Returning home from vacation is always a little bit sad. I spend so much time looking forward to upcoming vacations that once they end I feel a little bit lost and unsure of what to focus on going forward. That’s not to say that there aren’t many moments of beauty in the everyday (and being more mindful and present in those moments is something that I’m working on) but having that uninterrupted time as a family for ten days and then heading back to work and school always feels sad.

We’ve been to Charleston many times over the years, but going back now always feels a bit different in a fun way because the kids are getting older so we are able to engage with the city in ways we didn’t before they were born and when they were babies. On a couple of days I think that we attempted to do too much, and ended up tired and grouchy by dinnertime. Still, some of my favorite parts of a visiting-family-in-a-familiar-place vacation are just being in a beautiful place, not doing anything in particular. My parents live on a busy road surrounded by beautiful marshes, and being out on their porch is lovely.

In addition to that little terrarium, my mom has a tiny hedgehog that sits inside a tiny basket in another plant on the porch, and Vivi and Jude loved it so much. She kept taking it out and carrying it around and kissing it.

The kids could not get enough of the hammock, and Vivi and Jonah in particular spent a lot of time there.

The kids also loved being around the dog and cat of the house. They just adore those sweet creatures so much. Hunter (the dog) was much easier to track down (although Jude could throw a ball all day and Hunter would never go fetch it), but Lucy is elusive (and very old and eager to evade tiny grabby hands), so they spent a lot of time searching for her and hunkering down near her hiding spots once they located her. Jude only got bitten once.

At one point I discovered that they’d put the hedgehog inside of Lucy’s house, presumably just to share it with her in the hopes of making friends and coaxing her out.

Even indoors we had lots of sweet moments of reading and cuddling and resting, as one should on vacation.

Gigi got out some crafts one afternoon with Maris and Jonah, and they made paper chains followed by pipe cleaner crowns. Jonah was excited about his but didn’t feel like wearing it for the picture.

One morning Maris stayed home from school and joined us for doughnuts at the best little doughnut shop (Glazed on King St.) followed by the SC aquarium, which is always a worthwhile trip. The kids had a lot of fun together.

I can’t get enough of Jude’s face in this one.

That morning V brought him a headband, and while that one didn’t come with us in the car, she took off one of hers (she’d put on two) and insisted that it was his, and he refused to go into the shop until I put it on him. Those two, they make me smile a million times a day.

On Wednesday we had family photos taken by a wonderful photographer and friend of my sister and brother-in-law, and we followed that up with dinner out at a casual Mexican place we’ve been to before. I don’t have any photos from dinner, but sitting around that long table with all of the noise and the pitchers of margaritas and the kids eventually running laps around the patio…it reminded me how nice it is to be with family even when it isn’t always relaxing.

The drive home to Michigan felt even longer than the drive down (surely because we weren’t headed towards a week of vacation at that point) and it took us a half-day longer (but that just means one extra waffle breakfast for the kids at a hotel, so they certainly weren’t complaining). Once again we made a couple of playground stops along the way, just to get everyone out of the car and into the sun. It slows the trip down for sure, but it always feels worth it.

Despite the sadness of vacation ending, I have to say that coming home to this home actually felt rather sweet. I felt a sense of relief pulling into the driveway, and walking through the door felt comfortable and happy. Surely that had something to do with getting out of the car already, but it’s also nice to see how different it feels from each time we returned home in New York, when we’d groan at the ugliness of the highways and feel stifled by our apartment. This time there were purple flowers blooming by the lamppost in our front yard, and today I noticed buds on the apple tree out back. The first week in April is a good time to get away to the south because often when we return home, spring is finally showing up and it’s lovely.