The boys and I are heading home today after three wonderful weeks in Austin. Like I always do, I'll have a little heartache at the airport and when the plane leaves the Texas soil. It's hard to leave the people, house, and city that are so deeply familiar and comforting to me. But I'm so thankful we could start the tradition of visiting Austin for several weeks. We'll do it again next year!

On this trip I felt like I was able to take a break from some of the routine parts of life that can be demanding: cooking, cleaning, being the primary caregiver for the boys. It's been so restorative and I've felt really calm. My parents are so hands on with the boys that I end up having pockets of extra time during my days when I can meet up with friends or write or even take a nap(!). I also feel like I've had really great quality time with the boys. It's been so so great.

But our Arizona home is calling us back. Back to Chris (we miss him so!) and our awesome desert life. I really am looking forward to getting back to it all. The transition can just feel hard. So to keep the leaving Austin blues at bay I started thinking of all that I have to look forward to over the next few months and found several...

+ Last three weeks of summer including going to the pool, weekly movie with the boys, seeing friends, and fitting in summer fun

+ The start of a new school year! Meet the teacher, school supplies, and making my plans for what I'll get done this school year.

+ Trip to Turks and Caicos with Chris in early August – we're attending the wedding of one of Chris's best friends.

+ Book club retreat to Sedona in late August

+ My sister's baby shower in Austin in early September

+ Two camping trips this fall: late September and mid October. Both will be in campsites we've never been to before. One I'm really excited about because we should see good fall color.

+ Trip to Philadelphia with Chris where he'll attend a conference. And serendipitously my cousin will be at the same conference so we'll get to hang out. Hey cuz!

+ Christmas in Austin. Haven't bought our tickets yet but we'd like to make this happen since we'll have a new nephew to meet and haven't spent Christmas in Austin in a while.

So much good stuff! Plus there's the good stuff of our everyday life that I love: family dinners just the four of us, weekend fun with the family, Orange Theory + High Fitness, book club, recording podcasts with Erica, watering our plants, cooking in our kitchen. Leaving one home and heading back to another will always pull at my heartstrings but how wonderful to have two homes that I love and where I belong.