10 weeks ago my family and I left our home in Issaquah, Washington and started our journey to London. In the past 10 weeks we have:
- Stayed in a hotel in Bellevue, Washington
- Drove to Boise, Id
- Stayed with my mom in Caldwell, Id for a week
- Stayed with Jen's mom in Idaho City for a week
- Flew to Chicago then caught our connecting flight to London
- We stayed in a temporary flat for the first four weeks near Hyde Park
- Moved to Chiswick, London a few weeks ago.
- Then we've been staying in a hotel for the last week in Munich, Germany.
Over the course of the next six weeks, we will be traveling for about 3 of those:
- Go back to our flat in London
- Stay for about a week in Edinburgh, Scotland
- Back to London for a week or two
- Then I'll go to Paris for a week before Jen and the kids join me for another weeks visit.
We've started joking that we're starting to feel a little more like gypsys without a home. Although getting our flat in Chiswick has helped the kids feel a sense of permanency. We at least now have a home base. Things will also slow down some once summer's over.
I've also started to notice my children adapt their vocabulary. At the end of the day of visiting museums or other historic things their parents drag them to they ask if we're going "home" not back to the hotel. This isn't something Jen and I started and even though we've corrected them a few times, to them I think home is wherever you keep your stuff; your change of clothes, your power chargers, etc. And sense everything we own fits in a few small and a few very large pieces of luggage, and we plan on keeping it that way for the next few years -
Home is where our luggage is. And of course (more importantly) wherever we are as a family.