Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for take-off!

Since moving to Finland 12 years ago, I have managed to make it back home every year. Until 3 years ago. If you look at the picture, you can maybe guess why. :)

We traveled to Montana with baby Matias in June of 2009 and that was the last visit until this summer. Three years without family, without home. Three of the most difficult years of my life. I got pregnant with the girls in the late fall of 2009 and dealt with some pretty awful morning sickness (actually all-day sickness). Then there was the early birth and trauma of 2010. Then sick babies at home and the craziness of 3 kids under the age of 3 and 3 in diapers. Phew. It was a rough 3 years.

Now since life is so easy and calm (ha ha! :)), we decided we HAD to make the trip back this summer. Plus my little brother was getting married. :)

Lots to talk about, so I'll try to organize my thoughts about the trip here:

Super-friendly Americans

I love Finland and Finnish people, but I have to admit that Finns in general are sometimes a bit quiet. They kind of mind their own business and don't go out of their way to talk to strangers. I have become quite used to this after living here so long and it hasn't bothered me, but during this trip I realized how nice it is to have people coming up and talking to you, smiling at you, going out of their way to help you. Or maybe that just happens when you have 3 little monkeys running around making you look like you need some help. :) During our first 24 hours, I think more than 50 people made nice comments to us about the kids. Some of the comments we heard: 'Oh, how cute!' (like 30 times) or 'Looks like you've got your hands full!' or 'Are they triplets?' or 'Wow, here come the troops!'' Or like one kind lady in the New York airport came up and said to me while I was standing alone with all the kids (Tero was in the bathroom), 'I just have to say that if you are by yourself you are really someone special.' That made me laugh. I don't think it would be possible to travel alone with these guys...yet. Soon maybe, but not yet. Still waiting for Santa to bring me that third arm. :)

3 kids on a plane

This was something I was scared to death about. About 3 weeks before the trip I started having trouble sleeping because I was imagining all the worst-case scenarios. Our kids are wonderful and perfect and everything (ha ha!), but they can get pretty darn cranky sometimes. The crankiness also seems to be contagious (mommy and daddy are not immune either!) and 3 cranky kids are more than a handful. It's not pretty!

I actually wasn't too worried about Matias, because a 3.5-year-old has enough concentration to watch cartoons/play games and enough sense not run off into a crowd of people. Plus he was totally excited about going on an airplane and I knew he would be interested in everything that was happening around him. Two-year-olds on the other hand....well, they don't really listen yet. And they don't understand what these things called 'rules' are (rules like 'stay here and don't move while mommy and daddy are going through security'). They get scared of loud noises and new places. Naps are still super important and they will have extreme meltdowns (loud screaming included) without proper sleep. They also have about a 30-second concentration span. All of this combined is not a good combination for 20 hours of air travel! I spent a lot of money on travel toys and activities for the airplane. If they have new toys they'll sit still for 20 hours, right? :)

All worrying proved to be a waste because the kids were perfect. Really perfect. Honestly, they were. I was surprised at how smoothly everything went. I don't know if we just got lucky or if the timing of the flights was good or if the whole thing was just so exciting that they were on their best behavior. I was so proud of them!  It was of course a bit busy managing the kids and all of their stuff, but they were happy campers. No meltdowns or temper tantrums. No vomiting or major spills. No crying. It was actually almost enjoyable! The kids all took a little nap and played nicely from Helsinki to New York. Then in the New York airport, after an 8-hour flight, they were running around and laughing like crazy (and it was midnight for us!). They slept the almost the whole way from New York to Seattle, so that was easy. :) The jet lag was a bit crazy, but can't blame them for being mixed up when you almost completely switch their daytime and nighttime around.

Home Sweet Home

I have discussed this with a lot of friends, and it seems that it's quite common for people to miss home a whole lot more once they have their own kids. That's how I feel. Seeing the kids playing with their cousins was priceless. Seeing the kids sitting with their great grandparents was soooo nice. Seeing the mountains of Montana was breathtaking. Seeing the kids playing with my old dolls and toys was something I have dreamed of since I was 5. I have really good memories of my childhood and I guess I want my kids to be able to understand and in a way share these memories with me....to know the people I knew, to see the places I saw, to eat the food I ate.

All dressed up in Griz gear at the University of Montana (mommy's university)

The worst thing about the trip was that it went way too quickly and we didn't get to spend as much time with people as we would've liked to. We did however get to celebrate at a reception with my brother and his new wife and also join my grandparents' 60-year anniversary barbecue. We saw the beautiful mountains of Glacier. We spent time hiking in the mountains and staying at a cabin with my dad. We saw at least 50 different relatives and had a variety of picnics, barbecues, etc. We spent time with my brother and his family in Great Falls. Tero and I got to have a bit of free time while Grandma Vicky took care of the kidlets. We went to a movie, went out to dinner, hiked the M, and even stayed one night in a hotel. This was my first night EVER without all the kids! Huge achievement!

One minor disappointment was that all of us had some sort of weird stomach bug while we were there. The girls took awhile to recover, but thankfully they were in good spirits and it didn't really put a damper on our plans....or our mood. Thank goodness for Pedialyte! It wasn't nice changing diapers and sheets at 3 in the morning, but it could've been worse too!

Even though practically everything about the trip was great, even the most simple things like playing at a park and going to Dairy Queen on a hot day, I think seeing the kids playing with their cousins was really the best part. And hugging my Grandpa. Oh, and Starbucks. :)

Hanging out with cousin Eli

Bedtime story with cousins Madeline and Emerson

Leaving home to go back home

It was so hard to leave because I wasn't quite ready to go yet. The weather was nice in Missoula (in the 90s most of the time we were there!) and going back to rainy, 60 degree weather in Finland didn't sound ideal. Saying goodbye to everyone was really hard, but at least I'm pretty sure it won't be 3 years before we see again. :)

We drove back to Seattle in one day, stayed a day in Seattle (and met my good friend Amy and her family at the zoo), then left our hotel at 4.30 the next morning to go to the airport. It seems that when you start the trip so early and are already tired, it's WAY harder to fly those 20 hours again. Or maybe it's just because going back home after a trip always seems to take longer. Or the kids were pretty grumpy, so it just felt like it took longer. In any case, the flights back were in no way as good as they had been on the way. Lots of whining, lots of crankiness, lots of restlessness, and very little sleep.  Only one or two kids slept at a time, so there was always someone up (and usually grumpy). You know when you look at the flight map to see your progress and it seems like you haven't moved a centimeter in over an hour? Or when you feel like you can't manage sitting in the plane any more and you see the plane barely even at the half-way point of an 8-hour flight? That New York to Helsinki flight was neverending. Man, I thought we'd never get back home. We made it though. We arrived at 9 in the morning, so that first day was pretty rough. Jetlag took about 5 days to get over, but we managed. We always manage. :)

We've been back for 2 weeks and I feel like the whole trip was somehow a dream. I'm still missing home and wish I could go back! Now that we are home though, there are of course many things I'm enjoying. Things like cooking and baking, Finnish strawberries, not having to live out of a suitcase, seeing friends....just being home.

Thanks to everyone who helped make our stay in Montana so so wonderful. We hope to see you again very soon!!!