Okay, I suppose it's not technically a vacation day when you wake up and your sole focus is packing and cleaning. But it's our seventh day in Chicago, nonetheless.
We did as much as we could with the kids in the apartment, but we reached a point where we would be at a standstill until anyone under the age of 18 left the premises. So I took the kids to get coffee, hot chocolate, and chocolate cake disguised as a muffin. This all went very well until Neko wanted to stop for three different caterpillars who all needed to be reunited with one another, Shep couldn't decide if he wanted to be in the front or the back of the stroller, and then in an effort to move Ellery to the other seat I spilled my coffee all over Ellery, the stroller, and the floor of the coffee shop. Thank goodness is was sort of lukewarm coffee. I had to clean up a big mess and as I was using up most of the napkins in the dispenser one of those little old ladies walked by and said, "Well, you're having a rough day!" If I didn't have three vocabulary-building children nearby, I would have had some choice words for her.
The upside? This took a good deal of time, and Tom was mostly packed by the time we arrived back at the apartment.
Another upside? The kids did really well on the drive home.
A downside? All the behavior went to hell in a haycart when we arrived home.
Another downside. Tom forgot both our pillows and Shep's tent (which was folded and tucked inside one of the pillow cases). Many tears and a rocky bedtime soon followed.
But all in all, successful. We are home, and not missing too many things.