This summer has gone quickly. It has been spectacular. I have not gotten a lot of rest during waking hours, which for my party animals go,way past a decent bedtime. Way too many times, after having them officially go to bed, I will finish work and climb in bed, only to hear exciting chatter below me in the basement. What is wrong with them? Apparently they love life and don't read scientific studies about importance of sleep In Childhood brain development. Don't blame me kids....I tried.
I can honestly say we have given them a great summer. Such a gift! Maybe they don't need Christmas presents this year. I've made sure to limit tech nearly every day. I've made them do chores before they even get tech. Before the temps stayed relentlessly near 100, we did tons of parks, and will continue that this week.
We've had swim lessons, soccer camp, bike riding, board games, sidewalk chalk, running randomly inside and out of the house., Times tables, magical reading, play dates, and lots of creativity, cloud watching and ice cream making. We still have to: bury Matt in sand at Kleiner, go to the eagle island beach, belatedly celebrate 13 years of wedded bliss ( and not bliss), master times tables, say goodbye to diapers (c'mon Shawn, you are so ready...in so many ways), eat solids (Daphne thinks she's ready x infinity), and cap it off with a potentially grueling 10 k (c'mon marathoners, I'm still ridiculously sore after 3 miles, let alone double the fun).
But what I have to slightly more detail blog today is our trips.
At great personal sacrifice to Lucas and Myself, in many ways, we have had our travelingest summer since the Oregon Coast/Las Vegas summer of 2006.. It's not saying much, but for people who get like 2 trips out of town per year, it was kind of a big deal.
And would you believe above is one of the few pics I took? Oh agony. I lost my camera and I was busy having fun/relaxing rather than missing moments to grab my phone for pics.
Personal background. I was born under a wandering star. It's my dad's fault. But with a big family, responsibility, and some serious financial obligations, moving lots
Is not a great option and lots of vacations are completely unrealistic. We don't really have play money and though I don't crave designer clothes, the perfect house and many luxury items at all, I
crave travel. My heart aches to see the British Isles, Canada, all 50 states, Argentina, Germany, Africa...you get the idea. The way I feel when I see a new place, learn new things is indescribably amazing and nourishing. I feel so alive and rejuvenated...and it hasn't happened in a long time. Still...money...always comes back to that. So, hey, baby steps. Eventually we will have debt paid off, no baby hospital bills, no diapers (and I won't think yet about how the grocery bill may actually equal all those things with teens circling the kitchen), but until then we have to wisely choose how much money we use for the "frivolity" of travel, and we certainly can't do anything fancy. Enter earlier this summer Lucas and I feeling like we would go crazy if we didn't get a break from the monotony of
stress and work and every day things. We knew we couldn't do anything crazy but...
With some planning, willingness to bare bones it, pet sitters, fabulous counselors, our newer van, and some crazy awesome relatives who gave us fun, food, precious time, and amazing memories, we've had a feast of family and different the last few weeks. The home parts have stunk with mountains of laundry, exhaustion, and trying to fit a lot of hours of makeup work into a few days, but from July 14th to yesterday, consider monotony broken. Now to recover.
For our travel, we knew we had a 10K in August and that Lucas, his sister and mom were coordinating a visit to Ely when they could agree on a good time. We also decided to go to North Dakota to visit Lucas's dad, I.e., The kids' Grandpa Terry and Grandma Dee. It was new to everyone except Lucas and over 20 years since he'd been. Our kids were GREAT travelers. Minimal fighting, minimal complaining, and minimal tech usage. even Daphne managed way less crying than I expected, though she did get so excited to be out of her car seat and see new things that she would be too busy to eat at all the stops we tried to feed her at.
After fitting 22 hours of work into 2 days (nightmare, fail, madness), we left here at 4 am to make it to my dad's by 8. He and Karen fixed us breakfast while we changed and kids played on the trampoline. After an a hour, we were off to West Yellowstone. Beautiful scenery, even with road
construction to slow and stop us. We headed north to Bozeman. I drove that leg and wow, the mountains and newness and rivers were thrilling. I LOVE BOZEMAN and it's environs by the way. The Rocky Mountains ROCK. On that drive I starting getting giddy. My heart was singing in my chest. I felt so happy and silly and, above all, grateful,to God for allowing is this trip, letting our car work well, letting our kids have this experience and letting our whole family get along. I was so thankful he created all this beauty for us to see too, Down to how the sun shone on the mountains that day, the clouds, everything. We made it to Billings where we had apparently subpar pizza which I couldn't stop eating, and the whole Nicholes family went swimming at the hotel pool, a rare sight indeed. Daphne in her suit, awwww. Matt accosted teen girls and oil riggers while there. His lack of shyness knows no bounds. Next morning we headed across Eastern Montana which I enjoyed. The Yellowstone River valleys were pretty, though we'd been warned it was dull. Lack of big cities never stopped me from liking a place. Entering ND brought us to Williston which we learned we hate more than or equal to North Las Vegas. We won't make the mistake of going there twice. Walmart, Joann's at Christmas time and Williston, ND. My hell list grows.
