Yay! We made it back home to Asker safely! It was a long journey, but not as brutally long and painful as the way over to California. First we took a bus from Santa Barbara to LAX airport. We all took naps - here is Rhiannon missing the coastal scenery.
We had over 3 hours to hang out at LAX before our flight started boarding (that is a LONG time to kill in this crappy airport), but fortunately my Aunt Kim (who lives close by) called in to hang out with us. It was SO great to be with her, even if just for an hour or so.
During our hang out time in the airport, Rhiannon became friends with Alan (5) and Elisa (2). It turns out that they were traveling with their mother to Italy and had 3 of the 4 seats in the row 2 behind our row. Once we got on the airplane, their mother and I strategized on who we could get to exchange seats so that at least Alan and Rhiannon could sit next to each other, and what might happen if we couldn't get them together (the possibility of crawling under seats, squeezing past people, reuniting in the aisles for some happy scampering for everyone to hear..). I highly recommend this strategy for any families traveling with small kids!! I think our neighbors got so scared of the thought of being anywhere close to our two families that they begged the flight attendants to move them... and voila!... each of our families ended up with a whole row to ourselves and they were adjacent rows too!
We had an 11 hour flight to Zurich, and since it was an overnight flight, I was really expecting both kids to sleep... and they did. Tryfan slept for about 6 hours and Rhiannon for about 5. I slept a bit too, which was a nice bonus. Alan and Rhiannon were really sweet together - they colored and watched cartoons, exchanged snacks and even read some stories together. We said goodbye in Zurich and Alan gave both Rhiannon and Tryfan a big hug and a kiss. So sweet :-) Here they are holding hands in Zurich.
We had a short connection in Zurich and got straight onto the 2 hour flight to Oslo. Once there, we hurried to get our bags and reunite with Rhodri, who had met us at the airport so that we could all go together by train to Asker. Rhiannon was especially happy to see him; I think she really missed him while we were in California and this might possibly have been the underlying factor in her recent misbehaviour.
We finally went to sleep about 10:30pm and slept until about 10:30am. When we woke, we saw our backyard covered in fresh snow!
This afternoon, Auntie Sioned arrived! I had forgotten that she was coming but it was SUCH a great thing to remember about! We were all really happy to see her. Here she is reading a bedtime story to the troops.
So now we just need to adjust to this time zone and temperature, and we will be all set!
We had over 3 hours to hang out at LAX before our flight started boarding (that is a LONG time to kill in this crappy airport), but fortunately my Aunt Kim (who lives close by) called in to hang out with us. It was SO great to be with her, even if just for an hour or so.
During our hang out time in the airport, Rhiannon became friends with Alan (5) and Elisa (2). It turns out that they were traveling with their mother to Italy and had 3 of the 4 seats in the row 2 behind our row. Once we got on the airplane, their mother and I strategized on who we could get to exchange seats so that at least Alan and Rhiannon could sit next to each other, and what might happen if we couldn't get them together (the possibility of crawling under seats, squeezing past people, reuniting in the aisles for some happy scampering for everyone to hear..). I highly recommend this strategy for any families traveling with small kids!! I think our neighbors got so scared of the thought of being anywhere close to our two families that they begged the flight attendants to move them... and voila!... each of our families ended up with a whole row to ourselves and they were adjacent rows too!
We had an 11 hour flight to Zurich, and since it was an overnight flight, I was really expecting both kids to sleep... and they did. Tryfan slept for about 6 hours and Rhiannon for about 5. I slept a bit too, which was a nice bonus. Alan and Rhiannon were really sweet together - they colored and watched cartoons, exchanged snacks and even read some stories together. We said goodbye in Zurich and Alan gave both Rhiannon and Tryfan a big hug and a kiss. So sweet :-) Here they are holding hands in Zurich.
We had a short connection in Zurich and got straight onto the 2 hour flight to Oslo. Once there, we hurried to get our bags and reunite with Rhodri, who had met us at the airport so that we could all go together by train to Asker. Rhiannon was especially happy to see him; I think she really missed him while we were in California and this might possibly have been the underlying factor in her recent misbehaviour.
We finally went to sleep about 10:30pm and slept until about 10:30am. When we woke, we saw our backyard covered in fresh snow!
This afternoon, Auntie Sioned arrived! I had forgotten that she was coming but it was SUCH a great thing to remember about! We were all really happy to see her. Here she is reading a bedtime story to the troops.
So now we just need to adjust to this time zone and temperature, and we will be all set!
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