Heading Back To Sweden

Let me just recap our trip home as this was the worst part of our entire 10 week vacation. We were booked to leave St. Louis May 15th. On the 15th I had anxiety the entire day, mostly due to all the baggage I had. I was worried about incurring extra baggage fees. Why do airlines think that one piece of luggage per person weighing 50lbs is enough for a 10 week vacation. Come on. I swear baggage limitations should be set depending on the length of your stay and if you are travelling internationally or not. The weight restrictions are the same for international as they are for domestic and I swear we pay more for our international tickets than we do domestic. Anyway, back to the matter at hand...

I had anxiety and anxious to get my bags checked so that I could breath in relief. Got to the ticket counter and this wonderufl lady helped me as the self check in counter was working for me, something about the type of ticket I had. I weigh my bags, all four of them and three of them are over weight by 1-3lbs. I am looking att all my fully packed carry-ons wondering where am I supposed to put the extra weight.

I manuevered things around. I squished. I stuffed and I managed to get everything in and at the right weight. The ticket lady gave me the ok to have one bag weighing 53lbs aka "heavy" but the other ones I had to be 50lbs or under. I did it! I breathed out. Relief! Then I began stuffing stuff in the carseat covers that were also going to be shipped. Mind you, she was not aware of my deceitful manuevers as she was busy with several other customers at the same time. She ticketed and bagged the carseats and my "extra stuff" that I had no room for anywhere were safely stored in the carseats...PHEW!

Now it was off to the gate. We were good with time, had about 1 hr 30min until departure. When we got to the security line I got to go express aka bypass all the other passengers since I was travelling alone with two kids. Since I went express goodbyes were quick but nevertheless sad. Many tears were shed. We headed to our gate. With time to kill and two tired kids we went to the bathroom a couple of times and snacked. Aleksander is nearly impossible to put to sleep out and about...he's so nosy.

About 45min before departure time we are informed that our flight would be delayed because one of the pilots did not show up and we had to wait for another pilot whose flight was due to arrive at 7:45pm. Our scheduled departure time was 6:30pm and was now pushed forward to 8:05pm. This was ok, as we were supposed to have a 3hr layover in Chicago before heading on to Sweden. Well, as you may assume, the flight did not end up leaving until 8:15pm. Arriving in Chicago shortly after 9pm but taxiing to the gate took 20min. In an effort to guarantee that we would make our flight I asked the flight attendant when we boarded if she could contact my connecting flight (SAS which is partners with United) and let them know we are coming. I also asked if she could set me up with one of those cars that drive you through the airport to help expedite my transporting to another terminal. She said she was unable to do so. I am slowly beginning to panic. Fortunately the kids fell asleep on the plane but I had to wake them to get us quickly to our terminal. We landed at terminal 1 and I had to get us to terminal 5. I put Aleksander on my front, Enzo in the stroller, a 13lb backpack on my back, Enzo's trunki under the stroller and my handbag secured on my mommy hook on the stroller. I asked the gate agent to notify the plane that we are on our way. She said sorry, can't do that. With 35min to spare before take off I RAN and RAN through the airport. Sweating bullets but determined to make it. We had just missed the train and had to wait 10min for the next one to take us to the int'l terminal. Once there I get to the security gate and am then notified by an SAS agent that the gate is closed. We missed the flight, with 10min to spare. Tears flowed. I balled. No cell phone I had to contact Mattias. SAS let me use a phone. Disappointed rang out on both ends of the phone.
Enzo was listening to my whole conversation and began saying, where will we go? Where will we sleep? What will we eat? Where's a safe place for us? etc. etc etc.
I was determined to be compensated for the inconvenience. I had two kids who were exhausted and I was beyond exhausted but fueled by adrenaline. I found a United agent who told me that the delay was due to weather and therefore I was not due any compensation. I told him that was not true. So he did me a "favor" and gave me a hotel voucher and a food voucher for $15. Our flight did not leave until 10:05pm the following day.

We shuttled to the hotel. Put the kids to bed. Called United to rebook our flight. Went to sleep and then planned to spend a whole day in bed, well in the hotel at least until it was time for us to leave. Nana had arranged for us to stay in the hotel until we needed to leave for our flight instead of the original check out time of 3pm. Nice! That following afternoon we walked the streets around the hotel to a Target and found some dinner before it was time for us to leave.
We got to the airport early, around 7pm to make sure we had seats on the flight. Once handed our boarding passes I could relax.

The flight was a breeze as the boys slept...Enzo slept from take off until landing. Aleksander fell asleep before take off and then woke up after 5hrs, was awake for about an hour and a half and then slept until landing. NICE!

