the travelling bug

Hubby and I both have that bug. Nothing still exhilarates me more than going somewhere new, seeing new things, learning new things. I love reading up about places we'll visit and watching travelling shows. Before kids, we did our fair share of travelling, foregoing furniture in our new home for yet another trip. In retrospect, knowing how long it would take us to have kids I wish we had gone more places, more exotic places, but then again we were both also really busy building our businesses and long time away was impractical.

Big sis proved to be an awesome traveller from an early age. So off she went with us to Europe and the Carribean a few times, along with local trips i.e within North America. With the twins, we figured our travelling days could be over for a while. But then again, they had their first airplane experience when 5 months old going to Florida for 2 weeks. Although everyone called us crazy, including myself while in the midst of packing, we managed pretty well. This last summer, we took the plunge and brought them to Europe. What good little travellers they turned out to be. Enduring plane ride after plane ride, long hours of waiting in airports, finding "fun" things to do wherever we were. They amazed me. Sure, it ain't a piece of cake for me organizing them all to go from Point A to Point B, and it certainly isn't the same travelling experience as when we were just a couple, but what an enriching experience for them in oh so many levels. They keep asking when our next plane ride will be. They've become quite adept at packing their little travel-on suitcases.

So today, I decided to bring them along to get their THIRD passport (and they just turned 4!!). I laughed out loud when I realized they were little country bumpkins as they ohed and awed at the skyscrapers and all the people scurrying about. We arrive at the Passport Office to witness a huge line-up and are told its a 2 hour wait :( I decide to stay, it had taken long enough to get ourselves here. They were awesome, they waited, sang, looked at some hockey cards they brought along and looked around at all the people commenting just like 4 olds would "mom, did you see, that guy has a ponytail! that lady has a big butt! that girl has pink hair! that guy has an earring on his nose!!" At the end of it all, it turned out to be just an hour alltogether. To them it was an important wait cuz "if we don't get our pazpots we can't get on the plane!" Guess they caught that bug too.