Kidding.
Probably.
On Saturday night we went to bed and set our alarms for 1:15am, as Hussein was coming to pick us up at 1:45am to take us to the airport.
We'd put the kids at their regular time, and they went to sleep about two hours later =). They were so filled with anticipation! Dave and I headed to bed about 10:30pm...and I proceeded to lay there, wide awake, panicked we'd miss our alarms and flights, panicked about the flights, and continuously doing the math of "if I fall asleep RIGHT NOW, I'll get xxxx amount of sleep..." otherwise known as Sad Math.
At 12:45am, I decided to turn off my alarm and get up, because if I fell asleep at that point and was woken up so soon after, I'd just be pissed off.
I headed to the kitchen and started grilling some toast on a frying pan for a midnight breakfast for all of us.
Brother stumbled into the kitchen around 1:00am, awoken by the smell of butter.
That kid has a Super Sniffer.
We turned out some Curious George and hung out a bit before Dave's alarm went off and we woke Sister.
Soon enough, we were locking up our apartment, heading out with four carry-ons and one suitcase!
We arrived at the airport, checked our suitcase, and were settled into our gate a little after two am.
Our little Globe Trottin' cuties!!!
The airport was surprisingly busy for two am!
Four smiling people! Even in the middle of the night! Because we we're so excited! And because COFFEE!
We had a short flight ( less than two hours) to Oman,
... and a quick layover there before a four hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka...
We headed to baggage claim to collect our suitcase, and Dave and I both had to laugh at our little Travel Warriors, who not only spotted our bag coming down the luggage line, but hauled it off themselves =)
David got our visas situated in the airport, we looked around a bit...
...and then grabbed a taxi and began our journey over to Kandy.
Our research had shown us it'd be about a three hour drive to Kandy, so we attempted to settle into the van/taxi we were in...which was easier once David reassured me the bottle in front of me - next to the driver - was actually filled with water...
Whew.
This portion was probably the roughest of our entire trip. It ended up being a little over four hours, and it was lots of winding roads and jerky driving. Oh! And no seatbelts. At one point Brother actually nodded off a bit, and I was trying to kind of hold him up in his seat while still letting him rest, and we went around a sharp corner and he fell straight onto the floor. Poor kid!
There was a little trouble finding our hotel, but we were all so impressed by the kindness of everyone our driver pulled over to ask. They all seemed so genuinely helpful and not at all bothered.
We finally headed up the right mountain and saw signs for our hotel.
It was so beautiful up there, and as the sun was setting, we saw dozens of bats up in the sky.
We got all checked in, surveyed the area...
...and grabbed some dinner.
When booking this hotel, it worked out that the cheapest most economical option for four people was to book two rooms instead of one large suite
So, Sister and I shared one room, and the boys shared a room a few doors down.
We'd thought this might be kinda awkward, but it actually ended up being a really fun bonding experience.
The cutest part was the twins insisted on calling each other to say goodnight before turning in each evening...
Be still my heart.
The next morning Sister and I were CRASHED. David called our room to ask if we wanted to get up and join him and Brother at the breakfast buffet, and my response was to murmur "noooowewanttosleepmoreokbuhbye" and hang up the phone.
And sleep more we did.
The boys apparently got up, dressed, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, and explored the property more...
Sister and I finally managed to wake up, and we ordered food to the room. Rough life for this little six year old...
( we may have slept past 10:00am, and therefor could no longer order breakfast foods, only lunch...so she may have had a hot dog and french fries for her first meal of the day...whatever, she ate food...)
We made our way down to the pool area to find our boys. It was a gorgeous day, the weather was perfect, and our family had the pool to ourselves.
It just doesn't get much better than that...
A fruity drink for the kiddos made out of an actual coconut?!? A cocktail for Momma made with actual alcohol?!?
Hello, Sri Lanka, we love you.
Remember how I told you Sister was in love with her first salon experience? Well, check out who I caught casually perusing the hotel's spa brochure...
Dream on, DreamWeaver...ya gots to be a grown up to pay for an appointment there!
Which, David and I totally did!!
Turns out for a one hour massage it was like $30, so David and I took turns getting massages while the other hung out at the pool with the kids. It was TOTALLY decadent and I'm pretty sure what Heaven is going to be like.
An entire hour of a "stress relieving head, neck and back massage" worked out any knots from the previous days' travel and lulled me into a state of ultimate relaxation.
Don't feel bad for the kids though, they managed to relax plenty...
Besides, this boy was more about being able to MOVE...
(That's one of my favorite pics from the whole trip right there!)
...this girl loved playing around as well...
David and I were so glad we'd planned this day as just a relax and recoup day, after a long day of travel the day prior. The only thing on our agenda was to hang out, and we all relished it!
These two cuties were such awesome travelers the day prior, we were just so proud of them...
And we were in love with our hotel! The rooms were small, the hallways were small, the doorways were narrow, but the grounds were absoultely idyllic...
That evening we made our way to an upper balcony to catch the bats again. We later learned approximately 100,000 of them come out every evening at sunset.
This picture just does not do it justice! It's so amazing to see SO MANY bats all flocking the same direction in a slow, steady flow...
Our kids were pretty mesmerized by it! While we were up there, they decided to make up their own version of Tag, where instead of being two kids running around chasing each other, they were "Bat vs Mosquito" and used echolocation to find each other.
=)
It was a fantastic day of relaxing and fun, and we were so in awe of the beauty of the Sri Lankan mountains!
The next day was a busy one, as we had our excursions scheduled for that day. I'll get to blogging about that soon, and I'll be much more concise.
I'm kidding!! I'll have even more pictures and words!!!
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