Home again

Summer is officially over, and not just because we returned from vacation, but because of this:

From Family

The annual first day of school picture.

This year, when I completed registration, I realized there is only one grade ahead of him at school. Just one. At parent orientation, the teachers spoke of preparing for high school. High School!!!! Don't they realize he's way to young to go to high school? I had a hard enough time dropping him off at the welcome back dance; I'm not even remotely ready enough to discuss high school. At least he still gives me hugs, as long as none of his friends are around, especially any of the girls. Oh, I'm so in trouble.

Since returning home from vacation, we've been busy reestablishing our routines. School was relatively easy to pick up again, in spite of the change in grade and the addition of honors classes. Work also hasn't been to difficult. What has been hard is leaving Ireland behind. We miss the sites, we miss the pubs, we miss the music, and we even miss the food. Since I miss Ireland terribly and I haven't had a chance to catch everyone up on the vacation, the next few blog posts will include vacation recaps at the end. Grab a cuppa and come along.

Rocking in the UK
We learned a lot with our first international flight as a family. We learned to avoid Atlanta if one can because the length of delays almost make it worthwhile to just drive to Atlanta (and oh, I wish I was kidding). If you do have to fly to Atlanta and get delayed, change your connecting international flight while still in your destination airport. Bring an eyemask, a blanket, and noise cancelling headphones, and try to land at your destination around noon. Those headphones are handy when the flight crew starts feeding people dinner around midnight.

We also learned that the train stations are beautiful.

From Ireland Trip 2011

In fact, most of London is beautiful.

Especially at night:

From Ireland Trip 2011

From Ireland Trip 2011

We rode the London Eye at sunset at the recommendation of a co-worker. If you ever have the chance to ride the eye, try to time it at sunset. The view was amazing.

From Ireland Trip 2011