The Trek Home

On Thursday we headed home via Nashville. The little guys did awesome in the car again and we actually made better time on the Destin to Nashville jaunt then we had on the way down. Go, Melders! This time we got to Chris & Molly's (and Amelia & Sadie's) house around dinnertime. Koen was ecstatic that there was time to play before bed. We also built in a whole day of rest there in Nashville with these dear college buddies and their little girls. It was the perfect end to a great family vacation. The Melder family all slept in the same room and the boys did great. Koen slept until about 7:30am and then I took him downstairs to keep it quiet for Tavin. Koen set right to work on the great train tracks Amelia has. Tavin slept in until 8:30am and then of course went right to breakfast. Here he seems to be saying..."so, where am I now? Well, it doesn't matter, at least there's food to eat." Koen and Amelia bonded better than ever before. Amelia is 5 and Koen almost 4. They did very well together. It was fun to see Amelia direct the play with Koen as he can be quite strong with his same-age friends. Mostly they enjoyed playing trains together (Amelia was a very kind playmate helping Koen build tracks and listening to his incessant Island of Sodor story-making). They also played some other games including one Amelia made up where Koen was her puppy and she led him around as he held onto a jump rope saying, "woof, woof." He loved it! Amelia was out most of the day so Koen also got to enjoy the toys to himself and had a quick trip to the playground with Amelia's little sister, Sadie.Sadie and Tavin did much better together this time versus our visit in August when Tavin was still quite small and young. Doug and I loved our time in the evenings when all the kids were in bed and we could just hang out with Chris & Moll. We are so thankful for good friends that last. What a blessing and a blast!

We made the final leg of the trip home to Pittsburgh on Saturday. We made good time again and the boys did very well. We were all getting pretty tired of the long car rides, but really there was very little complaining. As the city came into view, we pointed it out to Koen and made a big deal about almost being home and isn't it so good to be back in our city and he said, "I want to go back to vacation." I totally understand, buddy. Thankfully we have much to come home to...great friends, a warm home and a greaty city and there's always the next vacation to look forward to!