All our luggage made it and our sweet Swede was waiting for us at arrivals.

At the airport, getting ready for goodbyes.

The boys playing in our hotel room.

Enzo enjoying a yummy milkshake we got at Potbelly sandwiches. YUM!!

The Gateway Arch...One Of Our Last Adventures In St. Louis

We made an attempt to go up to the top of the Arch in April, when Auntie Carmen came to pick us up but the tickets were all sold out. So, I promised Enzo we would do it another time, since he seemed to really want tp experience. W

When we got back to St. Louis before heading back to Sweden we went to the Arch. Just me and the boys. And we went to the top. I thought Enzo was going to back out when he saw the tiny, egg shaped car/elevator we had to travel up in, but he was fine. Good because I am not sure we could have gotten our money back.

After we went up we spent some time outside playing in the grass before heading back to Nana and Granddad's house.

If you look up towards the middle, those tiny squares are the windows that you look out of when you are at the top.

At the top. It was warm up there.

Me and my boys.

Playing in the grass. Aleksander actually had rashes all over his legs after that.

In Route To St. Louis

The time came for us to head back to St. Louis. Which also meant that our vacation was coming to an end. Leaving hurt because we knew it would be awhile before we would see each other again. Enzo even cried when we were leaving but I am not quite sure if he was crying because we were leaving there or because we weren't heading to Sweden right then.

As you can see in the pictures the boys were happy in flight. Aleksander slept very little and thus was exhausted by the time we got to Granddad and Nana's house. Nosy little rascal. We thankfully had a whole row to ourselves, however Aleksander went from the row to the aisle most of the flight.

However it was nice to go somewhere sunny and leave the Washington rain behind.

Cousins

Isaiah, Aleksander and Nate

Nate eating Aleksander's arm. I know, he is totally edible!

Josaih's turn to attack the arm.

Enzo and his Danielle. He couldn't get enough of her unless she was giving too much attention to Aleksander then he didn't want anything to do with her.

Mt. Rainier...

...or Mountain Rainier as Enzo calls it. I was determined to take Enzo to Mt. Rainier before we left Washington partly because I promised and partly because I just wanted to get a closer look at the beauty. With that being said, we went during our last few days there. I had planned to go solo with the kids but the night before I called my cousin Ben to see if he wanted to tag along. He was game which was awesome because the trip end up being a 2hr drive each way.

I had envisioned that during the drive up that there would be some possible snow on the sides of the road but that the paved path up and around Mt. Rainier was going to be clear and the flowers would be budding and creeks would be flowing. Boy, was I so wrong. There was so much snow, not on the roads, but on the sides and all over the mountain. Since there was so much snow there wasn't much to do while we were up there however we did loop around the covered hotel. Fortunately a tractor had flattened out a path which made that possible. The weather was absolutely beautiful, the sun was beaming which made jackets totally unnecessary which was good since I forgot mine at home.

We had a good time but the drive was longer than our actual stay at the mountain. And unfortunately I don't think seeing the mountain and it's surrounding areas in that state was fun for Enzo.

Mt. Rainier

That 's the entry to the restrooms.

This is the path we started out on. Mind you we were not dressed for snow at all nor did we have on the proper shoes for such weather. I had on running shoes and Ben sneakers. I did however remembered to pack Enzo's rain boots good thing because he wouldn't have made it in Crocs.

Benjamin aka Ben

You pretty much forget that you are on a mountain and just embrace your surrounding trees and all the snow.

The path we walked.

The boys in the snow.

Ben doing some cold treatment on his bum ankle.

Departure Day

Mattias last day in Washington, the time had come for him to head back to Sweden. It was quite sad. It is crazy how fast time flies. Enzo did not cry this time when Mattias left but I think that was partly due to the fact that there were a lot of distractions with us, Grandma, Auntie Carmen and Uncle Al. So he was busy being with them and not really reflecting on the fact that he wasn't going to see Mattias for another 2weeks.

Two out of his four weeks there he was sick, if you ask him he was deathly sick. Well, he had a bad sinus cold that was even causing him to have migraines. Poor thing. We were all happy when that was over.

At The Car Wash

Mattias was washing the car. Speaking of THE CAR, Al and Carmen let us drive their 2nd baby, their Audi A6 the whole time we were there. Let's say GENEROUS! (Daisy is their 1st baby and the Mini is their 3rd baby.)

Aleksander crawled over to the car and propped himself down right there and stayed there while Mattias was washing the car, completely oblivious to spraying water around him.

My boys and their cars...

Another Briere Playdate!

This was pretty much our last playdate with the Briere's before heading back to St. Louis. We met at Wright Park, where they have installed a new, fabulous playground.

