back in the saddle

It was a hard transition from vacation to not being on vacation.  On our way back, we flew the red eye from one end of Australia to the other.  We had a 6 hour layover before we boarded for LAX.  The flight was uneventful. I think taking the red eye made the layover kind of difficult, but i think it made the flight a lot easier back to the states.  The kids slept for a good portion of it.  We also had a good tailwind which made the flight about an hour shorter than it normally would have been.  We needed that extra hour in LA because it took about 2 hours to get through customs.  We had an idea that we would play in around in LA a bit, but we didn't.  We slept about 15 hours of the 30 hour layover.  The rest of the time we spent in assorted lines either coming from or getting to someplace.

BabyP did not transition well.  He woke up at about 12 the first couple of nights he was back and proceeded to stay awake for 3 hours.  It has been a long time since I have had to pull that kind of kid duty, and it wore me out.  Add on top of that about 5 minutes into my workday there is some DRAMA THAT ONLY I CAN FIX OH MY GOD followed by almost shutting down the government, I needed a vacation to recover from my first week back at work.  I never knew a week could suck like that.

I am ready to go back.  I am ready to just hang out and play again.  It is nice to be able to just think about what we need to do that day and not what we have to do for the next month or so.  I think i may have a vacation hang over.

Of course, vacations are very different with kids.  In a way, they are simpler because we can not cram that much into a day without a complete meltdown.  In a way it is more complicated because we can't just skip a meal or be very spontanous.  We need to know what we are doing that day so we can prepare the kids and pack accordingly.

Overall we really enjoyed the trip.  It felt like it was over before we had a chance to get bored.  And really, we went so many places that getting bored wasn't an option.  I was telling my friend today, that traveling makes me want to travel more.  Which brings me back to why traveling with kids cost so much more.  It is one thing to pay for a ticket for you and your spouse, it is another to pay for 4 tickets someplace.  Oh well, at least I know the money I spend today will go toward another trip in a couple of years.