White Wine in a Paper Cup

I’m sitting in the dark on my hotel bed, drinking wine from a paper cup, and thinking about how I will redistribute the weight between our suitcases for our flight back to the U.K. tomorrow. The boys are sleeping, hence the dark room, and I’m not far behind. It’s not like I had a physically challenging day, but there is definitely an energy toll we pay for dealing with STUFF.

We were originally supposed to fly out today, but the visas were held up in New York and we had to remain in limbo. Not knowing if they would be ready in one, two, or four days. So, more time on the phone with the car rental place, more time booking hotels, more time cancelling and rebooking flights, and more time trying to entertain two very active boys in a hotel room. Those things are stressful.

I hide it well. I try not to get overly emotional or negative, but I have my moments. Dave is confused though because he hasn’t seen many of those moments and he’s starting to think I have a heart of stone or something. That’s certainly not it, but I do feel like I need to hold it together for the kids. Plus, I try not to get too upset about the things I/we can’t control. What can we do? Just move on.

Most of our trip was really quite wonderful. The kids fell in love with their grandparents all over again, we got to cuddle my new great nephew, Archer, I had time for a massage and new color for my hair, we had time to reconnect with friends, and the kids visited almost every playground in Winona. And Dave? Well, he basically worked the whole time. While the rest of us were here on an extended vacay, he went into work in St. Cloud. Still, reconnecting with coworkers is important and luckily, he truly enjoys the people he works with.

We are a day behind schedule and the costs that go along with that one day are HIGH. I really just want to put this trip and this whole visa debacle in the past. It has been our biggest headache and I just know it will feel good not to think about it anymore. K1 won’t be in school illegally once he has his special stamp, and Dave won’t get questioned about his lack of a UK bank card!

We will arrive back in England on Thursday morning (30 October) just in time to participate in the Trunk-or-Treat at school on Friday and of course celebrate Dave’s birthday.

I’m not going to share a lot of pictures with this post. I just don’t have that many on my phone and Dave isn’t around to share his tonight. Stay tuned for a post of mainly just pictures.