I can’t write about our travels without mentioning how proud I was of the girls. They took 9 flights in 17 days (including one overnight flight and two that left when they should have been sleeping), dealt with two major delays (one going to Madison, the other leaving Madison), and managed four different time changes with nary a complaint. Though I was a bit concerned before we left about how they would handle all the travel and possible sleep deprivation, it was never a problem. In fact, I was the only one to ever stress out (though, to be fair, that too happened less than I expected) – with Zoe telling her sister in the airport at one point, “Avery, remember we need to stay calm. Daddy told us to stay calm in case Mommy gets upset.”

Sleep, too, wasn’t really an issue. Zoe woke up in the middle of the night a few times in Tel Aviv, but neither kid experienced the major jet lag I had worried about. Plus, they were so exhausted from all the travel that they immediately passed out on a few of our plane rides (I have a sweet memory of their little heads on my lap during our 12:30 AM flight to Madison) and – as you’ll see below – some car rides.

-M

On Paris-Tel Aviv flight:

At Tel Aviv airport, waiting for flight to Rome (at 4 AM):

On Rome-Washington DC flight:

In car ride from Dulles, on way to Safta and Pop Pop’s:

At SFO, waiting for luggage (at 11 PM):