Setting Myself Some 30th Birthday Challenge

I’ve just turned 30 and apart from getting married and popping out 4 kids in quick succession, I’ve never really done much that’s terribly exciting in my life.

I’m a complete daredevil and very rarely get to challenge that side of me. I’ve always spoken about doing a bungee jump or a skydive but speaking about it is usually as far as it goes.

Today that stops. I’m setting myself 2 challenges for my 30th birthday year.

My first one should be relatively easy to achieve. We have a gliding club over the road from us and I really want to give it a go. They usually have a open day in September where they do trial flights and this year I am going to bite the bullet and go.

Ever since my Grandad used to take me to airshows as a child I’ve wanted to get my pilots licence. It’s one of my ‘things to do before you die’ items but it’s stupidly expensive! Trying out gliding would be a step in the right direction.

My second challenge requires a huge amount of hard work before I even qualify to do it. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but it has a very strict weight limit so signing myself up to do it would be my reward for reaching my goal weight.

I want to do a wing walk. Yes, you did read that right! I want to stand on top of an aeroplane while it flies through the sky!

This has always appealed to me and my inner daredevil for some strange reason.

I need to lost 21lbs first though. I’m hoping having this as a reward for reaching my target weight will spur me on to lose it.

I will keep my blog updated with my progress on both my challenges. I’m hoping to have completed them both before my 31st birthday in April.

Our First Family Holiday – The Planning

We’re going on holiday!

This may seem like a really stupid idea but we are going to fly half way around the world with 4 small children and an amount of luggage that could rival the Beckhams having a weekend away!

This is a holiday we have been forced into going on as a very close family member is getting married but, it is the perfect opportunity for us to go away and have lots of extra pairs of hands.

We will be travelling with grandparents and Uncles plus lots of family friends so we are hoping to have lots of different people to distract our children on the flight.

We have 14 months until we travel yet, I can already feel the panic setting in about being stuck in a tin tube for 10 hours with my kids! I have bought 2 Trunkis for our trip in the hope of filling them with distraction methods.

I am not so worried about the boys as they will be 5 and 3 by the time we travel. They are usually easily pleased by a movie or some games and at least they have their own seat. My biggest worry is the twins. They will be 20 months and I know they are going to be full of energy and hard to amuse.

I think am still scarred by our holiday several years ago when we thought it would be a great idea to take a 12 month old on a 2 and a half hour flight to Spain. I have been on long haul flights before but they felt short in comparison! It’s a wonder we have more than 1 child to be honest, as B spent the entire flight jumping up and down on Daddy’s lap! No amount of toys or snacks or distraction by grandparents would calm him down.

We’ve been hit by the curse of the large family and haven’t been able to get a room large enough to sleep us all. If this was a normal holiday it wouldn’t be a problem as we would just find a different hotel but, we needed to be staying in the hotel they’re getting married at. We have had to offload 2 of our children into the grandparents room! They say it’s not a problem now but, when they’ve been woken up at 6am for the 10th day in a row, I can imagine the novelty will wear off!

For the next 14 months you will have holiday updates to look forward to. I’m sure there will be lots of stresses to come as we try and get 2 adults, 4 children, 125kg of luggage and 175 nappies to the other side of the planet!

So, what are your top tips for travelling with small children? No suggestions about sending them in the cargo hold. Apparently that’s frowned upon!