our long awaited winter holiday has finally arrived. while we looked forward to the time away from our daily routine, we absolutely feared the very long flights with our sweet little jade. courtesy of many dear friends and relatives we heard the typical horror stories of flying with toddlers and did all we could to prepare for the worst possible behavior. we armed ourselves with a "trick" bag filled with every treat one can imagine, including lollipops which are forbidden in our home. we figured if jade should in fact start screaming at the top of her lungs we would give her an assortment of cheese doodles and sugar canes; anything to quiet the noise. we arrived at lax to find a line resemblant to space mountain on a summers day, in other words, a very long wait. once we made our way through the queue we encountered some errors with the printing of our boarding passes and had to be escorted through the security line by a very friendly Turkish gentleman to avoid missing our flight. Once we took our seats we double checked the arsenal of tricks & treats. the plane ascended and jade was quiet, happily sitting on pappa's lap, kicking her legs and humming happily. the bassinet was assembled shortly thereafter and jade was happy to take her new seat, which a few minutes later would transform into a very cozy bed. flight #1, all 13 hours of it, were a success with jade sleeping at least 8 hours and playing happliy the duration. we arrived in istanbul where we had a 7 hour layover which went by surprisingly fast and then boarded flight #2, another 13 hours, where we assumed our lucky cards would run out and we would surely encounter the monster toddler. again, jade slept and played and never screamed. it was an extraordinary success. finally in cape town, we were greeted by calle's parents who drove us to their beautiful home in somerset west where we arrived to find calle's older sister playing in the pool with her children.
before dinner was even served, jade and i were both asleep at the table...
on our first full day in SA we were shown the grounds at vrendeim. jade's 3 year old cousin, august, took to playing big brother.
we enjoyed a fanstastically leisurely lunch and departed only when we felt we would fall asleep if we sat another moment.
here you see sweet ingrid, only 2 days older than jade, happily snuggled in her blankie and mamma's arms.
as with most wineries, the owners live on the grounds. i found this particular estate to be breathtaking.
of course one winery is not enough on your first day in south africa so we determined a visit to uwa mira was absolutely necessary.
here, the breathtaking views from uwa mira.
enjoying the breeze with calle's younger sister, elin.
an angry [sleepy] little jade bug sitting on pappa's lap.
the wineries close relatively early, at 5:00, so we were home and in our pajamas well before the sun went down. here you see the three children snug in the pj's, ready for an evening of eating and playing. what a wonderful way to start our holiday!
