seats set up and making it all as comfy as possible. The girls were tired and getting a little impatient, but again, food, toys, books, ipad, saved us! 

(Lil Sis inspects one of the camper van beds)

We spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, getting situated at our campsite and waiting for Melanie's arrival at midnight. After playing at the playground, dinner and baths, I crashed with the kids at about 7pm. It felt WONDERFUL to sleep! 

(After nearly 60 hours non stop, this was a must) 

It was so surreal and yet also normal feeling to be back in New Zealand. It holds a special place in my heart, and I couldn't wait to head out of Auckland and onto to fresh adventures with my family...but first, Melanie had to catch up! More on that next time! 

Family Adventures Ahead!

New Zealand, May 2015 

(Daddy and Big Sis playing in the stream while mommy holds Lil Sis during a morning nap on the beach) 

It’s been almost a week since we got back from our epic New Zealand Adventure. I had hoped to blog about our journey in real time, but ultimately realized that being fully present for my family and a super early bedtime trumped blogging into the ground. So, a retrospective blog it is! 

In these humble posts I hope to share the good, the bad and the ugly of international travel with our toddlers. Overall, our trip went extremely well, but it wasn’t without its momentary meltdowns, for kids and parents alike! Needless to say, it was a huge learning experience. I want to share what we learned in the hopes that it might inspire other parents to take the plunge and do the unthinkable…travel with children!

Colin and I both have a bit of wanderlust running through our veins. But after having two kids back to back, I started believing that once you have kids it’s "game over". No more travel. No more adventures. Of course, we have done day trips and small road trips, along with tons of cross country travel to visit family in Texas, but I really thought the “big trips” were over and gone. But Colin has always remained in the mindset of “With savings, a good budget* and a lot of determination, traveling with kids IS possible."

After going to New Zealand for our honeymoon, Colin always talked about going back. I remained dubious! We did an RV road trip to the Canadian Rockies in the summer of 2014 (the inspiration for my blog) and had the most wonderful time. It was great practice for a similar trip we dreamed of taking in New Zealand. Then one day in March of 2015, we decided to dive in and purchase tickets. People told us we were brave, but I know they really meant we were crazy!

We are home now, having traveled across the world with our two babies. We did it and never misplaced a child or our sanity in the process. I call that success! Check back here for more installments about our epic family adventure. Oh! And a very special thanks to my sister, Melanie, for going on the adventure with us! 

*(There is no denying that money is a huge aspect of being able to pull off any kind of travel. This is where putting savings into a travel budget becomes vital because you will never save up enough for a big family trip by throwing spare change into a jar on the kitchen shelf. Maybe I’ll get Colin to write a post about budgeting. It's definitely his expertise, not mine! :) 

The Road is Calling

The Sisters have some BIG news....incredible, amazing, and completely insane news.

The Girls are going to NEW ZEALAND! But wait! Wait....hold on. What's happening?

I have had the pleasure of going to New Zealand twice. I went in 2009 with my sister Melanie for Study Abroad and then again when Colin and I went on our honeymoon in 2012. Colin has wanted to go back ever since, and we've talked about it over the past few years. Colin started putting savings towards a trip down there, and we even went on an RV road trip the the Canadian Rockies (The trip that inspired this blog) to practice traveling via RV. 

One moring in March, we were talking about this dream trip to New Zealand (I call it that, because I really didn't think it'd ever happen). Colin was hoping to go in November, 2015. But for laughs, I compared the airline prices of November flights to May flights. Boom. WAY cheaper. Then we looked at RV rentals. BOOM. About 40% cheaper. I threw a crazy suggestion to Colin. "Let's go in May. If we charge it to our credit card, we will actually end up paying less on the interest than we would on paying the higher flight and RV prices." To my utter amazement, Colin took my wild and completely financially unresponsible suggestion and bought tickets the next day. Whaaaaaa?????

So here we are! We are going to New Zealand, a 13 HOUR flight with our TWO toddlers! Oh yippie! 

Okay, so here's where it gets fun...So, we are nuts and going on this road trip with two toddlers, okay. But with a two year old who likes to RUN off...we decided it'd be great to have an additional adult with us on this trip, and my sister Melanie has graciously agreed to go with us. So, the original sisters are going back to New Zealand, six years after the first trip, and my two babies are going for their first time. It will be quite the reunion and road trip!

Now, I know some people think this is probably New Zealand overkill. That's fine. Personally, I love NZ. It's my happy place, and so many of my most cherished memories are intertwined with the adventures I've had there. I am giddy with excitement as we prepare for this epic family road trip. The road is calling, and I must away! 

The Canadian Adventure's End

Writing a travel blog as you do an RV trip with two children under the age of two proved to be very tricky. I never did finish up what I wanted to share about ourt last days...here is a recap from what I can remember...it was over six months ago, after all. 

