Europe Trip

Before Emir (my husband) and I got married, we always talked about having kids, like majority of couples do. We dreamed about making memories with them, and showing them the world, or seeing parts of it together for the first time. When Mini was born, we anticipated the day we get to take her back home, our home. Back to the place where we were born, where our first memories were made.

We were a little fearful to travel with her the first year she was born. Although we got a "no restrictions" from her doctors the second we left the hospital, we were still so reluctant to leave the country with her the first year of her life. The older she got, the more comfortable we got with the idea of doing so.

We got to do that this past summer.

I looked forward to our Europe trip so much. I planned, shopped, talked about it constantly. It was even more special because my parents, my in-laws, sister and her family, sister-in-law and her family, and my best friend, along with her family -were going at the same time. It was all we looked forward to.

April-May rolled around and my husband and I got the genius idea to buy a lot and build our dream home, two months before vacation. Within those two months, we didn't know what hit us first. We listed our current home up for sale, purchased our lot, sold the home, packed it up, packed for Europe, moved out-all in under a month. In this mess, we both still worked. I was occupied with March of Dimes and still attempted to stay social and lead a normally planned day.

The day finally arrived, and were on our flight back home.

I prepared so well. I brought along a lot of activities for Mini. Books, toys, coloring material, downloaded different things for her to watch on her iPad, her favorite unicorn - you name it. Anything and everything I could think of to keep her occupied and less miserable for the 12+ hours of traveling. Well, apparently I didn't pack well enough because she, and us, were miserable the entire flight. She napped for only about 30 minutes and was wide awake, fussing, the rest of the flight. There was nothing we could have done to calm her, keep her happy, or still. Luckily for us, there was no one in front of her seat, because I would have jumped out of the plane if I had to deal with that as well. It was that bad. No advice can prepare you for a good flight if the kids just simple does not want to cooperate. Throw it all out the window, or out the plane in this case.

Somehow we managed! Because we had to, right?

We landed in Zagreb, Croatia, and drove another 4-5 hours to Tuzla, Bosnia-where my family is.

The first few days, we spent there. I got to see an aunt I haven't seen in 20+ years, baby cousin who weren't babies anymore, but had babies of their own, and a grandma who had no idea who I was. (the wonderful result of distance and dementia)

We drove to Sarajevo, Bosnia, where my husband is from. We spent another few days there with his family, attended his cousins beautiful wedding, and just roamed around. Explored a city we were both so familiar with.

We left for Croatia a few days after that and were finally responsibility free and able to start to relax.

Croatia was a dream

We covered a lot of ground. I visited places I've never seen before, and they were just breathtaking.

After spending 11 days by the water, we headed back to Bosnia. We met with our friends in Sarajevo and headed up to the mountains with them to my husbands uncles resort, Bijele Vode. We spent the weekend there, laughing, resting, and enjoying the fresh view and air. Monday rolled around, and our "unit" ( my best friend, her husband and children) headed out to Croatia themselves. A few days passed by, and we realized how much we missed the water, SO we got back into the car, and drove back to Croatia to meet them again and spend a few more days with them.

We spent almost 5 weeks driving from place to place, exploring, seeing new sights, visiting different family members and constantly on the go. A lot of people wouldn't do this with a 2 year old. But she was so good! She wasn't the child she was on the airplane, let's be clear on that. She allowed us to be spontaneous and adventurous and was honestly the greatest little human to go on vacation with. Now, we look forward to going every year, and seeing a new place every time we go.

As difficult as children can be (and we all know not all of them are travel friendly), I truly encourage you all to push through it, and enjoy a vacation or two.

This summer has reset our patience with one another and reminded us how truly blessed we are for being able to see all the beauty the world has to offer. To be able to do it together.

I planned on showing you all so many wonderful pictures from our trip, but a couple of weeks ago my phone crashed at the apple store and all my Europe trip pictures got deleted. I only have what's on my husbands phone. (cry with me)

Here are a few anyway.

With love,

a mama + her mini