This is what I posted on Facebook before we left Ireland:"
I was heartbroken to leave Ireland. I'm not even completely sure why, but I cried on and off for a week before we left. I think it had something to do with adventure, with opportunity, with a simplified life, with seeing my children valued and loved in what we thought would be a foreign environment, with making new, unexpectedly close friends, with being together in a whole new way. I fell in love with Ireland and its people because we got to know them, go to their schools, eat at their houses, play with their children, see with new eyes. I loved all the tender mercies and beautiful moments we experienced there.
Hm, can't think about that right now. It's making me weepy.
The trip home was fairly uneventful. Our dear regular taxi driver Christy took us to the airport (at 5:30 AM, after being up till 2:30 cleaning and packing the last load of laundry - WHY do we do that to ourselves???), and we said goodbye to dear little 20 Compostella. We did have to absolutely tear through Heathrow to get to our connecting flight to Dallas after unexpectedly going through security for the second time (out of three, if you can believe that). We were a little sweaty from our jog up two flights of the most enormous escalators and down interminable corridors, but we made it. Kids did great on the flight, again due to BA's personalized tvs for each seat. We had a refreshingly yummy dinner of ribs and blue cheese wedge salad at TGIFridays in Dallas - our first time eating out at a restaurant, besides the one in Carcassonne, two Pizza Huts and our Golden Grill experience, in four months), then boarded the plane and slept, in spite of all our best intentions, all the way home to SLC where Nana and Papa brought the Black Beast to pick us up.
Only they didn't really need the huge car after all, because none of our luggage made the Heathrow flight. Two days later and we still don't know where it is. Sigh. But, we are currently comfortably ensconced in Nana and Papa's beautiful house, playing the Wii and dressups and working out (for the first time in way too long!). Ireland already feels miles and years away, almost as if another life. I will not ever forget it though, and am so glad I blogged about it so I can always remember this amazing journey we took.
I was VERY happy to see my car though!
We go to Gary's parents' house tomorrow for the Larsen Christmas, then it's off to Maui for ten days. And after that we return to the tundra... which I don't want to think about right now because I just finished three days of packing and cleaning in Ireland - too soon to think about doing it all over again in Idaho!
Merry Christmas everybody! And thank you again Ireland for a great ride.
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