3 years ago, my husband and I packed up ourselves and the kids and set on an adventure of a life time to the States!

It was something we wanted to do for a long time and financially for us the timing was right as well as the cost of everything. Our flights were cheap and the dollar was about 93cents. I was quite apprehensive about traveling with a 3 and a half year old and 18 month old baby, but they were super excited that they were going to see Mickey and Mini!!!!!

When we decided to go, we went to a travel agent to help us plan our holiday as we had never travelled overseas before! We had three months to organise ourselves – travel insurance, pass ports, cash passports, flights, accommodation, converting money, packing….there was so much to do, but like everything it got done and we managed to get ourselves ready for a November 27th take off !!!!

The morning we arrived at the airport, I still remember it like it was yesterday! It was so surreal….I couldn’t believe we were finally going to America!!!! We just couldn’t wait to get there and get settled! We had a direct flight to LA – 14 hours and the kids slept for 8 of them! They were so much better than we thought they would be! We kept them entertained with food, DVDs, colouring in and lots of stories!

That moment when we stepped off the plane was also surreal….we were in Los Angeles USA!!!!!!!! I was like a kid in a candy store! For the first 24 hours (ok the whole 4 weeks lol)…it was exciting!!!! Their accents were so strong and seeing the driver on the opposite side of a car and driving on the opposite side of the road was so weird! The kids napped on and off a bit that day but we managed to work our way into their time quite nicely without too much back lash! Even though it’s an English speaking country, so many things were different! The toilets, the money, tipping….we had to learn fast!

We went for four weeks…
We spent a week in LA, 3 days in Las Vegas, 5 days at Lake Tahoe in the snow, a week in Pittsburgh (with our beautiful friends), 2 days in Washington and 5 days in New York which included a white Christmas!

We had the best time! Disneyland was magical, the snow was like fluffy powder, Vegas was bright and colourful on so many levels, Pittsburgh was awesome thank you to our wonderful friends, Washington was pretty and New York – well what can I say other than it is simply the best!

We created the most wonderful memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives! Between driving in snow storms on both sides of the country, being stopped by homeless people, losing Sienna’s teddy (twice), missing trains, being in Washington at the same time the city was closed and hadn’t been in 30 years and spending a white christmas in New York, we definitely had a whirlwind holiday…but it was sensational! And the kids, well they were awesome!!!!! 4 weeks was plenty long enough for them though, but what an experience for them…not many children can say ‘I’ve been to Disneyland!’

These are some of the fond memories that we will always be able to look back on……

Disneyland:

Not for one second do we regret taking the kids while they were so young. In fact we are busting to go again. Things will be quite different this time though as we have an extra child, but our first two are much older and the beauty of going again now is that they will remember it! I recommend anyone to go to America…it is a great place to holiday!