We arrived at the airport, said our quick good-byes to Adam so he could go home and get some more sleep, purchased coffee, donuts, and bagels for breakfast, then made it to our gate by about 6:30. We boarded our tired selves onto the airplane and settled in for the next leg of our journey home.
The flight back to Chicago was uneventful and much faster than expected. In fact, we landed about 40 minutes early - so early that there wasn't a gate available for our plane! I made a quick check of the departure times for the buses back to Madison and found one that left much earlier than the one we were planning on taking, but it was scheduled to leave about 15 minutes after we exited the plane. Kate got her first experience in moving fast through an airport to catch a connection. When we finally reached the shuttle bus station, we saw our bus at the front of the line, ran the last few hundred feet, and were the last ones to board ... we even had five minutes to spare!
By that point, poor Kate was t-i-r-e-d, but just couldn't sleep on the way home. The photobooth selfies she took on that ride look much sadder and droopier than the ones she took earlier in the trip :(
But we made it home by 2:00, a full 90 minutes earlier than we had planned. Kate spent the next several hours playing outside with her siblings, who missed her very much. I could almost feel Kate give a big sigh of relief when she was finally allowed the freedom to just play again.
The evening was challenging for her, but she must have had a terrific night's sleep because she was positively perky on Monday morning. Monday was the harder day for me; all of the activity and sleep disruptions finally caught up to me.
Overall, it was a great trip with the opportunity to make wonderful memories, both with Kate and with Adam and his family. At a few different times, I reflected on how this trip might have looked different with Ethan along, or Anna, or the whole family. I decided that not only would the weekend have looked very different in terms of the details, I just don't think either Anna or Ethan is ready for something like this yet.
Ethan would probably have been okay with the airplane aspect, although he would have asked a lot more question. Once in Denver, though, he wouldn't have been able to keep up the same pace that Kate and I had. As for Anna, she's probably not ready yet either. She is certainly closer than she was a year ago, but transitions are still tough for her and there are lots of transitions (both physical and mental) when traveling like we did. Maybe someday she will be ready, but not yet.
For anyone wondering how the other 3/5's of the family did while back in Madison, they did great. Matt successfully helped Anna arrive on time at school both Thursday and Friday; he took both kids to church on Saturday morning to help with the church clean-up day; they went to Olbrich Gardens on Saturday afternoon to enjoy the weather; he made Ethan some pallets for his toy fork lift; and the three of them participated in the Palm Sunday worship service on Sunday morning.
Matt also CLEANED THE HOUSE, or at least a good portion of it. And when Matt cleans anything inside our house, he really cleans it.
I think the three of them made some good memories together, but we are all glad to be back together as a family and return to our routines.
The last three weeks have involved a lot of traveling and it will be nice to just be at home for awhile.
Besides, the garden will need to be planted soon :)
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