Little Elephants » Travel

Working on writer’s block

Veronique Christensen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:53:02 +0000

{excuse the lack of photos … I forgot my camera at home!}

Figure a good place to start when you haven’t been able to write in a while is with a blog post.

I’m on a plane (LOVE airplane wifi, not so in love with this airline — my plane smells like pee) — headed to what promises to be a grand couple of days of meeting & greetiing, and re-kindling friendships, and learning about what’s new with some of my favorite web destinations like Flickr & Shine. I’ll be at the Yahoo! Mother Board Summit & it promises to be a busy/informative/great event.

Every time I take a flight I find myself with an awful case of the jitters and insomnia, last night was no exception. I think I slept all of 45 minutes, and didn’t pack my bag until around three in the morning (upon blurry reflection, I’m pretty sure I have a day’s less clothing than I need, sigh…). I also left the house in a total disaster (which always happens, and which always leaves me knotted with feelings of guilt and inadequacy).

I haven’t even gotten where I’m going yet, and already I’m missing my family something terrible.

See? I think I’ve just demonstrated the why of my writer’s block. It’s much funner to post happy fun times. Creative, vibrant, alive times. Must focus on those more. Right now I’m feeling the weight of my responsibilities a bit too heavily & need to re-focus, re-group. Maybe stepping away for a couple days will be good.

I wish I’d brought a camera.

Did I ever tell you about Iceland?

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:19:39 +0000

On our way to Denmark this summer we were so lucky to take a side trip to Iceland for two days. It was our first visit there & we had pretty much no expectations … other than maybe expecting everyone to sound like Björk or Sigur Rós which isn’t all that fair, but we did note that there was a lot of music around to be heard on the streets and in pubs.

Driving from the airport to Reykjavik felt a bit like being on the Mars Rover — the landscape was so other-worldly. Everything around us was dried lava rock and green moss, and appeared to go on forever. The hotel we stayed at was a bus-ride out of town, which didn’t seem like a big deal when we booked it, but next time (and there definitely will be a next time!) we’ll want to be in town to enjoy a bit more music & food.

On day two of our visit we did the Golden Circle tour which a friend had recommended when I told him we only had two days there. We went with Go Travel Iceland, a small operator that we found though another operator who didn’t have room for the five of us on the day we wanted. Odinn was a perfect guide for us — he brought his eight year old daughter to play with the kids, answered every single one of our questions (if you know us at all, I’m sure you can imagine the patience it would take to answer all five of us over a day-long mini-bus ride). He even had Tor (who was 3 1/2) at the time sit up front with him for one leg of our journey and answered every single one of his questions about the bus & how it worked … until the boy fell asleep.

The kids all had a blast, and even introduced Anna to rock painting, this time with volcanic rock, which they used to do all the time when we lived in California.

Click on the album above to see how beautiful it was there. You’ll never ever see water so clear. I can’t wait to go back!

When Mom is away

Veronique Christensen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:51:48 +0000

I’m writing from a Bed & Breakfast in Washington, DC today & even though this is a quick business trip, I’m still thinking about my little family an awful lot.

When work takes me away from home I make a point of making sure all the laundry is done & the kitchen as tidy as I can get it (I am not a naturally tidy person), and I write up a list for Tomas of all the things the kids have going on — even though I know he doesn’t really need it.

I think I write the list so I feel like I’m still involved in some little way. This time it was horrifyingly long & detailed for three brief days. All three kids play soccer. Maggie has guitar, chorus, and her sailing club. Bjørn has piano and math club. Luckily (for him?), Tor just has soccer and pre-school.

Usually, I don’t think too much about our schedule since we are two of us to keep things moving and sane, but when I’m away, I feel terrible for Tomas who has it all on his shoulders.

I’d love to hear what you all do when you or your partner are away from home for more than a day. I’m hoping to add a few good tricks to make these trips easier on everyone (and ease this Momma’s guilt a wee bit!).

Learning French and Danish

Veronique Christensen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:00:34 +0000

I have a confession. I feel incredibly guilty that Tomas and I haven’t taught our kids French or Danish. We have so many friends who have done an amazing job of raising multi-ligual kids, and we just have excuse after excuse. My latest theory is that we each spoke our mother tongues with our families, but neither of us ever lived in our home lands.

This summer we spent a whopping five weeks in Europe, most of it in Denmark, but we did have a side trip to my Mom in Brittany (north western region of France, we have our own flag and everything… but that’s another post). Before we left, we went mad posting the names for things all over the house to familiarize the kids with the languages, but Tor (who is soon to be four!) messed with our grand plans by moving our post-its around (fridge became table, chairs turned into walls… you get the picture).

The good news is that we had fun with the language experiment, but what really helped, with Danish at least, was all the friends the kids made while in Denmark. In the beginning their new friends would struggle to communicate in English, which they all learned in school, but as the weeks went on I would hear the new friends teaching Danish to my three. It was awesome.

Are you a multi-ligual family? Any advice on how to re-boot our efforts over here so we don’t lose the progress that was made over the summer? I’d love to hear your tips!

