Saying Good Bye to Nate, Dad & Suzy

 August 10th, Thursday morning we said goodbye to Nate. He caught his plane back to Munich. 

Then we enjoyed just sitting around and talking until lunch.

 After lunch we did a walking tour of Manchester. 

We thought these buildings looked like something out of Harry Potter.

 We found a crepe place and then took the bus back to the flat.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing games and eating dinner together. It was so fun to spend quality time with my parents and sister! 

I also spent a lot of the afternoon Face-timing with my kids.  They were usually with their Aunt Maren, my friend Tiffany or Tom each day.  But this day they were tending themselves while Tom was at work, so I worried more about them and missed them.  I would sometimes look at the Find My iPhone app and see how we were on the opposite side of the world from each other, so crazy!  Cedric and I had a staring contest.

 

 That night, Suzy made us another delicious meal.  We were very spoiled having so much home cooking on the trip and enjoyed the hospitality from Dad and Suzy.

 We went to bed that night knowing the next day would be a long one...

August 11th, Friday we woke up early and got packed up and ready to go to the train station.  

We said our final "good bye's" to Dad and Suzy.  A few tears were shed as we walked toward our train and got on.  Even though it would only be a few months until we see them, it was hard to say good bye.

We spent the two and a half hour train ride back to London watching the TV series "Suits", trying to do "cool" duck face pics and eating snacks.  We both love Good n Plenty!

We then took an hour on the Underground to the airport.

I was randomly picked to be searched before we boarded the plane. 

While I was being searched, Aimee was trying to find somewhere to fill our water bottles.  However, as we discovered early on, they don't have drinking fountains in London.  And that includes the airport!  The bathroom sink water was too hot, so we opted to buy water bottles from the vending machine.  Non of the machines worked!  So we ate our lunch (we used the rest of our Pounds to buy food at a deli called Pret), and then asked for water as soon as we got on the plane.  

This time we sat by each other and spent the next ten hours watching movies, eating airplane food and taking little naps.

We arrived in Salt Lake around 6pm (which was 1am London time).  It had already been a long day.

I spotted the Dairy lane out my window (upper left of the picture).  

We finally landed, went through customs, got our luggage and met Tom and Sophie outside.

It was good to be home, but by the time we dropped Aimee off, picked up dinner for the kids, got home, had dinner, unpacked, showered the kids, put them to bed, did some laundry and got to bed myself it was 10:30pm (5:30am to me)!   It only took a day or so to adjust back to the time though.  

I am so grateful I was able to go on this trip and get to know Aimee, Nate, Dad and Suzy a little better and for the memories we made.  I am grateful for Tom, Maren, Tiffany and Lily who helped take care of the kids and things back home.  

Cheerio!