Where In the World Are James, Maija, Elin and Anikka?: Change of Plans…Twice

June 12-18, 2023

Best laid plans… isn’t that what they say? We planned this trip for 6 months. 4 weeks in Scandinavia. Hours and hours of research and booking. Our first international trip as a family. We even made a calendar with "all the things" that looked like this:

We were scheduled to leave on Saturday, June 17. The Monday before our trip (June 12) we had a huge rainstorm and the roof in the garage started leaking. In an effort to try to see where the leak was coming from, James attempted to get into the garage attic crawl space. The ladder slipped out from under him and he fell 9 feet to the garage floor and broke his left hip.

After determining that he was going to be unable to go, we arranged for friends and family to come stay with him for the first two weeks so the girls and I could go on with our trip as planned. We hoped that James could meet us in Norway half way through (3 weeks post surgery). It was never on my bucket list to go on a month long extensive and busy trip ALONE with my girls. But, I can do hard things… and I’ve traveled enough to feel comfortable in Europe. Finland is also one of the safest countries (and the happiest...) and I have been there multiple times.

James had surgery on Tuesday June 13. We got him home on Thursday the 15th and I spent Friday getting things ready for him to be home recovering and me to be gone for a month. We changed his outgoing ticket for 2 weeks later than the original flight (flying into Oslo instead) and crossed our fingers he would be able to come. All depended on how well and fast he healed.

I’m not going to lie… it was very stressful for me. I went back and forth about going or just canceling. In the end, we had already invested so much money and time into the trip that I felt I HAD to go. And if I’m being really honest, Dave, who came to help James the first week, was a far better nurse than me.

So, Saturday June 17th, the girls and I packed up and headed out for our adventure without James.

And....we didn't get far....best laid plans right? Our flight from Denver to Chicago was cancelled just as we started boarding due to a maintenance issue which means we missed our connection on Finnair to Helsinki. I was "lucky" enough to be first in the line to rebook so we were able to get on a flight to Dallas that evening with a flight to Helsinki the next day (Sunday the 18th). We got 3 of the last 4 seats on the Finnair flight from Dallas. But, we had to overnight in Dallas at a not so great hotel.

The only part that made the Dallas leg worth it was that we had access to the Capital One Lounge. My girls first lounge experience, which they loved. Anikka told me "I feel like we snuck in and we aren't supposed to be here". We loaded up on food and snacks...