down south

We made it to sunshine and blue skies and all kinds of friends.

After a decade of travel with kids we've navigated some pretty tricky situations, but our first night here ... one hotel room, two single beds.  For all seven of us.

Whew.  We were exhausted and hungry and past ready for bed and I needed a few "just take a deep breath moments" but we did it and everyone slept much better than I did (mostly I was up shuffling people and re-arranging blankets and realizing that our cramped hotel room would be paradise to the thousands of refugee mamas trying to protect their precious little ones).

{Also, when I write a book there will be a chapter titled "Big Family Hotel Living" and I will share all my secrets - most of which involve befriending the housekeeper on your floor and also the many wonderful bedding options hiding behind the door at the end of the hall labeled 'staff only'.}

So the next morning we scrambled over and under one another and bedding and luggage and got everyone in clean clothing and Matt took the kids to breakfast while I tackled the tornado-hit chaos of our hotel room.  Still a bit groggy from lack of sleep and tempted to complain about my circumstances I opened the bathroom door to these silly faces drawn on the foggy mirror.

I love travel with kids.

Our days here are none too quiet, the kids in programming and many old friends to see.  Matt is a busy man, but with all the kids occupied for different pieces of the day, I'm able to join him quite a bit.

This was my view a little after 6pm when I was waiting to get the kids and head to dinner.  When you haven't seen the sunset for months you enjoy colored clouds even when the best part of the view is blocked by a hotel high rise!

By the time I gathered my people and headed to find dinner it was getting late.  Sleepy boy with a big plate of street food Thai noodles.

Sleepy or not, the six of us (minus Matt) managed to devour plate after plate of food :)

I wasn't sure how much to order but the lady cooking could churn out food almost as fast as we could ask for it - so I ordered a few, and as the plates got emptied we kept asking for more.  I only know about six Thai phrases but one is "it tastes good" and we got to use it tonight!

More of the same schedule tomorrow and then Sunday we are back to the airport, flying farther south following Matt and finding some more adventure.