Last month, we took our first European vacation as a family of three. Before we had kids, we knew we wanted to figure out how to keep going on adventures together, but I'll be honest, long flights and jetlag with a toddler made me more than a little nervous.

But when a travel deal hit my inbox for direct flights to Madrid for $350, I knew we had to snatch them up. We have a friend living there, and it seemed crazy not to leap at the chance to go visit. 

So we bought tickets and travel insurance (because LOL toddler illness), and found an amazing 1-bedroom apartment in the heart of Madrid that provided a crib and had a kitchen and a washer and dryer (because toddler messes), and off we went. 

We had an overnight flight on the way there, and while I can never sleep on planes, I was really hoping the overnight flight, white noise from the plane and the fact that our kid could lay across the seats, would combine to create a decent environment for sleep. But alas, the excitement of being on a flight and all the new things were too much! We only got two hours of child sleep on the way there and one hour on the way back. The flights were 7.5ish hours on the way over and 9ish on the way back. So that was a lot of switching activities for entertainment.

Luckily, between the books and toys we packed and watching the plane's path on the seat back screen we had all the entertainment he needed. I had been so worried about the long time needing to be still, but it really wasn't an issue. 

When we landed in Madrid, it took us a long time to get from the plane, through customs, to our luggage to finally, finally the Metro to take us to our hotel. It was definitely trying all of our patience, and I'm sure the exhaustion didn't help. 

But we made it eventually, dropped off our luggage, and set out to walk around the city and find some food before we could officially check-in. 

For me, this is the hardest part of any European trip -- needing to power through with no sleep until you can collapse into bed later. 

We had planned a very mellow day, not knowing how any of us would respond to the travel. 

Luckily the weather in Madrid was beautiful. Sunny and in the low 50s. We took a long meandering walk around the city, stopping to view the Christmas trees in Puerto del Sur and Plaza Mayor. 

We grabbed a snack in a food hall that was just opening its doors for the day. 

And we popped into some churches and bought cookies from cloistered nuns. 

We made our way over toward the Royal Palace and the massive cathedral right next door. 

During all this walking and pushing the stroller around, we thought for sure our kiddo would fall asleep. But no luck, so we made a stop at a playground to let him run around a bit. 

While we were on the west side of the city, I had hoped to check out the artwork in the church where Goya is buried, but it was under construction. So we strolled over to the Temple de Debod, and somewhere around there we had a sleeping toddler in the stroller. 

It was 1 p.m. Spain time. Ben and I stopped to get paella for lunch before checking into the hotel. 

After getting settled, we made a quick grocery run for some basics, took much needed showers and we all passed out -- until about midnight, when the jetlag hit us all. We were up for about three hours with a toddler running around the apartment. After letting him burn some energy, we redid bedtime and got him back to sleep, and Ben and I quickly passed out again ourselves. 

That was the only night our kid had jetlag issues. I had been really nervous that we'd struggle with this throughout the whole trip, but we never did. We let ourselves sleep in a bit the following morning, and after that, we adapted to a pretty solid schedule that worked for us and for Spain's traditionally late dinner times.

Most days, we slept in until 8 or 8:30, nap time was in the stroller or back at the apartment depending on our day between 2 and 3 p.m. Woke up from nap time around 4:30 or 5 and that set us up for an afternoon that better aligned with Spanish dinner time. Kiddo bedtime was sometime between 8:30 and 9. It all worked surprisingly well. 

We had a great week doing a mix of tourism, visiting our friend and a mix of many playgrounds. More to come on our daily adventures, but overall this trip went better than I could have ever hoped, and it boosted my confidence we can go on more adventures like this in the future.