4 years 4 months 26 days

Day 1608. The boys were once again up before the alarm went off at 7:30. I had gone to bed before 2 am, but couldn't sleep for the longest time, so I was very tired this morning. We got up, dressed them, finished packing, and went downstairs to have breakfast.

We had a good last breakfast, and Tammy and Emmy went off to play one last time once they were done. However, they came back frequently because the "mean boy" was bothering them. After we were all done, the kids went to play, while I went to the room briefly to grab my purse and make sure everything was set to go, then went back downstairs to the kids. Randy then took our stuff down on the elevator, while I paid the remaining bill. The junior owner of the hotel was already there loading our stuff into his car. On his last run down from the room, Randy brought all our jackets, and we put them on the kids. Then they saw a stuffed animal Donki, the mascot of the hotel, and we bought one too. The kids were fighting over who got to carry it, and Emmy cried, when it wasn't him. I told him he could hold it later, which he did, and the owner who was driving us to the train station let him hold the Donki he had in the car, much to Emmy's delight.

It was really cold, minus 10 Celsius, when we left the hotel and piled into the car. It did not take long to drive to the train station, and the owner told me the whole time how great it was to come in summer. At the train station we got out, and he helped us carry our luggage down the elevator and back up the repaired elevator to our platform. However, we still had half an hour, and we were all cold. So we left the luggage there and went back to the other side, to a waiting room, where it was not that cold. That's where we said good-bye to the owner.

We sat down, and all the kids got their tablets out to use while waiting. 10 minutes before our train's arrival, we took the elevators down and up to go back to the platform. It was so cold that Emmy and Tammy were crying and whining how cold it was. I told them the train was gonna arrive any second, and then it already came. We were at a good location, with fewer people, and got on the train right where we were. There were individual compartments, and we found one that wasn't reserved. There were a good number of people getting onto that train.

For the next 4 hours we enjoyed having our private 6-seat compartment, where it didn't matter how loud their tablets were. Tammy and Emmy were on them the whole trip to Vienna. Sammy we had to entertain to keep him happy, which also included his tablet, as well as Randy's phone. We still had snacks left over from the ones we had brought with us from Vienna, and that's what the kids were eating. I was also really tired and lay down a little and closed my eyes for some time, without getting to sleep.

At 2:18 pm we arrived at the main train station in Vienna. I knew that we had 8 minutes to our connecting train leaving, which I thought was enough time. We got ourselves and our two big suitcases, two kids' suitcases and a bag that goes on the wheelchair off the train, then took the elevator down, and then back up to another platform, the one our train home was leaving from. It was not as cold, only 4 degrees Celsius. The train arrived really soon, which was a blessing, as it could have been a 30 minute wait time as well. We rode the train home, where we arrived around 2:45 pm. 

The kids were happy to be back home and started playing with their toys right away. I had ordered a pizza online that soon arrived, and we sat down to eat that for lunch around 3 pm. Then they went back to playing, while I opened the suitcases and emptied them out right away, putting stuff up, while Randy turned the washing machine on. Then he took the kids downstairs, as they were eager to play with their toys there. I kept putting stuff away for a while, and just after 4 pm I was able to sit down by my computer to work. Randy and the kids came back upstairs before it was 5:30 pm. Randy wasn't feeling so great. They then played and did some drawing, as I did not want to give them their tablets again. Just before 6:30 we sat down to have dinner, which was more of the pizza from lunch, as well as apples. We don't have much food at home right now until Randy goes shopping on Monday, as stores are closed on Sunday. After having eaten, they all went into the bathtub and had fun there. Then we got them ready for bed. I read them a story and prayed for them, and Sammy was asleep before I was done reading the Bible story. The other two brushed their teeth, then went to bed. It wasn't 8 pm yet. Randy sat down by them, while I warmed up the rest of the pizza to eat. After having eaten, I went back to work. I was fine for the longest time, but some time after 9 pm I fell asleep while working. Randy went to bed at 10 pm, so that I had to relocate to the kitchen to work. I emptied the dishwasher and then filled it with the dirty dishes and turned it on. Then I sat down to write my report. Now it's not even 11 pm, but I'm so tired that I'm about to go to bed as well.