Near Sun Valley. We visited the hotel and saw one of the ice shows and admired the fireworks.
Caution? Why? All that traffic, or do they mean watch out for that Dutch girl riding her bike with the twins in tow? We rented the bike and trailer and had lots of fun. To make our Dutch biking habit even more known we even did some minor grocery shopping. Lots of people smiling. All three kids loved riding in their roofed seats. We never saw these kind of cars in Holland, so as soon as we were back I started searching for one, but was horrified to learn that the only company that sold them asked over 400 Euros! As much I loved to be able to bike again with the kids this was too much money. Now, 10 years later they are all over the place and prices have gone down considerably but at the time it was an unique thing. Alas not for me.
The RV we rented was outfitted to sleep up to 7 people, but they clearly weren't thinking about two babies. After all, what crazy people would ever dream of flying all the way from Europe to Seattle with two babies and a toddler? Well, we did. A fair amount of preparation was spent on thinking of a solution how to make a bed for them they could safely sleep in while we were sleeping too....
This is what we came up with. Around bedtime we would put them to bed in the main large bed and when we prepared to go to bed ourselves, we would divide the bunk bed (made from the sofa + table area) into two separate babycots. With the help of a carseat the cushions served as divider. My dad came up with these fold-out contraptions he took with him in his suitcase (!) to ensure the footend of their beds so they would not crawl out there either!
Creativity saves the day again. Yes I do believe you were brave soles to take the three young children. And now you are so much the richer for it with these wonderful stories. Great post.
ReplyDeleteYou were amazing and brave. With only one little girl, we were so easily portable. We would have liked to have more children-but I don't think I could have managed traveling with 3 so small!
ReplyDeleteI believe they will always be grateful to you for taking them with you. Mindful of how grateful I was to my parents for bringing my brother and me along whenever they went anywhere interesting, we were determined to bring our daughter along too.I'm sure she is glad we did. She was always interested-even when very little- and it was fun to see things from her perspective.
A friend of mine from law school had 3 like yours- a set of twins born shortly after their 1st child. She used to say that after 3 children, you were outnumbered- it didn't really matter how many more you had! I can't believe that is true-One of my husband's childhood friends came from a family of 15 kids. Imagine. He and his wife had one son.
Oh, don't get me started! You are outnumbered, always a pair of hands short. (I had the most beautiful biceps at the time from carrying a baby on each arm, or their carriers). Oh my, 15 kids! But you know, I think the mindset was quite different at the time, apart from having all these babies, their mother couldn't worry about "quality time", addressing each kid at their own level/character, sportsclubs and birthday parties, having a career, being an "equal partner", social life, all these things women nowadays feel they have to live up to. I am not saying it was easier then but tasks were defined and beside that there simply was too much work to do (think of laundry and cooking and cleaning...). As an older sibling you simply cared for the smaller ones without giving it much thought as all hands were needed and put to work. I admire those women for their strength and stamina. But I can see why this friend had one child.. ;-)
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