It's the Little Things

So, Legoland was great! I played with Lego blocks a lot when I was a kid so, for me, it was so much fun to go to a whole park where everything was Lego. I think Maya had a good time as well. She really enjoyed riding the fairy tale boat ride with all kinds of fairy tale characters built out of Legos. For Josh and I, the highlight of the park was, of course, Miniland where Lego's master builders had built scale replicas of landmarks and cityscapes from around the world out of hundreds of thousands of Legos. The detail really was pretty incredible.

There was a giant model of the Taj Mahal that was just beautiful (Josh went to India earlier this year so we're always excited when we see anything to do with India) while the replica of Mount Rushmore wins points for "Best Cheap Joke" by having George Washington getting his ear cleaned with a giant Lego Q-Tip. The cities of Washington, New York, San Francisco and New Orleans were recreated there but the best of them all was Las Vegas. Las Vegas is pretty comical in real life anyway, but to see it made out of all those tiny little plastic blocks was even better. Later, Josh busted out with some impressive "Toss the Ball in the Cup" skills and scored Maya not one but TWO Legoland teddy bears which she promptly adopted as her "babies." Sadly, there was no 7 foot tall Darth Vader to be found.

Up, Up, and Away

We made it to California! Getting in last night was a little rough. After a long night on Thursday thanks to a summer storm that gave both Maya and our dog Indiana the willies, coupled with a long day yesterday, we were pretty exhausted when we got in. We landed in San Diego at 8 pm, which is really 11 for us with the time difference. I think we got to bed somewhere around 11 (2 am our own time. OUCH!). Maya had a few moments when she decided she was too good to listen to me in the airports, but for the most part she was great. She's old enough now that she can scoot Trixie around on her own and actually play with it more as a toy in itself than just a bag. When we were in the ticketing line, she was pretending that Trixie was a pony (completely with neighing) and that the tow strap was her reins. Too cute!

The plane ride was a lot of fun due to the "surprise" I had hidden in Trixie for the trip. Earlier this week I had gone to the book store looking for something to get with a gift card I had been given. Just for fun I went to the kids section and I found the best book, a Disney Princesses vinyl sticker dress up book. Each page has a different Disney princess on it and there are 8 sheets of reusable vinyl stickers of things like gowns, gloves, crowns, etc. It was GREAT at keeping her entertained on the flight and made the five hours go by fast. I had to be the sticker master since I didn't want her to loose any but over all, she loved it (actually, I did too which is why I bought it). We had a good time putting all kinds of ridiculous things on Raja, Princess Jasmine's tiger.

Today we're off to Legoland. Yay!

Pack It In

Well, we leave tomorrow for California which can mean only one thing. Today is “packing day.” I’m sure most people would probably be horrified to look upon the innards of my packed suitcase because I tend to pack very light for both me and Maya. This habit also extends to the toys, snacks, and other things in our carry on luggage.

Now, obviously, every child is different and everyone’s comfort level is different but I see so many people who pack what seems to be their child’s entire room for a trip. Really, in the end, you don’t need all that stuff. I find that it works well to simply pack a few toys that are both compact and can be used in different ways. Things like felt dolls with felt dress up outfits that can be rolled up (or maybe a piece of green felt with a road painted on it and little cars for boys), reusable sticker books, card games, etc. all work well to keep kids entertained while not taking up a lot of room. I’ve also found that things as simple as an airplane blanket are every bit as entertaining as any toy you might bring with you.

I usually help Maya pack Trixie with a few toys and books, snacks to last through the plane trip, and a change of clothes (always an essential). Maya loves to pack her own bag and it allows her to participate in getting ready for the trip and gets her excited about it too. Once we’re packed she knows that we’re about to be off to someplace fun and interesting. I’m personally looking forward to Legoland because, really, who doesn’t love a 7 foot tall statue of Darth Vader made out of tiny plastic blocks.

