6 years 6 months 21 days

Day 2396. The day started like any other school day. Randy first took Tammy and Emmy to school, then Sammy, while I went back to bed for a little bit. At 8:50 am my alarm already went off. I got up and got ready, and just after 9 am Randy and I left the house and walked to the train station to take the 9:20 am S-train to the main train station across the river. I was pretty tired after a short night.

We walked straight to the Hertz office, showed them our driver's licences and credit card and got the key to our rental car, a Peugeot. We took the elevator to the parking garage and walked to our car of the next few days. A few minutes later we drove off to go home where we arrived just after 10 am. I got out and went inside while Randy went on to find a parking spot. 

It was time to start packing; I hadn't had any time for that yet. When Randy returned, he got the suitcase down and brought up the kids' carry-ons, and I started packing. Randy was putting the car seats into the car. Once I had done most everything, I made myself soup for lunch and sat down to eat. Randy still had some other leftovers to warm up and eat. At 1 pm he left to pick up Tammy and Emmy from school, and I left some time later to pick up Sammy. The school had already sent me a video of him walking with the stand-up ladder today and I was impressed that he wasn't crossing his feet as he usually does.

Sammy was very excited to see me as he had been counting the days until we'd leave on our trip, and the day had finally come. He said good-bye and until Monday to everyone, and we left to the take the subway home. Once home, I finished packing while Sammy was just excited and waiting for Randy and the kids to get home. They arrived at 2:30 pm as usual, and they were excited as well. I packed their school books where they have exercises to get done since they're missing school, and finished everything up. Randy took more stuff to the car and brought it around the building to the door closest to us. Then we walked out to get in. Having three car seats next to each other in the back, makes buckling them in very hard as you can't get to the place you need to get to. I gave up and let Randy deal with it. All that took way longer than expected, and because of that we left quite a bit later than planned. It was already after 3:30 pm.

We were finally on the road. I connected my phone to the rental car so that the navigation from my phone was on the screen for Randy. It was supposed to take us just over 2 hours to our friends' house in Traun. The kids had their tablets and were happy. Tammy was saying she felt nauseous for a while but after drinking a little plus some fresh air, she felt better. It didn't take long for them all to start saying they were hungry so we stopped at the first opportunity to give them some snacks, then continued on our way. 

Just before 6 pm we parked in front of our friends' house. Tammy had been saying she needed a bathroom for about half on hour so I get her and Emmy out as fast as I could, and we took the elevator up so she could go to the bathroom right away. Randy and Sammy followed a few minutes later. It was really great to see our friends again that we usually see once a year. They had prepared toys for the kids that they immediately started playing with. After some time, we sat down at the table to eat dinner, then the kids continued playing while I continued talking with my friends. They were having lots of fun as usual. In the end, Emmy was playing ball with their son, while Sammy was opening and closing a door with the daughter. Tammy made a necklace with the Mom. 
It was getting late so I suggested it was time to leave. The kids had so much fun they didn't want to leave but at 8:30 pm we said our good-byes; it was already half an hour after bedtime.

We got back into the car and started the 22 minute ride to our Airbnb apartment right by the train station in Wels where the conference starts tomorrow. We had already stayed there last year which made it a whole lot easier to find the place in the dark, and I knew where to find the key. I went inside with Tammy and Emmy, then Randy brought Sammy and went back outside to get our stuff. As soon as I had our suitcase, we got what we needed out so everyone could take a quick shower before going to bed. Emmy was so tired that he had a fit but we got them all ready for bed. At 9:30 pm I lay down in the big bed with all three of them, prayed for them and stayed a few minutes before leaving them. They fell asleep quickly.

I then went to our room and got my computer out and started working on the pictures and my report. Randy went to bed at his usual time of 11 pm, and it looks like I will to as it's already after 1 am.