A Day in the Life of My Little Brood: The Trip

...and we're back. Yes, hello--we made it in one piece! I'd been dreading the flight there for months and months and wouldn't you know it was more than fine. Zoe was her usual professional traveler self and Owen ended up feeling nervous during the flight and dealt with it by cuddling with me and falling asleep during the first half of the journey. Once he relaxed, he spent the last half watching a movie, snacking and reading books...and making friends with his neighbors, of course. I imagined that I had somehow bottled up all of that nervous energy I'd burned in the months preceding and decided to just take it back and save it for a rainy day. I felt a little annoyed at myself for wasting all of that time, but mostly I was so thrilled with and proud of my kids that I was able to just sort of marvel at the irony.

It was a good thing I visualized taking all of that energy back, though because boy did I need it on the actual trip. Don't get me wrong, it was wonderful to spend so much time with my family but my kids were so out of sorts that I ended up in tears more than a handful of times. Partly out of exhaustion, partly out of disappointment, partly out of guilt, partly out of frustration and partly out of confusion. Add to that the 2 or 3 times I cried happy tears and you have yourself one basket case of a mother, sister, daughter and auntie. All I can say to my family is: I'm sorry, please forgive me--I promise I'll be more prepared for the inevitable funky kid behavior during Cape Week. Love you guys, and I DO miss you already! ;-)

Luckily the trip ended with an occasion to cry happy tears (which I don't mind so much). Wally and Katie's wedding was a marathon of a weekend and I was so grateful to be thrown a dose of reality as I sat in that church watching my brother walk down the aisle. In all the rush to get there, and the emotion of my personal journey to that moment I had lost track of the reason we were all there. Weddings make me feel emotional, but I always forget that they do and am surprised by the lump in my throat every single time. I've watched Wally live his life to the fullest for as long as I can remember and he's ended up with an adventure filled, happy one as a result of his fearlessness. Now he has a partner in crime who embraces life and the adventure of it all in the same way. How could I not cry?

Anyway, now that we are home I'm happy to say that in hindsight, the trip was great. It was more of a roller coaster than I'd anticipated but what I'm left remembering are the high points. There is no denying that I am possibly one of the luckiest people on the planet to have been born into such a loving, supportive, fun family. Before I show a few pictures of those high points, I have to just say to my family (in the words of Paul Simon):

And we talked about some old times

And we drank ourselves some beers

Still crazy after all these years

Oh, still crazy after all these years

The Highlights:

My kids LOVED Jackson...one of the sweetest dogs on this planet. Owen even at one point grabbed Jackson's tongue and pulled on it and Jackson didn't even whimper.