Oh the Places You'll Go

Hello, and welcome to Once Upon a Trunki! This blog is meant to serve as a place where parents of young children can come to find out what life is really like while traveling with a little one. My name is Miranda. I’m an American living outside of Washington, DC and I’m the mother of a four year old red headed ball of energy named Maya and the wife of seven years to my husband Josh.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “This is just another fake blog written by someone sitting behind a desk at some nameless marketing firm in some big city.” If I weren’t writing this myself, I would think the same thing, but I promise on my passport that that’s not the case here. Everything you read on this blog is a true account of my life as a parent traveling the world with my family. All of the photography you will see here will be taken by Josh who, as luck has it, is great with a camera. While the people at Trunki did approach me about writing this blog, I am neither paid for writing it nor does Trunki have any input into its contents. This fact was important to all of us because we all feel that the most important message to get across in this venture is not how great the Trunki is (though, to me, it is in fact a great thing) but how great, and how important, traveling with your child is.

Still don’t believe I’m real? Here’s is the truth. Josh and I both work full time outside of the home while Maya goes to day care. I clean my own house, cook my own dinners, mow my own lawn and run my own errands. I love to read books, watch movies, crochet blankets and keep Maya entertained by doing things like putting stickers on my face and wearing tutu’s while pretending to be in a ballet. In our spare time, and with our spare money, we travel to wherever looks like an interesting place to go…which would be everywhere.

At the end of this week I will be traveling cross country to San Diego and Los Angeles, California. We’ve dubbed it the “Maya Trip” because we will be going to so many kid friendly parks and attractions like the San Diego Zoo, Legoland, and, of course, Disneyland. Maya, in true little girl fashion, has already started asking me how many princesses she’s going to meet and whether or not the zoo will have any cute furry animals, namely chinchillas. I will be updating the blog daily with pictures and accounts of the day’s activities. We also have several trips scheduled in the coming months, so be sure to check back here for more tales of our adventures. And they are all tales, mind you, because they all happened “Once Upon a Trunki.” (I just had to do that!)

Where Do You Think You're Going?!

As pretty much everyone knows these days, if you're going to travel by air at some point you will experience a delay. I'll admit that we've been relatively lucky with our travels and have only experienced minor delays (minor being two hours or less) (and yes, to me that's a minor delay considering lots of people are delayed even longer sometimes.) Our flights to Minneapolis, however, can only be described as a debacle. I had been worried all day that something would happen to our flights as it had been raining. We made it to Reagan National Airport with time to spare only to find out that our flight had been delayed about 45 minutes. Then it was delayed another hour. Then they let us get on the plane and we sat on the runway for another hour. By this time Maya was going bonkers and I was about three hairs shy of being completely bald.

Finally, we got in the air but we had a problem. We weren't flying direct to Minneapolis. We had to get a connecting flight in Chicago and at this rate we weren't going to make our connection. We knew that there was bad weather in Chicago at the time so our only hope was that our flight to Minneapolis would be delayed as well. Unfortunately, our flight, though delayed an hour, still took off before we got to Chicago. Now we were in O'Hare airport with no flight at 10 pm with no flights to Minneapolis leaving until the next day. We gave up on standing in line to get a flight at the client services desk so we just called United on our cell phone and got the earliest flight we could to Minneapolis the next day which was still 12 pm putting us there at about 2, a full eighteen hours later than expected. Considering we were only staying for a few days, that was a lot of time to lose.

Our only saving grace was that we were in Chicago which meant that we would be able to stay with our good friends Jen and Steve for the night rather than trying to find a room in a hotel. The next morning we packed up and went back to O'Hare. This time the weather was cooperating and we boarded our flight with no problems. Even better, Maya was invited to sit in the cockpit with the pilots and had a grand time sitting in the captain's chair "piloting" the plane. Seeing her sitting in that seat, thoroughly proud of herself for getting us ready to take off, made all the previous day's delays and hassles totally worth it.