Day 41: Home

I don’t know how to start this post. I’m actually teary eyed as I try to wrap my mind around the day. The last day. Probably one of the most boring of the 41. However, it seems the most emotional to me. And there were A LOT of emotional days.

We woke up at 5:30, ate our last breakfast of the summer at a Holiday Inn Express. One last cup of crappy coffee, one last bowl of raisin bran for me. A last cinnamon roll for Zoe. A last plate of their biscuits and gravy for Zak. I will never be able to understand how he ate 5 or 6 of them this summer. The last make-your-own pancake on the cool pancake making machine for Ellie. We were in the car and on the road a bit after 6.

So much driving today. It seemed to fly by. We listened to hours and hours of “Wild.” Couldn’t fit it all in though. We still have 2 hours of listening, we’ll have to complete those as we unpack throughout the next couple of days. We munched on the last goldfish crackers of the trip, played the final rounds of whatever tablet games kept our interest throughout the past 41 days. Except Pokemon GO, Zak is just getting started with that. You can judge. I am. We did stop for lunch at a Jimmy John’s. I ordered the tuna salad sandwich. Huge mistake in a cramped space with your family who don’t necessarily care for the smell and very hard to eat while driving.

We spent over an hour going through the entire trip. Day by day. We talked about the highlights and low points, the times we were bellied over with laughter and crying in fear or sadness or loneliness. We discussed each meal we ate out, where we were, what we ordered, what we drank. We reminisced about each hike, trying to relive the emotional highs from reaching our goals. Every National Park and Monument we stepped foot in was reviewed. The really special people we met were fondly remembered.

At 3:22 we pulled in front of our little home. It was there, just as we left it. We exited the car, took some selfies and were immediately greeted by some of our amazing neighbors, the Coopers and Schultzs. We finally saw familiar faces and it was heartwarming. Our front door was decorated with “Welcome Home” posters decorated by little neighbor hands. We were offered milk, eggs, and oj for the morning. And given a box of Honey Fluff donuts for breakfast. I am crying as I write this, we have the best group of neighbors in the world. Could not be luckier.

We first walked around the yard. The flowers look good, our newly planted grass looks awesome, the annuals I planted last year surprisingly bloomed. Our blackberries are freaking out of the control! We immediately popped the plumpest, juiciest, warmed by the hot sun blackberries into our mouths. Our Little Free Herb Garden is lush and our Little Free Library is well stocked.

After being welcomed back by more neighbors, we finally walked into the house. It was JUST how we left it! I was over-the-moon thrilled that we had cleaned so thoroughly the day before we left. It felt just like, well, home. And good. So, so good.

We made countless trips from the car to the house, bringing everything inside, most of which will be dealt with in the upcoming days.

And then things were back to normal. I had to remind the girls three times to pick up their American Girl clothes and the coloring stuff before bedtime. It’s Monday, so of course Zak is at Brixie’s for trivia with the guys. I’m watching Melania speak at the RNC. I have a lot to say about that, but this probably isn’t the right platform.

We’ll see how the adjustment back home goes. I think Ellie will have the most difficult time. She really likes the go-go-go pace of life and things are going to slow down here. She was crying tonight as she laid her head on her own pillow for the first time in six weeks, wanting Zoe to be right next to her, not in the bunk above. Zoe will be quiet the next few days, trying to process this all. In fact, she came downstairs tonight, after Ellie was snoring, and said that she can’t read tonight, she just needs to think. I’ll probably be crabby until everything is put away where it belongs and the yard is weeded and cleaned up a bit. I’m not sure how Zak will handle the next few days.

So, that’s it. We did it.

Thanks to YOU for reading this little blog, looking past the typos and obvious spelling and grammatical errors. We sincerely hope you enjoyed reading about the last six weeks from each of our perspectives. I’ll be forever grateful we have all our internal voices documented.

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