What's up with girls and babies. I swear everytime Rachel or any of Enzo's girl friends see Aleksander they are all over him, oohing and ahhing! Is it really an innate behavior?!?!

Us mothers deep in mommy talk... or maybe we're comparing shoes.

Enzo says "talk to the hand"...no, not really, he just didn't want his picture taken.

A huge playground, huh? It's awesome and it even has a water area that opened up that has fountains that splash out water. FUN!

Who doesn't enjoy swinging?!

We did meet the Briere clan one last time as we took Enzo and Rachel to the movies to see Rio in 3D. Enzo loved it. Rachel not so much. She actually said at one point that she thought it was boring but I think that was her tiredness talking or maybe it was boring to her. Nonetheless, Enzo enjoyed his time spent with Rachel and Garrett. Thank God Katey had Thursdays off otherwise we probably wouldn't have gotten to see each other so often. Thanks Katey for reserving Thursdays for us. We loved our time together.

Happy Easter!

Easter came so quickly and I really felt stuck on what to get the kids. Then Katey tipped me on a little rhyme that she uses when it's holidays, birthdays etc. "Something they want, Something they need, Something to wear, Something to read". This was super helpful and I think this is something we'll hold ourselves too when getting the kids gifts, that way you don't buy too much unneccesary stuff and everyones happy.

The boys got Easter bags this year as I thought it was a waste of money to buy baskets that can't take home with us.

And in Enzo's bag he got a Goofy stuffed animal (something he wanted), an electric toothbrush (something he needed), and American flag tshirt (something to wear) and the book about Ferdinand the bull (something to read). He was happy with his gifts.

Aleksander didn't really know what was going on.

He loved playing with paper, like all babies.

In Aleksander's bag was: a toy (something he wanted), some baby body wash (something he needed), an american flag tshirt (something to wear) and a book about hugs (something to read). It's quite simple and a rather smart idea, right?!

We spent Easter at The Hampton's house, and which Hampton's would that be...David and Elisa.

Their neighborhood put on an Easter egg hunt. FUN!

Let me just say a little something about Enzo. This trip has been amazing for him. He has really grown. He has learned to be more open and forthcoming. Talking to people when spoken to. Playing with random kids at the park, aka making new friends. I believe he has truly enjoyed the lifestyle here, that which he knows anyway. Not to mention his english vocabulary has grown tremendously. Not that he had a problem before but everyday I seem to recognize him using a new word in the correct context. Unfortunately his swedish has been getting the brunt end of the deal. He opts not to speak swedish even when spoken to in swedish. I am sure/hoping this will turn around when we get back there. I feel that due to the fact that his swedish isn't as strong as his english and he is aware of this that it truly inhibits him/his personality and thus him becoming more introverted than what he normally is. I have actually considered having a tutor to help speed the process along but maybe all it takes is us possibly speaking only swedish at home a few days a week for him to enhance his vocab and feel more confident. Time will tell...

Ok, back to the matter at hand. Easter egg hunt... In regards to what I previously wrote about him being more forthcoming, this comes with some backlash. So, it was time for the easter egg hunt. He was excited but then froze when he saw there were a ton of other kids. He didn't want to do it, but I know he would be so bummed if he didn't participate. He starts crying uncontrollably. Annoying. I get frustrated and tell him either he pulls it together and participates or he'll miss out. Mattias even tries to get him to pull it together but it wasn't working.

Finally, when the easter egg hunt was nearing completion and with me agreeing to go with him, he decides to participate.

A happy boy now, with his eater basket full of eggs...there's even a golden egg in there. I am not sure if he deserved to find the golden egg after the show he put on.

He is so beautiful!

Isaiah talking to Enzo. Isaiah is David and Elisa's 3rd child. I just have to say they have raised some kind, thoughtful and generous boys. The boys play so well with Enzo. Involve him in whatever they are doing. And when they saw Enzo having his melt down they saved some eggs for him and started hiding them once he started his hunt. They saw that he was upset and instead of letting him miss out on all the eggs they helped him out.
Thanks boys!

There's that golden egg and that happy boy!

Time for the easter egg pinata. This also called for a meltdown but it came post hitting the pinata. I think he became aware of the fact that he was on center stage and he didn't like that everyone was watching him perform. However, he sure does have a mean hit. His contact on the pinata was spot on everytime. If he could get over the fact that people are watching him he could be a great athlete.

Here's the meltdown after the pinata.

Mommy and daughter...Michelle and Danielle

A 4 generation picture. The only one missing is my grandmother, which would have made it 5 generations. In picture: Me, my great- grandmother, Aleksander, my mom and Enzo.

3 generations...Aleksander, Pearl aka Big Mama and Grandma.