Our last day of our Canadian Rockies Road trip was pretty exhausting. Waterton to Missoula was going to be a long haul, so we attempted to head out super early. We got to the border bright and early only to find out that it didn't open until 9am. We waited behind a line of cars ahead of us and once 9am rolled around, we were still waiting. And waiting...and waiting... As it turned out, the US Border Officials hadn't shown up for work that day. Nice. There were some off duty officials staying in the border quarters and when they saw us, ran to open up the border. They were just a little bit miffed with management and shared some choice words about it! 

From the border, we headed to Saint Mary. This road was open range and we nearly hit a couple of cows and even saw horses walking across the road. A bit nerve racking! Once we got to Saint Mary, we thought we would be able to drive down Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park...But, sadly, the RV was too long (They don't allow vehicles past a certain length on the road) and we eneded up having to take an alternate road. We did do a short hike to Saint Mary Lake and also stopped in West Glacier on the road to Missoula. 

Once we got past West Glaicer, it kind of felt like the fun stuff was over and we had to rush to get to Missoula. It was a hard push to get there. We started running into lots of traffic and the kids were getting ansty. I was pretty ansty too! It was very much a, "Are we there YET?" kind of feeling. 

We finally pulled into Colin's uncle and anut's house that evening. Ada was thrilled to stretch out and play with her cousin's toys! They graciously fed us and we slept very comfortably one last night on their driveway. 

The next morning was utterly insane. We had been living in the RV for almost two weeks, and our stuff was scattered all throughout, plus we had tracked in a ton of dust and dirt from our hikes. We had to completely empty the contents of the RV and fit it all into a mini van we rented to get back home and then clean it out in about two hours. Colin's Aunt watched our kids for us (Thank you, Linda!) as Colin and I feverishly made that RV sparkle. All we were lacking was the William Tell Overture in the background! 

Missoula to home is a 4-5 hour drive and luckily, it was extremely uneventful. We had a couple of stops for feelings and a stop in my beloved Coeur d'Alene so Big Sis could play at the new city park. One last push got us home before dark. It was great to be home, not so great to unpack the MOUNTAINS of stuff we brought...

We learned a ton about traveling with small kids, traveling via RV, about what to bring and what not to bring, etc! Maybe I'll do a post on lessons learned sometime, but for now, it's "adios" because a new road is calling our names....

Home on The Road

Farewell, Rockies. Farewell. 

Monday of our journey kind of felt like "the end" of our great adventure. In order to deliver the RV back in Missoula on Wednesday by 11am, we had to seriously book it. Our hurried farewells to the Canadian Rockies were in beautiful Canmore where we camped three times and ran lots of errands. Seriously, I'll never be content with the views from my local Safeway ever again. The views from the opposite direction were just as amazing. 

The sky was incredibly CLEAR (of course, just when we had to leave) but it made for a nice drive through Southwestern Alberta. We had heard of the Calgary, Alberta Roundup and Rodeo before, but driving through that area, it totally made sense - horses everywhere! 

I couldn't catch any pictures of the horses, but it was an amazing expanse of wide open prairies with snow covered peaks doting the horizon. I could imagine thousands of buffalo stampeding across the range. 

As we headed for Waterton National Park (the Canadian side of Glacier NP) for the night, we watched the mountains rise up before us on the horizon. We got to the campsite just outside of the park during the afternoon and I caught up on housekeeping - cleaning and laundry while Ada and Colin played at the park. Then we took an evening stroll in Waterton before dinner. It's pretty quaint! 

(Prince of Wales Hotel looking rather majestic) 

(About to stroll through Waterton) 

(The view of the lake from the great hall in  the hotel. Pretty swank. I chatted with a slightly tipsy couple who invite me to have some wine with them. I totally would have if daddy and the kids weren't waiting!) 

Back at camp, we enjoyed a tasty dinner, beautiful views, an amazing sunset, bathing our two babies and some of the most incredible stars we've ever seen.

 

By Monday night, we had been traveling for a solid week, and the RV was really starting to feel like home. From grocery shopping, to doing laundry, to bathing the kids, it was truly like home away from home. I was actually sad our trip was coming to an end. But, Tuesday dispelled those feelings...more on that next time! 

Glaciers and Patience

This post is coming three weeks after the fact. I quickly learned how hard it was to blog every day during our Canadian Rockies trip. We didn't always have internet and I didn't always have the energy at the end of the day. But, I wanted to finish writing about our journey, so here are few more humble posts of our trip. OXOX - BG

Sunday was one of the more interesting, yet difficult days of our Canadian Rockies Adventure. The sun rose with the clearest skies we had seen in a few days - perfect for our drive back down the Ice Field Parkway! 

(One of the picture stops we made. Don't worry, our RV and babies were within feet of us. We didn't abandon them for a photo op!)

After several delays, we FINALLY reached the Columbia Ice Fields visitor center at midday. By that point we were all starving, so we had lunch in the parking lot with views of Athabasca Glacier from our windows. I have to say, that is one of my favorite aspects of traveling by RV. We could pull over ANYWHERE, turn on the generator and have lunch and a spot of hot tea or cocoa without stepping foot inside a restaurant or cafe. So convenient!