We made it to Burlington, the valley was pretty. Up on the plains I felt a little phobic. I feel nervous without mountains around. We had 3 days of that flew by with swimming and swimming and swimming. Grandma Dee got Shawn more comfortable in the water. Day 1, with a life vest on, he would squeal, "save me, save me, save me!" By day 3, he could kick to the edge of the pool. We met cousins, sister-in-law, and brothers...not to mentionDee's family. These people were all incredibly friendly and great with the kids. Grandpa may have had a few stressful moments with 9 grand kids tearing around, but it was a great time. Guys golfed. Girls got a pedicure (I guess 5 kids is a novel thing to some and I got seriously teased by my male stylist about being a bunny). We also went to the ND State Fair and parade. Candy and rides galore...all new to my kids who didn't grow up going to fairs or parades. We were well taken care of, and it was a priceless trip. My sister Kate had just moved to Minot so we got to visit with her family too. It had been since Thanksgiving that I'd seen her. It was great to let Daphne meet new people.
On the way back, we avoided Williston and went through Bismarck . I don't think I could live there, but visits are great. Our ND family means a lot to us, especially now that we met the whole gang. We saw some wicked weather passing through the mountains. We stayed the night in bozeman at a *gasp * motel. Lucas and I were so exhausted we barely managed to get dinner and drop into bed. Pretty sure EVERYONE was asleep by 8:30 that night and slept nearly 12 hours. We took a different route back to idaho falls via Whitehall /Dillon. Again, some heart singing on that drive. The rivers and ranches felt like home. If I had a million dollars... In Twin Bridges, MT, we saw a Victorian looking house and dilapidated buildings that we had to google at home. If I had a million dollars...Lucas could fly fish and I could have the country life. We made it home exhausted, attempted to recover and do laundry and yet more makeup work.
Then BAM to Ely. It was a shorter, less crazy, well known drive. We had less time to enjoy our family there, but still it was some time. Daphne got to see Grandma Laura again and meet Aunt Sam and Uncle Jon, great aunts and uncles, cousins, AND I will forever cherish that my kids have great grandparents on the earth with them, a blessing I did not have. Even with that blasted lost camera, we managed a couple pics on Lucas's phone. Lucas's Mom, Sam and Jon took care of everything, and we are thankful for them and all their effort to make a great weekend. Lots of family was visited-including both great grandmas, yummy thoughtful meals were had. But my favorite memory will be the ultimate water balloon fight of all time...all my life at least. Everyone got involved. Grandma probably singlehanded.y filled up 250 balloons. It was madness! Even Daphne got wet accidentally as she was watching the action with Aunt Sam. Lily, macho girl, was in her element. The boys alternated maniacal laughing with tears, with a few war cries (many actually) for good meAsure. All were better rots than I expected, and Shawn thrilled me to watch. So bold for being so small. Oh, they slept well after that day. So thankful for all our drew/green/Nicholes, etc family there.
You know, sometimes I am overwhelmed to have not 2 sets of grandparents but 4 to try to visit and get my kids to know, not to mention the great grandparents. It makes it more challenging to me, and it is hard to,please everyone (not that I even try that all the time or I'd go mad) or be everywhere. (only when I'm independently wealthy with loads of leisure time). I could get hives just trying to make it all work, so we do what we can. We have made a resolve to make consistent visits, though they be few and far between, a priority in our budgeting, and if people visit us or not is up to them. We will still do our part as long as we can pay our bills. I digress again...
What my point was is that even though all these visits involve some juggling and 4 places to visit and a serious amount of gas money and hotel rooms at times (I will get a visit to my dear poor mom eventually fit in), I can see the blessings of having all these different personalities who love us and who we love, all the different traditions and activities and values that we can participate in, and so just like twins are much more work than a singlet and sometimes 4 grandparent units feel like more of a challenge than 2, we are doubly lucky compared to some to have a lot of great family to love. My kids need never feel lonely or uncared for, that's for sure!
And see, I avoided the temptation to just steal off to the coast by myself and visited family instead. Pretty good for my loner heart to overcome that temptation. Good, better, best!
Love that pic! So funny.
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