Sleeping Together

We've always had a tough time getting our kids to sleep together when we travel. At home they have separate bedrooms and at bed time we put them in their rooms, shut the door and walk away and they wind themselves down and fall asleep. When we put them together they would talk and talk until Davis would lose his mind because he wanted to sleep so bad and finally I would take Sam out of the room, let Davis fall asleep and finally bring Sam back in so he could talk to Davis' inert, sleeping form until he fell asleep. This took a long time and was very depressing.
We have been planning two trips to the beach this summer as well as eight days in Canada where the boys would have to share a room. We were really nervous about this and worried that the sleep drama would take away from the fun of the vacation. We planned to try and practice letting them sleep together a few weeks before the first beach trip after my friend Cheris decided to try it with her kids. But then the kids got sick and then we had the family reunion and it just didn't happen.
Last weekend we headed for the beach with great hopes and great fears for the "sharing of the room experiment". The first night we arrived late. We hoped this would work to our advantage. We put the kids in a queen size bed together, told them to be quiet and shut the door. Squealing, wrestling and laughter ensued. I went in and sat at the foot of the bed and hummed a lullaby. They eventually fell asleep and slept soundly through the night. The second night went down pretty much the same. The third night they begged to go to bed even though we wanted to keep them up for a fireworks show. We let them crawl in bed. We didn't go in there. Ten minutes later, all was silent. I crept in to check on them and adjust the covers and dispense kisses. What I found broke my heart with sweetness. The two boys were sound asleep. They had rolled in towards each other in the center of the bed. Davis had his hand up by his face and Sam had slipped his hand into his brother's. They were sleeping holding hands. I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't want to wake them up. I can only hope it works again when we head to beach on Wednesday for our second vacation. Wish us luck!