The Terrific3 travel blog

On Thursday morning, we started our adventures, with a 440am wake up for me, and a 5am one for the kids. Our lovely nanny Cynthia helped with the kids this morning and dropped us off at PDX.

We checked our bags, and the big one was 54 lbs. I had weighed it at home and taken stuff out to make it 50, but my handscale must not be super accurate, or some other stuff sneaked in…. Luckily plenty of space in the other suitcases to move things over.

One of my kids, especially, does better when we know exactly what is happening when. Last summer during our road trip to Glacier, I invented this system of index cards, one for each day, and it helped. Also helped reduce questions about what is next etc—just refer to note cards. So, I made some time yesterday to make one for each kiddo.

We were grounded at PDX for over an hour due to weather in SF, but got off in the air and had plenty of time for the connection.

Did you know you have to go out and back in through security to get to the international terminal at SFO? We were thankful for TSA precheck as the regular line was very long!

Z blew off some steam running and skipping while I timed him.

I have told both boys I would like them to try to sleep around 3pm PST if possible, and they get a $1 for every hour they sleep and $0.50 for every hour they rest. Yes, I am not a mama who is beyond bribes and we have a long travel 2 days! There is also medication involved. Let’s see how it goes!

The kids slept on the flight—Z for 2 then 5-6 hours and S for 4 hours (which is pretty good for him). Meanwhile this mama sandwich got a broken one hour as she was kicked on one side and snuggled on the other. Such is mama life.

Japan airlines was a pretty amazing experience compared to the U.S. airlines we usually fly. unfortunately they didn’t get our vegetarian meal requests but were very apologetic and accommodating with some other options. I knew I should’ve called to verify a couple of days ago. Thankful we packed lots of snacks.

We arrived in Tokyo and AirTags told us our bags were still in SF.

After about 15 minutes, the status updated. I had already meanwhile called out travel insurance. Sometimes too much technology causes more stress than anything else. In either case, I have packed enough in our duffel bag carryon to carry us for at least 1-2 days.

Z is doing great with the travel. S is doing as well as he can and I’m practicing my deep breaths and patience, which admittedly can be hard on no sleep. I’m looking forward to a hotel in Bangkok (hopefully) for a short overnight stay.

The third flight of the day, to Bangkok, was definitely very challenging. Z did really well as he had slept enough. S had a tough time due to poor sleep and overstimulation, and thus I wax also operating on basically zero sleep.

We landed at 11pm Bangkok time and it is now 130am. It took us a while to get through customs, and then we got our bags. I was SO glad I had the foresight to book a hotel that is basically at the airport. Both boys are finally asleep and I should be too, but I’m enjoying the peace and silence. I knew this might would be the hardest and I wasn’t wrong. I splurged on a hotel suite even though it’s an 8 hour stay, as I knew everyone would need their own space to regulate, and feel we are.

I cant believe we are in Thailand. Tomorrow, one short, and hopefully uneventful flight to Chisng Mai, and then we settle in for a bit.