After a few days in Portland, we packed up our stuff (a backpack for carrying Jude, backpacks for all and 2 suitcases currently weighing in at 99.5 pounds total) and headed to the airport. We arrived early and ate our packed lunches before dropping off our luggage. Airline employees told us our flight was only half full. Security was as fast as Missoula, and we found a perfect spot to wait for our flight and give the kids some freedom. Things were going far too smoothly to bode well for the rest of the day…

And then it was time: the long flight I’d been dreading since booking tickets in June. How do you pass seven hours in a metal box with four active kids? Sleep is an obvious solution, but our children chose to sleep a combined eighty minutes on the long flight. The timing didn’t make it feel like bedtime, but half of the hours were fair game for normal sleeping time. Not for these crazy kiddos! After struggling with extended crying jags from Jude as we tossed him back and forth and tried to get him to sleep, we gave up and decided we were just all going to completely miss a night of sleep, kids included. Jude was most happy when eating, and so that’s what he did as we flew over the US, Canada, and Greenland. 

Our flight arrived early, and everyone with a window seat immediately began talking about the snow. We expected to see light snow in Iceland, but we had the good fortune of arriving in a record-setting blizzard! So after skipping a night of sleep, Nic had the tough job of driving a wimpy rental car on very snowy roads for several hours to get us to our Airbnb. We counted at least eighteen cars off the road, so while the whole thing reminded us of the first big winter storm anywhere we’ve lived, we have never seen so many car accidents at one time. 

Having gotten some rest last night, we all feel closer to normal. With temps around 30 or below we did some school, played in the snow, hiked through the snow to a waterfall in our neighborhood, and watched the aurora during dinner. With skyr (Icelandic yogurt) at every meal, it was a pretty good day.