In March of 2020 (man does that seem like a lifetime ago), my husband surprised us with a trip to Arizona. He had been traveling for the last 3 weeks being in Las Vegas, Toronto, and Chicago. I picked up my daughter at school on Tuesday and said to her teacher, “we will see you next week!” Her teacher eagerly replied, “have a great vacation, I can’t wait to hear about it.”
So, we were off! I was ecstatic and a little nervous to be flying with the kids for the first time (for them) by myself. I was so panicked I forgot their fully charged tablets (rookie move). While waiting at Logan Airport the kids colored, we talked about the fun things we would do and what we hoped to see. My son asked if he could bring home a cactus, to which I said, “maybe”.
We got onto the plane and settled in for our long flight, and the kids were fantastic! I wiped down our seats and reminded my kids not to touch anything and not to put their fingers in their mouths, luckily for me they listened. The kids made friends with other passengers, mask-free, as was the norm at that time.  We talked about the different states we were flying over and what they were famous for. I had packed enough snacks to feed the entire plane, and I even managed to take my daughter to the bathroom while a kind older couple hung out with my son. He taught them some new dinosaur facts.
Once we landed, my husband met us in the rental car and we headed to Great Wolfe Lodge. This was a surprise to the kids for our first night before heading up to Sedona. Great Wolfe lodge was everything they ever imagined and more. I felt like it was a casino, no windows and storefronts as far as the eye could see. Luckily for us we had a game plan, we told them what they could do and not do. We mainly focused on the waterpark.
Once we headed up to Sedona, we started reading the news and received a few panicked texts from some family and friends. Asking if we were going to head back sooner, telling us that the grocery stores were out of stock bread, pasta, soup and other staples. I was beginning to wonder if I should place an Amazon order so we would have food when we got home. We decided to stay until Saturday and changed my husband’s flight to fly back with us.
While driving to the airport, my husband I talked about the potential of what was going to happen. We agreed school would probably be closed for a bit but we would take it week by week. In that car ride, I honestly thought this was going to be a six week thing, not six months. I was texting friends, trying not to get too ahead of myself. I wasn’t really sure what to think but I just wanted to get home.
We looked for masks, but couldn’t find any and figured if we had the kids sit on the inside we would be ok. We really hoped they’d fall asleep on the way back – they didn’t. We landed in Boston a little after midnight and our neighbor was kind enough to pick us up at the airport. We went home and went to bed.
The next day i did the largest grocery shopping of my life, I spent $800 on food, for four people. I felt like I had fully lost my mind, but I had the peace of mind of having everything we could want or need, and plenty of snacks.
It’s now been 7 months- in that time, we’ve done house projects, cried, laughed, tried new recipes and began homeschooling. It’s been the absolute best 7 months and the hardest 7 months of our lives, but having this extra time has been great. The time with my kids, having my husband home to be with our kids has all been incredible and I wouldn’t change any of it, even the worst days. I don’t know what the next 7 months will entail, but I do know, that day in the car driving to the airport if you had told me this would be happening I would have laughed in your face.
