Cyprus {Days 3 & 4}

We'll start off with a few pictures, which I'll call "Dressing Toddlers with Jet Lag:"

Step 1:  Approach sleeping toddlers.  Try to wake them up, I dare you.  Jet lag is toddler sleep elixir!  Trust me.  I tried to wake them up for a good ten minutes.  Don't bother.

Step 2:  Take off pj's and put on clothes.  Congratulate yourself on not waking them up so you can actually get ready  in complete silence. Then feel for a pulse just to make sure they're breathing. #momsknowwhatimtalkingabout

From here we did a reverse journey from the day before and headed back to the airport.  Shockingly early.  Check-in was delightful!  Not.  But we made it on the plane, happy to be on our last leg of air travel for a couple of weeks.

My happy boys.

This flight was only ~5 hours long, which seemed like nothing after our first long haul.  And we had an entire middle row to ourselves, which allowed us to trap control N a lot easier.  After landing and tearful hellos in the Arrivals Hall, we set off towards Limassol.

T-minus two minutes before N passes out.

T-minus four minutes until C passes out....for the next twelve hours (!!)  I told you - jet lag is truly toddler sleep elixir.

N woke when we reached the house...C did not.  And would not.  We hauled in suitcases, unpacked, lights on and off and the kid would.not.wake.up.  Not for a snack, not for dinner, not for anything.  So we slapped a pull-up and a pair of pj's on him, called it a day/night, and braced ourselves for the inevitable 4am omg-i-am-STARVING wake-up.

While I unpacked, N relished in undivided attention from his Papou and Yiayia.

"Is this what it feels like to be an only child?"

Right on cue, C woke up at 4am. After a sandwich and banana, he promptly fell back to sleep. Oh yeah.  Except that all my years of "anti jet-lag training" had disappeared and I laid awake until 7am.  Ugh.  But we took it easy the next day, getting the boys settled into their surroundings and spending quality time with their grandparents.

We bought this plane for C the last time we visited in 2010...pre-N.  You know it was pre-N because the wings are still intact.  Five minutes after N got a hold of it...no more wings.  Papou went out and bought him three more.  Just in case of future wing breakages and all.

"We totally must be on vacation - I never get to play with play dough at home!"

Our trip to Cyprus wasn't all play...we did have a bit of work to do - specifically, getting the last bits together for N's Christening, to be held in England in a few weeks time.  Traditionally the god parents purchase the christening outfit, but they weren't sure of his shoe size, so off we went to seek out shoes that could withstand feet dripping with olive oil (OK!  Maybe not dripping.  Don't worry, there will be a whole post dedicated to Greek Orthodox Christenings.  Try to contain your excitement.)

I'm still bummed they didn't have these in his size.

Next up:  THE Waterpark.  Which waterpark you ask?  Fasouri Waterpark,  featuring the one and only "bucket."  Oh yes.

Summery Holiday 2012 {Day 1..and 2}

It's taken me a long time to start writing posts about our summer holiday this year.  There was a lot jam packed into the three weeks we were gone and frankly,  I had a bit of the PTSD up until now from flying over 30 hours with two kids.  And two car seats.  And two strollers.  And four suitcases.  And three carry on's.  And a good thirty pounds of allergy friendly foods that don't exist in Cyprus.

A bit about traveling with two toddlers on long haul flights:  don't do it.

I kid! 

Sorta.

Leading up to our departure day, C had numerous questions - "How long are we going to be in the airplane?"  "Where will we be when we land?"  "Where will I sleep?".  Very cute.  N on the other hand ran around pulling everything out of the suitcases I had just packed.  He's so helpful.

I'll now leave you with a few pictures from day one and two...

Departure day!  They are convinced they can see our plane from their bedroom window.  This bought me a good 20 minutes of extra time to pack {traveling with toddlers, aka TWT, tip #1}

C doing his part to help carry our baggage.  This lasted all of two minutes before we heard "um mom, this backpack is SO heavy on my back."  We had been at the airport a total of five minutes at this point.  {TWT foreshadowing moment #1}

Check-in line.  Guess who's smiles are genuine and guess who's are hiding complete panic.

Post check-in and clearing security.  Dear TSA, thank you for family dedicated security lines.

Ooohhhhh plllaanneeess.  

Settling in for flight #1.  Water, check.  Paci acting as protection against ear issues, check.  Parents sweating due to stuffing carry-on's into awkward overhead bin space, check.

 And then we flew for ten hours.  The kiddos slept for five of those ten hours.  The other five hours went something like this:

"What can I dooooooooooooo mommy?" -- C
"N!  Stop pressing on C's controller!"  -- Me, then A, then Me, etc.100x
"N!  Stay still!" (aka, please stop trying to grab things off the tray of the quadriplegic man they sat next to us -- he was a good sport.) -- Me, me, me, me, me, basically all of N's waking hours.
And of course....
"How much longer until we get there?" -- C, then me, then A, then all of us.

And then we finally land!  Loaded our carry-on's on A like a pack mule (the least of which included 3 laptops and 2 iPads), shove N into the Ergo and off we go.  To baggage claim.  Then we realize we have no idea how to get 2 toddlers, 2 car seats, 2 strollers, 4 suitcases, 3 carry-on's and (now) 25lbs. of food to terminal 5, where our hotel was located.

Thus we started our version of jenga...the baggage cart version.  We were VERY good at baggage cart jenga by the end of this trip.  C agrees because it meant he got to sit on top of the suitcases on one of our carts.  Super safe.

We start the precarious journey through customs...the throngs of people in the arrivals area...a quick stop for soy hot chocolates...and then convince a black cab to take our piddly fair over to terminal 5.

We kick off our arrival at the hotel with C slow motion falling out of the cab, hot chocolate in hand.  He was CONVINCED he could jump out on his own.  Poor guy.  Hot chocolate all over the walkway to the hotel.  The cab driver was even more impressed with us at this point. 

In our room, we summon our last thread of energy and shower the kids, throw on PJ's and basically all four of us pass out for three hours.  That was so awesome.  I felt almost human again when I woke up.  So much so I was like "yeahhhhhh, come on guys, let's go to Paddington Station for dinner!"

Terminal 5, making our way to Heathrow Express.  

I'm so tired, I really have no idea why I'm smiling, but I'm on a train, so I'm going with it.

Proof that N smiles.

Paddington Station.

Food photographer I am not, but damn I had missed good ol' fish n' chips. And...mushy peas!!

For posterity, only (there will be a lot of these, my apologies in advance.)

I have no idea where they got these flags, but jet lag makes toddlers do funny things.

Thus we adjourn our travel adventure to England.  Next up, we wake the next morning and do it all over again for our flight to Cyprus (wince).