We’re home!
We got home last night, actually (Saturday). The flight home was a bit longer than on the way over- maybe 7 1/2 hours, but everything went smoothly.
One nice thing flying home from Ireland is that they do a U.S. “Pre-Clearance” for Immigration and Customs before you leave Ireland. Then, you just get off the plane in the U.S. and are free to go! No waiting in a long immigration line at the end of a long flight.
However, for some reason, they had 3 different flights emptying onto a single luggage carousel in Chicago. So, we ended up having to wait almost 45 minutes for our bags to come out….obliterating any advantage we thought we had from having our immigration stuff done in advance. 😫
We then ended up missing the 2:45 p.m. bus by about 5 minutes and got to sit around O’Hare for another hour until the 3:45 bus came.
Everyone was tired and cranky by this time, and Ivan and I got into a big argument about whose fault it was that we missed the bus (after not having really a single disagreement at all on our whole vacation)….IT WAS THE AIRPORT’S FAULT FOR ASSIGNING ALL THE LUGGAGE FROM 3 FLIGHTS TO A SINGLE CAROUSEL, it was NOT my fault for being in line buying Ethan a cheeseburger from the airport McDonald’s right when the luggage finally showed up….we weren’t going to make the bus at that point, anyway, and he was hungry…. I digress…. 😂).
Anyway! We did make it home, eventually. We’re all tired today. Ethan took a little nap this afternoon, but I wouldn’t let him sleep for long so he doesn’t mess up his sleep cycle even more. Poor kid… he had a soccer practice this evening and I could tell he was NOT feeling it, at all. Ugh. But they have a tournament next weekend, and he’s been gone, so….he went.
Our bags are all unpacked, so that feels awesome. Ivan and Asher also ran to the grocery store for some essentials. I’m about to update my Google calendar and planner with all the craziness that is going to be coming up this month.
I’m in fear of April, to be honest.
Soccer starts back up now 3x week for Ethan, and swim starts again for Asher (tomorrow). Both are doing school volleyball 2x/ week. Asher has play practice almost every afternoon gearing up for the play at the end of the month. Carpools, school, WORK….ohhhh I’m not sure I’m ready for this. Can’t I just live forever drinking wine in a pizzeria in Rome??
It will be a short, furious burst of activity – the play will be over soon, and VB is a short season. But still.
I’m going to use my new Irish Worry Stone if I get stressed out. 😉 My mom bought this for me, and I love it!
Check out the back. Cracks me up!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for EXCEPTIONAL weather in both Rome and Ireland!! omg we got so lucky!!
GRATEFUL KAE 
hahahaha.. I’m laughing so loud now. what a great reminder what matters. when hard question has only two answers, it stops being hard.
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Wow… that worry stone is amazing!! I’m so glad to have you back! Your trip has looked and sounded amazing , and feels like it has absolutely flown by as well!! Weirdly, my hubby has travelled to Ireland for work today 🙂 And your Rome pictures have made me determined to go there – can you believe I’m relatively close and haven’t been?!
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That stone is hilarious!
Coming home from travel is always a tiny bit of a relief mixed with…ugh. I just don’t like dealing with laundry and jet lag and settling back in to routines. BUT it’s worth the transitional pains.
Glad you’re back safe and sound. And the whole bus argument sounds like something I could see our family doing…
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Welcome back!!! I can totally see Phil and I having a similar argument at the end of a trip, and it would probably be sparked by me being overtired!
Jet lag is brutal but hopefully you get back on CST fairly quickly. Having a lot going on sort of forces that transition to happen quickly, though. The kids have a lot going on, but I did, too, when I was young and I was happy to have things to do. Granted, I think my extracurriculars were less ‘intense’ as I didn’t have early morning swim practice, etc or really anything strenuous since I wasn’t involved in athletics, but I was very busy with choir, band, speech, plays, teaching piano lessons, etc. You’re teaching them to manage a busy schedule at a young age which is a very important skill to learn!!
Ha the worry stone is funny! Good reminder – it all works out either way!
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Sounds like an amazing trip! And what’s a family trip without at least one argument about something trivial? 🙂 Irish people are generally I find more jolly than others, what do you think? I was told it’s because of “the craic.”
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Yes, I agree- Irish people are very, very friendly!! It’s quite lovely. 🙂
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