The Columbia Icefields is a network of eight glaciers sitting on the continental divide. They were discovered in 1898, and tourism in the area has been around since the early 1900's.

(One of the old snowmobiles on display from the olden days.)

Brewster Co. runs an assortment of tours of the glaciers. We did their family friendly tour to Athabasca Glacier. It entails riding on a Greyhound type bus from the visitor center out to the snow coach depot, then another ride on the enormous snow coach out onto the ice, with a QUICK step onto the ice for pictures and a look around before getting back on the snow coach, back to the depot, then back to the visitor center. All told, we spent 90% of the tour time going back and forth and very little time on the ice. My inner traveler and adventurer was BUMMED. C'mon, I've hiked up and down a glacier twice in New Zealand! But my inner momma bear wasn't about to do ANYTHING to potentiallly put my precious babies down a crevasse. So! My conflicting emotions hashed it out and I had a great time! The snow coach ride was a bit terrifying, since it goes down a 34% grade hill to get to the ice.

(Snow Coach coming back to the depot. Its max speed is 11mph!)

(Each Snow Coach costs a whopping 1.3 Million! It is a six, all wheel drive vehicle with anti-locking breaks. They are actually, really safe!) 

(We had a really great and engaging Canadian guide who gave us lots of information on the history of the Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier, the surrounding terrain and geology, the history of tourism in the area, information and statistics on the Snow Coaches, etc. I found it all so interesting that I bought two books in the gift shop. By the way, can you spot Big Sis?) 

(Athabasca Glacier! Over 3.5 miles long and over 900 feet deep at its deepest point! The wind that swept down the glacier was bone chillingly cold! Good thing we only had 15 mins on the ice!

(Colin and I hiked Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand on our honeymoon, so it was great to see a new glacier together and to compare our experiences. The girls didn't mind it. Big Sis actually fell asleep!)

After the tour, we had to make our way back to Canmore where we would be staying that night. It was a gorgeous drive, but exhausting. I lost count how many glaciers I saw and how many beautiful lakes we drove past. I seriously felt like I was having visual overload. 

(Suffering from visual overload. Exhausting!)

I REALLY wanted a photo of our family by at least one of the beautiful glacier lakes, so we planned to stop in Lake Louise for a picture. Unfortunately, the girls barely napped on the way there, and so by the time we got to Lake Louise, the girls had HAD IT with traveling that day. Ada was delirious! We let her walk down to the pier (seen below) and I wouldn't have been surprised if she jumped in the lake. At least she was silly tired and not screaming tired. 

(Lake Louise Family Photo Fail! We have some better ones, but this one will always be my abiding memory! Ada was giddy with exhaustion dilerium!)

So, after our pitiful photo attempts and crazy fast stop in Lake Louise, we piled back into the RV, happy that our campsite and hot dinner were only an hour away....Then we hit bumper to bumper construction traffic. Oh BOY. 

(Then traffic came to a grinding HALT!)

This is when Little Sis lost all of her patience. I was able to figure out a detour via a back road that was pretty easy to get to, (thank you, Google maps!) so we made a break for it and left the traffic behind. After two additional feeding stops to calm down the baby, we pulled into our campsite at 8:30pm, the latest ever. Whew, what a day! I'm glad we did the glacier tour, but we should have broken up the day a little better for the girls' sake. The exhaustion tested everyone's patience, and since that time, I've noticed Colin asking for patience in dealing with the kids when we say our night prayers. It was an tiring, trying, beautiful and amazing day that we will always remember.  

Adventures in Jasper

Saturday in Jasper National Park was great. We walked around the town of Jasper in the morning before setting out for Athabasca Falls, about a 20 minute drive from our camp. The falls are glacial melt water and the most brilliant aqua blue, especially in abundant sunshine. There's just something so amazing about the roar of thundering water. Ada likes water, and as always, I was so thankful she was on her daddy's back. Otherwise, she would have wanted to take a dip! 

 

In the afternoon, we rode the Whistler Mountain Gondola. This one was even
worse in the nerve wracking department than Sulphur Mountain. It was a nail biting 7 minute journey up, elbow to elbow in the gondola car with 20 other people. I wanted to pass out. Ha!   

The views were incredibly beautiful. Colin's favorite was Mount Colin in the Colin Range!  We were unable to make it to the peak due to lots of slippery snow and ice, so maybe next time. We got some fun pics regardless. 

At both the Falls and Whistler, we had so many people looking at us! I guess no one has ever seen a daddy carrying two babies, front and back. I've also never had so many people come up and touch my kids. (Pinching a cheek, shaking a hand, etc.) It's kind of annoying, but I also felt bad for the people - many of them were grandparent age people who we guessed, don't have grandkids. How sad. 

Whistler Mountain was right up the road from camp, so we went home and made hotdogs and s'mores on the fire. Mmmmmm. Little Sis approved.