Vacation Hang Over

On Tuesday of this week, we came home from a 10 day vacation to the east coast. My sister in law Kris got married to her partner, Karen, in Massachusetts. We were there for three days. After the wedding, we jetted off to Pennsylvania to visit Matt's family out in the country. All in all we had a great time. I'll share more (with photos) this coming week.

The downside to a vacation? Coming home. ha ha

Vacation hang over. I know you well.

As can be expected its been a hard adjustment for me this week. When I leave for PA, I completely unplug. No phone. No computer. No news from the outside world. I leave all my worries and responsibilities behind and live each day with my family as it unfolds. I love it! Unplugging is actually super easy when we're visiting PA. Matt's family is from a very rural area in western Pennsylvania. Phone reception is spotty at best. We spend most of our days outdoors enjoying nature and family. Its such a wonderful escape for me.

But when I come home, I feel totally bombarded by my hectic life. There are emails. There are phone messages. There's grocery shopping to be done. There are meals to be planned. There are mounds of vacay laundry to be washed. There are speech appointments and soccer practices and dental appointments waiting to be met. There are playdates. There are book reports to be done and school announcements already flowing into my inbox. It seriously does not end. Right now, managing the minutiae of our daily McGarvey lives feels extensive and exhausting. I dont want to deal with it.

I feel like this every single time I come home from a vacation with my family.

On the flip side: I get to enjoy wonderful vacations with my family and from that standpoint alone, I know Im very lucky. Sure...there are always some little bumps along the way. Life with my boys is bumpy. But for the most part our vacations are fun affairs and we dont take them for granted. We enjoy our time together and make the most of our time away. Its rewarding. When my sons are older, they are going to remember our family vacations together. Sections of their childhood memories will be of us going to Pennsylvania and Yosemite and Puerto Vallarta and Italy. When the boys are grown and have their own families I, in turn, will remember these times together. I'll remember Seamus with his first bow and arrow in Uncle Mike's front yard. I will remember Finn catching twice the amount of fish than his older and more competitive brother. I will remember our ferry ride into Boston with Dama Shan, Kris and Karen. I will remember tubing together on the glorious Clarion River. When Im older and its just me and Matt, these memories will warm my "empty nest" heart. I know it.

So... you know, its all good. I'll deal with the vacation hangover, if the actual vacations continue. You take the good with the bad in this life and believe me, our family vacation back East was very, very good. :)

Happy Friday!

Also... Im attaching our July family portrait. It was taken in a graveyard in Salem, Massachusetts. I had to mess with the image a bit in order to remove a ghost. Clearly, I have to work on my photoshop skills.