The end of vacation always brings mixed feelings, I think. In this case, I’m feeling it particularly strongly. On the one hand, I’m so sad for this dream trip to be over. I got to see some places I’ve always wanted to see, and found some new favorites. It was beyond amazing to see all of those places, to have so much time together and to get to revel in how amazing my kids are. We were away for 17 days, and it was an enormous treat.

On the other hand, we were away for 17 days, and this was an intense trip. The kids are tired, we’re tired, and I was just plain tired of packing every morning, doing laundry in hotel sinks, plotting addresses in to the GPS, and having to be “on” as the keeper of the itinerary the entire time. I’m really grateful to be home. I’m grateful to be finished living out of a suitcase. I’m so glad that if my kids get sick again, wr’ll be here at home with all of the stuff that we need.

I truly miss the UK already though. I’m already planning our next trip in my head. We had an amazing time. I can’t wait to go back — to see the things we missed this time (there will be more Scotland next time) and to revisit our new favorites. This is exactly one of the things I wanted to do while living abroad — use Austria as a jumping off point for other fantastic European destinations. This trip is one I would have put off for years if we were still living in the States, and I’m so glad that this experience motivated me to not procrastinate and do it sooner. It was wonderful, and well worth the effort.