Bye Bye, Holiday Home

The last day was fairly muted. River had decided he wanted to go home and spent most of it saying “bye bye holiday.”

We went to the playground where he fell off the zip wire, spectacularly. I felt awful for laughing once I realised he’d genuinely hurt his knee. There was a brief attempt at bribery involving a toy train ride, which didn’t work. Again, you have to laugh. He sat down, I paid the €3, it lit up and starting blasting loud music. He put his hands over his ears “TOO NOISY” and got off. Managed to get a cute photo before the drama and then back to the room.

Summer and I managed a quick trip to the pool and then a go on the arcade machines. I also got all the washing done. Winning.

That evening, Summer went to kids club (she did ask to go) and River ran around the playground with his new friend while we enjoyed our final drinks, listening to live music. All packed and kids asleep by 11pm, alarm set for the morning.

The Journey Home

I skipped breakfast because River did not appreciate being woken, so we worked around him. I even left him in his pyjamas, I know when to pick my battles.

We checked out, got on the coach and quickly realised River didn’t have Summer’s bug after all. He just gets very travel sick.

We were armed with a sick bag this time but the pyjamas didn’t survive. The driver was very funny and under different circumstances I would have enjoyed the commentary but I was fairly sure there was sick on me somewhere and I desperately needed fresh air.

As soon as we got off the coach, River announced, “I feel better now.” That’s great sweetheart.

The airport was fine. As long as he’s in his pushchair he’s pretty happy.

We grabbed some plain snacks and boarded for the flight home.

Somehow, I ended up sitting with both kids while Kike got an aisle seat to himself. We’ll need to address that next time.

Four hours. A few screams.
Didn’t like the seatbelt.
No YouTube (obviously).
“I want to get off the plane.”

But honestly? It really wasn’t that bad.

River played for most of it. I listened to a couple of podcasts through one secret earpiece. He refused to watch anything because it wasn’t YouTube, so it was a long four hours of playing but it could have been much worse.

And it wasn’t.

We landed in dark, cold England. River refused to put on a jumper, so we wrapped him in his Halloween blanket and did three trains and a taxi home. Thankfully, he slept for most of it.

Home

So that’s it, we’re home.

River is very happy. The other three of us… less so. But holidays can’t be forever.

Within an hour I’d produced dinner from almost nothing, bribed River into the bath (the morning’s vomit was crusted under his chin) and unloaded the dishwasher.

Back to reality.

But, I’m happy. I really enjoyed this holiday.

The weather was lovely. I didn’t have to cook or think about food shopping. I didn’t have to clean, organise, or get anyone to a specific place at a specific time. I met some lovely people and spent genuinely good times with my family.

And maybe that’s the biggest thing, we did another holiday. We survived Christmas. We figured things out as we went along.

Notes for Next Time

Airport needs to be closer to home
More games downloaded on iPads
See if he will wear headphones
More snacks (always more snacks)
We still need the pushchair — probably a bigger one
Travel sickness medication
More soothing items for dysregulation: the screaming is very intense. The stopping, waiting and breathing works but if I could shorten the time even further that would be amazing.

Oh and to actually manage one family photo.