We warmed up for our long transatlantic flight with a few hours’ flight north to Iceland. We had been watching the weather nervously, since snow and wind had been battering Iceland recently. A number of flights were cancelled the day before our arrival, but we arrived under calm skies, with full knowledge that a big storm was forecast for our one full day in Iceland. We mentioned our previous arrival in a blizzard and the upcoming storm to the passport control lady, and she joked with us that it was our fault: we brought the storms to Iceland!

Nic’s bag didn’t make the trip from Dublin, unfortunately. We’ve been surprised to not have any luggage hiccups before this. So Nic and the boys were stuck in their clothes, and Jude borrowed pajamas from his big sister. Morgan may or may not have borrowed some pink polka-dot undies from his big sister, but he wouldn’t want me to talk about that!

In typical Iceland form, we experienced some struggles. After getting a few groceries and plenty of skyr, we headed to our Airbnb. I couldn’t find a suitable place close to the airport, so we drove out a bit to an area a short distance outside of civilization. Recent unplowed snowfall made it difficult to navigate the neighborhood. Twice Nic had to back down a hill and try again to get up it with momentum. Our rental van lacked four wheel drive and any kind of decent traction. We couldn’t figure out the precise location of our house either and stopped to ask a neighbor.

Once safely settled in our Airbnb, we waited for the storm in cozy warmth. About seven inches of snow later, Nic headed out to evaluate the driveway and neighborhood exit. With only one outfit and pair of shoes, Nic fastened trash bags onto his feet to make himself boots! A short time into shoveling the heavy, wet snow, our only shovel broke. Fortunately, our host came to the rescue surprisingly quickly and hired a friend to plow us out. We never could have driven through the drifts with that van, and even with a few working shovels, it would have taken both of us several hours to clear the path. In the meantime, nearly all flights were cancelled that day, including the Dublin flight that was going to bring us our bag.

We used our snow day to rest and finish Quinn’s quarter of school. I am calling this her kindergarten school year, but this little math whiz is ripping through first grade math like it’s a walk in the park. In one sense, it has been fairly easy to keep school going with Nic around and more time on my hands, but even with the extra help, it really felt like hard work to get it all done. I’m proud to say that we are on track to finish the school year on time and managed to submit all our quarterly portfolio assignments on time from Europe. For social studies and science, the girls completed country information pages for many of the places we traveled, as well as science-themed assignments based on what we were seeing as we traveled. We taped their country pages into notebooks we carried, and the notebooks can now serve as a fun reminder of our travels.

Morgan’s schooling fell through the cracks majorly. We brought his writing book on our trip, and the poor kid lugged that book all over Europe without using it much. This is the year he was supposed to learn how to write his letters and learn enough sounds to be set up well for reading next year. When I did find the time to sit down with Morgan, neither of us could quite find the patience required to teach a lefty preschool boy to write, so we will have to work more on his school now that we’re back! Quinn started kindergarten math along with Laila when she was Morgan’s age, so I have felt bad at times for not starting math early with Morgan as well. There was no way that was going to happen on this trip! The good news on that front is that, in true third kid fashion, he’s already absorbed a ton of math and constantly surprises me with the acquired knowledge I never sat down to teach him. Hooray!