We're home!

We made it home last night around 10pm. I was exhausted, cranky, and sick to death of being shoehorned into a teeny tiny airplane seat.

After a good night's sleep and a shower, I feel much better. Still, I really hope it’s a good long time before I have to take another flight.

The amount of luggage we hauled home with us was massive. In total, we traveled with:

8 big suitcases

3 backpacks

2 carry-ons

2 laptops

1 carseat

It was almost an embarrassing amount of luggage. Thank goodness we had help dragging it all through the airport. In Manchester our taxi driver gave us a hand, and in Denver Matt's parents were a huge help. (Not only did they meet us at baggage claim, but they also drove a load of our suitcases all the way back to Fort Collins for us. Saints, they are.)

My least favorite part of the trip was when we landed in Philadelphia. For some reason, they have it set up in Philly so that all international arrivals have to pick up their checked luggage off the carousel and re-check it again for the domestic flight. This means having to go through the whole circus from scratch a second time: security checks, body scans, x-rays, the works.

I was so not excited to be reunited with all 8+ suitcases again in Philly, only to have to check them in yet again. Fortunately we got a skycap to help us maneuver through the airport, but it was still a massive pain in the arse.

When finally got home, all I wanted to do was flop down in my warm and comfy bed. The bed was comfy all right, but warm... Not so much. While we were gone, something in our furnace died. So, no heat for us. The furnace guy is down there right now, working up an $800 fix. Not exactly an ideal Welcome Home, but what can you do?

Frankie is napping right now, and I'm torn between:

a) hoping that she wakes up soon so that we can try to get back on a reasonable schedule

and

b) hoping that she stays asleep for a long time so I can get a moment to myself

She's been a little nutty today. She woke up at 3am, wide awake and demanding breakfast. Fortunately, Matt was ready to wake up too, so the two of them had a little nocturnal hang-out session. Like a couple of raccoons. Matt even took Frankie to the all-night grocery store at 4am to stock up on supplies. Matt said that he was getting the stink eye from passers-by, like he was the worst dad in the world for dragging a 5-year-old out in the middle of the night to go grocery shopping. He had to explain to the checkout clerk that Frankie was jetlagged, not forced awake against her will. Kind of cracks me up, though, what other people must have thought of him having her out that late.

At the moment, I'm doing a pretty good job getting us acclimated back to the US. I had the cable set up this morning, the furnace is being fixed at the moment, I got my cell phone turned back on, the mail service restarted, the garbage service set up, and a whole load of worn-out and outgrown clothes bagged up and loaded in the car for a Goodwill run.

So far, so good! (Well, except for the furnace thing. That really sucks.)