Friday, July 12, 2013

France Part 13: The End

How fitting to end on the 13th post.  Thankfully, I'm not superstitious.

Our anniversary is June 13...it's a good number.  And it's because of that date that we even went on this trip in the first place!

We reversed our steps and flew from Toulouse to Madrid which is a brief trip with barely enough time to run a drink service through the cabin.  This time we had a shorter layover in Madrid, which was nice.  Just long enough to see the cool airport architecture and eat a croissant we had packed away earlier.



the last croissant.  so sad.


Then we hopped on our jet for the 10 hour flight home.  I'm getting better at 10 hour flights.  I had a lot of practice in March when I flew to Africa and back.  Though I must say American Airlines needs better in-flight entertainment.  They only had a few movies to choose from and none looked appealing except the one I had already watched on the trip to France called An Innocent Abroad.  It's a BBC television movie about P.G.Wodehouse.  It was really interesting!

I love taking pictures out the window of the plane.  There's Madrid below.  We even saw what appeared to be a bull-fighting arena on the flight into Madrid.




We came home so eager to see the kids.  Getting the bags and going through customs seemed to take an eternity.  I knew the kids were close, just a few hundred yards away, yet it took forever to get to them.  I could barely stand still.

When they saw us, they ran to us and hugged us tight.  It was a giant group hug.  Ava started crying.  It was so sweet to hold them all again, and they all looked taller than when we had left.  How do they do that?

It was great to be home again and together as a family.  The kids enjoyed their souvenirs, as you can see.


And just this week I received my photo book in the mail.  Whenever we take a long trip I try to create a photo book online.  We have a book sitting out in the living room about our 2 week drive to Montana last summer.  It's great to be able to just grab it and flip through alone, or while cuddling with a kid, and remember that special trip.

This time I used Mixbook to make a cute little 8 by 8 inch hardback book about the trip to France.  I love how it turned out.  Mixbook allows a ton of personalized customization.  They have lots of cool graphics, too.



And that's the end!  I have loved writing about the trip...it's a great way to jot down some of the details that I might forget one day otherwise.  Thanks for reading along and stay tuned for the 20th anniversary trip in 5 years.  Haha...who knows what's in store then?  We really don't know, do we?  There could be another great trip in the future, or there could be difficult times we can't even imagine right now.

It's just a reminder to myself to enjoy each day as it comes...whether it's in France eating the most fabulous meal, or sitting on the couch in my pjs reading to my 6 year old.

1 comment:

Rachel said...

I still miss the croissants too! Love how your book turned out and I loved reading about your trip. Thanks for sharing!