Well, me made it back safe and sound to Riverside, Illinois, after a long exhausting journey from Gatwick, England. I have to say the kids were extremely good on both the first 8 hour plane journey and the second 1 hour plane journey (and the 2 hours waiting in between)... Thanks to portable DVD players, Rush Hour games, sketch pads, coloring books, activity books, loads of snacks, drinks, and loads of patience, they were kept pretty well entertained the whole way (when they were kept separate!).
We got home last night around 9pm and got the kids to bed... They both got up at 5am this morning of course (being 11am English time), and were bouncing around re-discovering their old bedrooms and toys, etc. Having been away for nearly 3 weeks, it is always exciting to come home and get re-acquainted with everything once familiar... So nice to sleep in our own beds, have our own bathrooms, our own "stuff" around us again!
The England trip was a success, albeit very hard work for us parents! We really didn't have much down time, except for after the kids had gone to bed, meaning we had to stay up late to get some
time to relax and do our "own thing"... But we did manage...We had fun, touristy day trips to London (see photo right), Brighton, Little Hampton, and various other places of interest, and some day trips just visiting relatives and friends and going out for pub lunches.
We also took the kids several times to the local "leisure center" (like a sports club) and took them swimming and rock climbing, which they loved. This leisure center had a really nice indoor pool with water slides, hot tubs, tunnels, floats, etc. And they had a fantastic rock wall that was at least 3 stories high, slanting backwards, for very advanced climbing... Tristan went rock climbing about 6 times, and worked his way up to the advanced wall by the last day!
Today, I'm happy to say, Tristan went off to his new school VERY happily - and in a stretch white limousine too!! :-) (See photo left). He was SO thrilled - he felt like a king!! They did tell me that he would usually go in a Town Car, but that sometimes, if a Town Car wasn't available, they would just have to send a limo instead!! It couldn't have been a more exciting and special send off for him, and I'm so happy, proud and relieved to see him go off happy...
I just hope he survives the day, especially with his jet-lag compounding first day jitters... I'm sure he'll do OK and that they'll be understanding...
Now, I'd better get on with unpacking the 6 suitcases!!
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