family vacation

We took a few days off to relax with the family last week. I think this might have been our first solo trip, just us and our not so little family. We've gone on plenty of excursions but they usually involve friends and/or family. This one probably would have been the same if we had planned ahead far enough to find someone that it suited to join us. But we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the way it turned out.

We spent most of our time soaking up the sun and digging in the sand, with an occasional game of "chicken" with the waves rolling in. We dug holes, big holes, refilled buckets with water, washed off sandy hands, distributed snacks, washed off sandy hands, rescued washed up jelly fish, slathered lotion, collected treasures, washed off sandy hands.....

Kite Flying Fun

  There was no agenda, no schedule, and it was grand! I tried to plan simple meals that we could throw on the grill so that it was a vacation for me too. It often seems like vacation is when Mom works twice as hard so everyone else can have fun but I really tried to avoid that this time.  I think it worked at least some of the time. We're getting to a stage where everyone can help too, that sure makes a difference.
The last time our family was at the beach at least one or two of the people had to be carried as well as all the gear. Daddy ended up making two trips back and forth to the van to get everything unloaded and reloaded. This year, we arrived at the beach and divvied out the gear. Even the little girl could help carry sand toys. As we headed toward the boardwalk the first day Garry looked at me and said, "is this all that's left for me to carry?" I've noticed it over and over this summer, we are suddenly in a different stage then we had been for the past 12 years. It's bittersweet this "everybody's independent" stuff but for the purposes of relaxing vacation it leans more heavily to the sweet side.

These two thought they were way cool to be taking off around the neighborhood on bikes. For those of us with issues keeping 2 wheeled objects balanced there was plenty of puzzles, books, coloring, games etc. to fill our "had enough sun" hours. It's funny how simple things, like coloring, are just so much more exciting when Mom and Dad join in. We taught the kids how to play Dutch Blitz (youth group flashback alert!) and Scrabble. One boy even said, "I don't know if I wanna have a movie night if we can play games instead." Music to my Mama ears! Another sign that times are changing, we're moving on from games of chance and color to games that the adults actually enjoy (rather than endure.) There is NO bitter in that, it's all SWEET!

It was a lovely few days of just being with my sun kissed babies! (Shh! don't tell them I called 'em that.) Of course our family vacations are never complete without a photo shoot attempt, but this post is long enough and has taken me way to long already so we'll save that for next time...