It has been years….seriously 4 years I believe…since we’ve flown with the boys. Long before Covid made us question air travel, the prospect of flying with 3 children under 5 had us seriously questioning our life choices. Let’s just say we did it once, felt like we were going to lose kid getting our rental van in the depths of O’Hare Airport, and subsequently drove to the Midwest for the next 4 years. But Covid be damned (and with vaccines available and case numbers falling) this year we decided to give air travel another chance.
What a difference it makes from having a 5, 7, and 9 year old flying rather than an almost 1, 3, and 5 year old. They are all self locomoting at this point and 2 of 3 can somewhat reliably tow a suitcase (steer, no, but tow, yes). We’re a flying circus but at least we’re back to flying.
It was also our first tour of the newly improved Salt Lake City International Airport. It’s much bigger and we got to do a lot of walking. The boys weren’t particularly impressed by the new airport but didn’t have any memories of the old one. We flew Delta and learned the hard way that the cheap tickets won’t guarantee a child is seated next to a parent–it’s been a long time since we’ve flown. After some phone calls (3 hours on hold, because still, Covid) and seat jockeying we ended up with Jason seated with Andrew, and Christopher, William, and I seated together. We weren’t sure how Andrew would fly and I generally don’t fly great, so we decided Jason would take the wild card and I would take the 2 boys who were theoretically more self sufficient. Everyone did great right up until the wheels touched down in Chicago and Christopher threw up. Poor motion sick dude was even medicated. Thankfully, 5 minutes later he was right as rain and we herded our little circus to our rental car pick up.
This summer we did a little more visiting compared to our 2020 summer trip. One goal of this trip was to get an updated Koenig family photo. The last time we had taken a professional one all together was in 2013. Even with another Koenig baby on the way we decided better to do it now and update again after Baby K arrives. I’d say picture taking was a success. Jen set up a photographer at a nice park in Dubuque and other than a lot of kid wrangling, it went really well. Here are the old (2013) and new (2021) family photos for comparison:
This trip we bounced around from place to place. We spent our first couple nights on the farm with Grandma Laura, Grandpa Bruce, and a visit from Jim, Jen, and cousins. They played on the tire swing, rode around in the neighbor’s Gator and spent the evenings eating s’mores around a bonfire. This year instead of dying the boys’ hair we tie dyed t-shirts for an updated cousin picture. Then we loaded up and spent a couple nights in Dubuque at cousins’ house. We played at their local splash pad, took family pictures, and splashed in the river at Swiss Valley Nature Preserve. The kids had a lot of fun playing together and were excited to try out all of the cousins’ new toys. It is amazing how much more interesting it is to play with other kids’ toys than your own. 
At the end of this vacation we surprised the boys by staying in Wisconsin Dells for the night at The Wilderness Hotel and Waterpark. The boys had not been to a Wisconsin Dells waterpark before so it was a really big deal for them! It was a hit and after playing all day they definitely want to go back again next time. I was a little surprised that Christopher was the most adventurous. There were actually a few rides Jason had to talk him out of trying due to size restrictions etc. I, on the other hand, went down 1 tube slide in the dark and was motion sick for a good 15 minutes afterwards. The kids thought my screaming in the dark tunnel was hilarious however, so at least someone enjoyed it.
At the end of the trip we spent 1 additional night on the farm before heading back to the airport with our circus. We dodged Covid (again) and it was a very enjoyable trip!
A few extra pictures just for fun…
