With the time change, the big kids and I got up super early the morning after our long flight. We ate breakfast at 5am, which maybe isn’t all that early for some, but the Hendrychs family members only see that hour when breastfeeding or barfing.

We were on the road on a crisp spring morning before 8am, speeding east across Washington. I‘d choose eight hours in a car with four children over eight hours in a plane any day. We made easy progress across Washington, Idaho, and finally, northwest Montana. The sunny spring day felt just like the day we left Montana in late October. For a moment, it almost felt like we had just been gone for a weekend trip. How could it be that a quarter of Jude’s young life has been spent away from home?

Our friend Kyle met us at the Missoula airport, where we turned in our rental car. One hour later, and we were finally home.

We love our mountain view, peaceful neighborhood, and house. We’ve done our best with what we have, and we’ve worked hard to make our home and property comfortable and fun. So my first thought pulling into the driveway naturally went towards wondering why we even left all this. Although I need more time to reflect more fully on our trip, I already know that one of the most beautiful things about taking a sabbatical away from home is learning to more fully appreciate home, with all its boredom, chores, hard work, and annoying predictability. There is nothing like a long trip to make you yearn for home. We experienced this last time we took a sabbatical (scroll way down to read about that), and I’m sure we will experience it next time as well. Need to get rid of your restless feeling of wanderlust? Just leave home for a few months longer than makes sense.

We had a happy reunion with our fluffy dog. The poor guy is a little overwhelmed by our chaos and missing his quiet life of luxury with our dog-loving house sitters. I rolled a suitcase through the house today, and I swear he looked almost hopeful for a moment.

Speaking of suitcases, as of forty-right hours after returning home, and over five days after checking the bag in Dublin, we still don’t have our suitcase. It’s in Seattle now, and I’m starting to wonder if anyone will ever do what’s required to get it to our front door.

And that’s that, I suppose. Sabbatical 2.0 complete. We forgot to take a final family picture on our excitement to be home, but we are home, I promise.

I’m planning on writing at least a little more as we reflect on our trip and get back into normal life again. I wonder – is there anything that you, dear reader, would like to know about our trip? A few people have recently asked me a few questions about some of the logistics and our favorite this and that. If you are curious about anything specific, please comment below or reach out to me directly. A few questions will give me an excuse to write again, a good thing since I’m not quite ready to give it up!