Disneyland photos

Veronique Christensen — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 11:15:31 +0000

I thought I’d have energy to do a proper write-up today, but I honestly don’t. Instead, you get to enjoy the massively edited down photo-set. If you click on the image you’ll be taken to my flickr album where you’ll find even more (if you can stand it).

We’re back!

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:58:31 +0000

Just taking a quick minute to let folks know we’re back. I have over 300 photos (!!) to sift through before I can post any here (and they’re on an other hard drive…).

I’m looking forward to sharing our adventure in the next few days!

Road trip!

Veronique Christensen — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 11:51:40 +0000

We’re heading out on a family road trip early tomorrow morning, so I won’t be blogging until the end of the week. Hopefully, I’ll have some fun pictures and stories to share, and if we discover any new tricks for keeping three young ones entertained on a day-long drive I’ll be sure to share!

GeoBeats is so cool!

Veronique Christensen — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:22:05 +0000

In case you think we’ve completely forgotten about our trip around the world, we haven’t. Life has just taken us on it’s twisty path for a wee little detour this past month or so. Last night we agreed that we needed to re-ignite out travel quest, but this time we won’t be so strict with the rules — it’s so much more fun to meander than to feel like you have to follow an itinerary. Especially since the whole point is to try new things and have FUN.

A few months ago we discovered an awesome site called GeoBeats — The site is truly magical, and highly addictive (you’ve been warned). They provide video snippets of everyday experiences and historical landmarks from around the globe, complete with vibrant colors, and music. I almost wish we had smell-o-vision to round out the experience.

Check it out!

[just click on a destination from the drop-down menu to get started]

How to travel with kids so they don’t drive you insane

Veronique Christensen — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 00:04:00 +0000

One of the {many} nice things about writing this blog is that it gives me the opportunity to reflect a bit. I often find myself browsing through our photo library, and I feel so lucky to have captured so many wonderful moments (even a few not-so-wonderful ones like this, and this).

An e-mail exchange I had with Maya’s Mom (she does have a real name, it’s Ann) about traveling with kids had me looking up this shot.

In this particular photo we are flying back to the Bay Area from Nice last winter. At the end of the flight we had an older woman stop us, all smiles, to say how great our kids were(!!). They hadn’t been perfect (none of us ever are, on principle), but they had played, and napped, and had fun without anyone throwing any major tantrums or fits.

I think I know why. We were prepared. Simple as that.

When we fly, each kid gets to pack a carry-on backpack with Three of their favorite books, and One special toy. After they’ve gone to bed I add the Mommy Touches & they aren’t allowed to peek before we get to the boarding area:

Decks of cards for playing solitaire, poker, go fish, crazy eights…
Dice to play math games. Roll ‘em and add, multiply, subtract… depending on the child’s age.
Coloring books & new pencils
New notebooks to chronicle their trip
Assorted craft items that don’t take up a lot of room like origami paper, and scratch papers.
A couple snacks they like (raisins for him, granola bars for her)
A pack of Starburst candy each. This is for take-off and landing to help with the ear pressure — the last thing we want is to begin, or end, the trip in pain and in tears.
Two more books each that they haven’t read before

Each kid gets items that are just-for-them, as well as things to share and play together or with Mom & Dad. The only rule I set for all this is that they can only take one item out at a time (so Mama isn’t on her hands and knees at the end of the flight, searching for some tiny thing that’s probably wedged in a seat where no one will ever find it again).

The point is that travel is a Big Adventure for a kid to go on, and we do our best to keep it that way without letting them go over the edge from happy-excited to over-excited. That is not fun.

A wee bit o’ Scotland on the way

Veronique Christensen — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 23:15:58 +0000

With Christmas now behind us, and a simple New Year’s planned, it’s time to rev up the Birthday Machine.

Tomas (the husband) is turning 40 in a couple weeks and while he would dearly love to visit Scotland and the Isle of Skye, that just isn’t possible right now. Instead, I’ve invited friends to help us celebrate with a little bit of peaty goodness (the real reason for his interest in the trip, to be honest).

Since I haven’t quite used up my obsession with garlands, today I completed a banner of plaid pennants in alternating colors (with fabric bought on sale at Joann’s for $4.99 a yard — score!). I’ve yet to decide where to hang it… A couple of weeks ago I broke the bobbin-thingy on Miss M’s sewing machine so I opted for fabric glue instead. I think it looks quite nice! (I will of course post a picture of the garland when it gets hung up).

Miss M has asked that we make her a mini-skirt out of the remaining fabric (in the lighter shade). I’ll need to figure that one out. Quick. I’ve never sewn an article of clothing in my life, and the dear girl has a Very Specific Skirt in mind. Add the fact that I need to repair her sewing machine first… Oy.

I’m also thinking that I should do something for the boys. Like appliquéd shirts or something. Erin Harris posted some shirts she’s made as gifts, and while I don’t think I could do as clean a job of it as she has, I’m sure I could do something along those lines… but something Scottish… Would Scotties be too precious?

I found this site that lists interesting-sounding food, but I don’t think I’ll be up to and over-the-top cooking marathon, so Trader Joe’s might once again be my ally in the kitchen

Last up in my planning (I think) is finding activities for the kids who will also be dashing about in our teeny tiny apartment. I am so looking forward to that “research!”