home (by train)

We're back at home after a great weekend away.  Anytime we travel (especially voluntary trips like this one) I have moments where I think "What in the world was I thinking?  This is stressful, hard, crazy, intense, ridiculous, you-name-it." 

But I also have moments where I think "I am so glad I came, and it is worth the hard to be here". 

This weekend was no different.  We rolled into the hotel Friday evening just in time for dinner and when all seven of us piled into the hotel room an hour later I had a (long) wishful moment of "oh I would rather be putting everyone in their bed AT HOME!"

So while I tried to figure out who would sleep where (it was basically wall-to-wall bodies!) the kids did their normal hotel room gig - opening drawers and crawling into the closet and pulling out the free toothbrushes and flipping every light switch multiple times.

Deep breath Laura.  They will be asleep soon.  [We hope!]

And they did sleep.  And so did I.  Decent the first night, incredible on night #2.  The kids ran around delighted all weekend long.  Plenty of friends (mostly singles in their early 20s) to love on them and the hotel complex was great for exploring.

We traveled home with friends (3 adults and 8 kids, not a bad ratio!) and it went as smoothly as it could have. 

It helped tons that both my littles slept for a bit on the train.

[We had plenty of seats so I opened the stroller and shoved it into one of the rows.  Perfect.]

With my phone already out I decided to take some pictures through the window.

The countryside is really pretty farmland.

The sky in this part of the country is usually a white/gray.  In the city it's a pollution-weather mix.  Out in the countryside it's mostly just the weather.  Often rainy and overcast and cloudy.  It's not my favorite.  I miss blue skies.  I miss bright sunshine.  I'm not a fan of the days on end when the weather forecast always seems to be "just rained" or "about to rain" or "drizzling" or "looks like rain". 

So we enjoy the sunshine and blue skies when we see them.  And count all the blessings from a travel weekend like the one we just had.

Matt's still on the road - the kids and I had to head home to get the girls back to school for Monday morning (one of the downsides of having them in school, less flexibility than pure homeschooling).  But it works out okay.  And the next few days wouldn't have been nearly as fun as this first chunk of time.

Tomorrow is 4-weeks-and-counting til we take off for America.  And so our next trip is a biggie.