Meag: After not nearly enough sleep, we took a train out to the airport in Amsterdam. In our rush to make the train on time I did a faceplant while running up the escalator. It was very graceful. And the faceplant ended up not being worth it…we missed the train by a grand total of one minute. It turned out fine though because the flight ended up being delayed by an hour.

While we waited for our flight, we ate some breakfast and tried to suck back enough coffee so that I wouldn’t trip going up any more escalators. Savanna apparently didn’t have enough coffee to be fully awake though. As we were sitting there, she was looking at her phone and holding it maybe about two inches above her iPad. I’m unclear on what happened exactly, but she ended up dropping her phone onto her iPad, resulting in a sizeable spider crack on the screen. With four hours of sleep, the trip ending, and a mediocre breakfast, I wasn’t sure whether there would be tears or maniacal laughter. I held my breath. Thankfully, she laughed after a moment’s pause.

Sav: How could I possibly do anything but laugh? This iPad has been through an entire trip with me and on the second last day I drop my iPod two inches and it MURDERS the iPad. The spider crack is ridiculously dramatic. But it’s functional and on the bright side my iPod is fine, so not a double whammy.

Our plane ride was uneventful, as was the long train ride to Lewes afterward. It is lovely being back in Lewes with the Christie family. We napped for a couple of hours, as the family was out at the circus when we arrived. We took a walk with Gina, the house black lab, which was so relaxing. The field nearby is massive and the weather was incredibly foggy, so all we could see were a few house lights and large trees through the mist.

Samantha, mama Christie, made us a wonderful carbonara dinner which we scarfed down with enthusiasm. Brought me right back to our pasta-filled days in Italy. The two young girls, Edie and Pearl, had invented a game including a balloon and a soccer ball so we spent a good portion of the night playing this game that we never fully understood to begin with, but was a lot of fun. I must say, my lack of exercise over the last 4 months has never been more apparent then when Edie, a four year old, beat me at keeping a balloon in the air.

S&M