We just had our first family of four trip interstate.  It felt a bit like a practice run for our upcoming Asia trip.  It is the first time the four of us have flown somewhere together.

When I booked the trip, I thought the dates were unfortunate.  I was worried that the travel part of the trip may not go well, and then our excitement and anticipation for our Asian trip would be ruined as we panicked over how we were going to survive. Thankfully, I worried for nothing 🙂

The plan?

We went to Hobart (my home town) for my sister’s wedding.  I was very excited to attend my sister’s wedding and to have all my family in the one spot.  I am the oldest of 5, and we live in three different cities, so we don’t all get together very often.  Unfortunately, all my nieces and nephews are in Tasmania, so S and Z rarely get to see them.  S was very much looking forward to seeing her cousins again.  We were pretty much just going there for the wedding as we flew in Friday evening and out again Sunday morning.

How did it go?

The wedding was superb.  So much fun and my sister looked just stunning 🙂  It was so nice getting all that family time, especially with my two other sisters, who I sat next to at the reception.  Usually we have kids climbing all over us, so it was nice to have a decent conversation.  S just looooooved being with her cousins. She was in heaven.  Z perhaps didn’t enjoy the long hot day as much, but he was just so cute.

And the travelling?

The travel part was fine.  Our flight over ended up being delayed by a couple of hours.  This was annoying but no big deal.  S loved the plane and catching the bus between the car park and the terminal.  She was so excited about being up in the sky.  It was very cute.  The accommodation was basically a brand new 2 bedroom cabin next to the airport and a fabulous deal. The flight home was perfectly on time. It all went quite smoothly really.

My only complaint (other than my super hangover!!) was Z’s sleep the second night.  He actually slept unusually well the first night, but the second night, he woke up a lot and had an extended period up playing at 3am :-/  not ideal, and something I imagine we may have to cope with more regularly than we would like when we are traveling.  It doesn’t really phase me as I’m used to dealing with Z’s bad sleep, but J wasn’t impressed.

My main worry about the upcoming trip has been getting around with the kids and the luggage.  On this trip, we had the same amount of luggage minus one suitcase.  It was fine and not really a problem at all.  I now feel much more positive about how we will cope with it all next week (yay trip is next week!!).  We are going to strap the suitcases together, so it won’t seem much different to what we just dealt with.

So, yeah, our practice trip went very well, and I really can not wait for the real thing next week!!

Practical Information
We stayed at the Hobart Airport Tourist Park.  It was about $120 a night in a fabulous new 2 bedroom cabin with our Big 4 member discount.  Kids under 3 were free. Staying by the airport worked well as it meant we only needed to hire a car for one day which was quite a cost saving.

Us