We had planned our last trip to be to Italy, but Serg got assigned to a case where they asked him if he could possibly cancel this trip and take another at a different time. So we ended up taking the Eurostar to Brussels about two weeks before we had to return to the US. Unfortunately this trip was not the best (but there's got to be a worst to make the other ones so much better, right?!). Serg ended up having to work quite a bit while we were there, and the boys just didn't do great in the hotel, mostly Nate since he was at an age where all he wanted to do was explore and not be held onto. We did try to make the best of it, but I think we were just exhausted emotionally from a combination of things. Some fun memories from the trip were indulging in all things Belgian- hot chocolate, chocolate in general, beer, and french fries. We found a nice park with a playground (of course), rode the underground train to a mall, and enjoyed walking around the Grand-Place as they were setting up the huge Christmas display. We went to a place called mini-Europe which had European monuments and important buildings/places built to a miniature scale. Although we had expected it to be super cheesy, it was actually really well done and we had a fun time there. We had planned on going to Brugge but we just didn't have it in us to tackle another trip, albeit a short one, with the boys. Andrew's favorite thing about this trip, by a long shot, was the Cars video game they had in the hotel lobby for kids to play. Nate's favorite thing was trying to run away from us. Pictures from this trip will be in the next post.
When we got back to London (I have never been so glad to get back to a place), it was time to pack up all our things and make arrangements to leave. Another round of everyone getting sick was thrown in, including me getting pink eye in both eyes. You would think I walk around picking up dog poo and rubbing my eyes all day long with the amount of times I get pink eye. I promise I don't.
Both Serg and I had mixed emotions about leaving. We just wanted to get to a place that was home, with a sense of permanency. The experience overall was AMAZING, it was really just the last couple weeks that were hard. The combination of yearning for familiarity and sadness of the great things we were leaving (friends, a life of just our little family of four) just made it tough. We both got to do some fun things just before we left. I lucked into going to The Royal Ballet with my wonderful english friend Rosalind. SUCH a fun experience that I will always remember. Serg made it to a football (soccer) match between England and Spain.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with two sets of friends. Both dinners were delicious, and I happily brought a simple side dish to each place. I have made it 31 years without cooking a turkey and have no desire to do so anytime soon. Above is us with The Collier family. We also celebrated with Chase and Kaci Spirito who are in London for about two years. They invited us over to their flat the night before we left and we had such a good time and were thankful for the hospitality and good food at both places. My parents have been doing Thanksgiving with the Spirito family since I was a little girl, so it was fun to continue this tradition with the next generations of our families while we both happened to be in London at the same time!
The day we left we had breakfast with our good friends which was bittersweet. Thankfully the Collier's have ties to Texas so we know we'll see them again. Then it was off to the airport for a loooooong trip home. I don't like to think about that flight. Let's leave it at that. My parents picked us up at the airport and we got to go home :)
No comments:
Post a Comment