Unwinding.

It’s been a fantastic 24 days of travel and spending time with people we love.  We saw St. Neots, London, Scotland, Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Trier, Luxembourg, Dachau, Münich, Austria, Garmisch, the Zugspitze, and Matt did a recon to France.  That’s a lot of ground to cover in just over three weeks!

Yesterday we woke up and said our good-byes to Nana and Papa.  It was exciting knowing (or at least we think we know) that the next time we visit with them we’ll all be in the Carolinas.  Papa gave the boys each $10 to spend so as we left the airport the boys and I headed to the toy store to purchase goodies.  While there we ran into friends and decided to join them for lunch.  Nothing like a BUNCH of kids eating lunch together to help ease the pain of Nana and Papa leaving. (Pretty exciting news: My friend is expecting her fourth baby in less than two weeks, and then there’ll be 8 kids between the two of us!)

We went straight from MK to Homeschool PE where the kids got to play outside on the playground with Coach R.  The weather was nice and Parker had tons of fun and got into trouble a few times.  He wanted to sneak into a fence that was blocking off a dangerous area… thrill seeker.

From there we went straight home where we all crashed.  I got in the bed and slept for an hour, thankful dinner was a Stouffers Lasagna which required very little work from me.  I could tell I was in the post vacay funk, the one that just needed some alone time to work through.

The funk also had to do with the fact that I am miserable with myself.  I haven’t run/exercised in these past three weeks and have gained weight.  I know it’s my fault that I’ve ridden the roller coaster back up so I’m not only unhappy with the weight gain but more so very angry at myself for letting it happen.  After dinner I spent a while trying on ball gowns, happy to see that, even with what I’ve gained since December, I can still fit in the one I bought as a surprise for Matt.  (Remember when we were planning on going to the huge ball in Austria and decided that a just-the-two-of-us trip to Dublin sounded like more fun?  Yep.  That dress.)

Today I woke up feeling a little better, half-excited about shopping for a dress of our annual family photo session with Jessica Ceason.  (Only half excited because of the reason I mentioned in the above paragraph, but also because I simply do not like shopping.)

This has been a lazy morning.  The boys are playing with toys they received either from Nana and Papa, as birthday gifts, or from the recent AWANA store.  I think a run is in order for today.  My parents have arrived safely in the states and I hope they’re sleeping right now.

Here’s a picture of my melancholy little boy who misses his Nana and Papa.

Several times yesterday and today (a lot more often than normal) he has come to sit on my lap and says, “Hug.”  I think he’s feeling the way I am… poor little guy.