We made it!

We (a husband/father, a wife/mother, two boys, 8 check-in bags, 2 carry-on bags, 2 backpacks and a car seat) finally made it to Shanghai.

The whole trip was rather pleasant with the exception of one boy throwing up five minutes before take off. ***Important message for international travel with kids: bring wet wipes, a bar of soap, a disposable rag and a change of clothes for everyone. Once he was all cleaned up after we hit 10,000 ft all was good again.  The recycled air in the cabin dissipated the smell of the vomit – sorry to all the other passengers.

So to entertain them, we had new cards, new coloring books, new books, snacks, new toy cars, iPads, 3 external hard drives filled with 18+ hours of their favorite movies and shows. Guess what they wanted.  Their iPad.  The WHOLE entire time.  If they weren’t sleeping or eating, they were playing games on their iPad.  So note to self, just pack an iPad and forget the extra 10 lbs of crap that just filled up their backpacks that you’ll have to lug around at the airport since it was too heavy for them to carry.

So once we landed in Shanghai, we got ALL the luggage off the belt. People were just staring at us thinking how are they going to move all that luggage with two small boys? The cart can MAYBE hold 2 large suitcases, a carry-on and a backpack. If we were in the US the airport workers would beg to help us. In Shanghai all we got were stares. Probably since they don’t employ people to help out with the bags.  Since my wonderful husband thought of everything, he strapped the 8 suitcases while I used the cart for the rest of the things – even the boys. Our driver saw us as we were exiting the airport so he gave my husband a hand. The amount of stares (again) with the luggage that we got made me chuckle inside. We may have given the Chinese an idea on how to transport their luggage!

So now we are on our way to the hotel until we find a place. One van for the passengers and one van for our luggage.  Literally.