Goodbye Again

Tomorrow we head home, and as always, we have mixed feelings about it.  It will be good to get back to family and friends and to our humble routine in St. Paul, but it’s tough to say goodbye.  Chantelle and I agree that this was one of our best trips here, mostly because we did so many things that were completely new, and just about all of them were with friends here.  As we look back, those have always been our best experiences by far.  It reminds me of something my dad says: what makes life special are the relationships you build along the way.

We have been so fortunate that what seemed like chance events led us here in 2011 and led to invitations to return five times since.  What we are most thankful for is that coming here has given us the opportunity to experience an incredible country and culture and to explore and grow as a family without the distractions we have back home.

We thought it would be fun to do a few "now and then" photos from the apartment under the castle with the spiral staircase.  It feels like yesterday that we arrived there for the first time, and we remember very clearly being terrified that the kids would kill themselves on those stairs.  But, of course, it took them all of two days to master the staircase and adopt it as their playground.  What is funny is that the apartment still maintains some of the touches we added back in 2011, like the cow placemats we bought to try to preserve the dining room table.

Of course, it wasn't just yesterday, and it’s tough to look at these pictures without a lump creeping up in my throat.   I love watching the kids grow up, but it really does happen too fast.  I guess I’ll take solace in the fact that they all still fit inside the cabinet at the top of the stairs, and in the fact that they still think I’m smart and fun and cool.  Or at least I think they do.

Thank you to Maja and Leon and Tim, to Rok and Petra, to Mijo and Drita, to Marinka, and to everyone else here who helped to make this trip special.  And thank you, Slovenia – you are beautiful in so many ways.