We arrived home from our first long vacation as a family of four last night. We left on July 4 for Scott's parents' place in Honor. His family was there for a day, then they all left Sunday and we had the place to ourselves until Friday when we left for Wheaton, IL to stay a long weekend with my brother, Andy, and his family. In that 10-day span, we had a 4-hour drive, a 6-hour drive and a 5-hour drive. Whew! The kids did great and we are learning that taking pit stops is a necessary thing at this point in our lives. In case we forget, darling Benjamin is there to scream his sweet little head off to remind us. Poor kid does not do well if he is unattached from me for more than, well, a very short period of time.
Even though Ella had three separate health issues that pretty much covered the whole time we were gone, which brought lots of attitude and tears, we were able to relax and spend some good time as a family. Ella loves the "vacation home" and Traverse City with their plethora of beaches. She got to go swimming (even once with Benjamin), float down the river, kayak with Daddy and go for walks. We also went to the "cherry party", aka Cherry Festival, which excited her mainly because I called it a party. Ella really loves spending time as a family and continues to dote on (read: squish and poke) her brother. One night, I made cookies with the thought that she could help me frost them, but she firmly chose playing with Benjamin over squeezing chocolate frosting out of a bag. In my world, that constitutes some serious love. Benjamin's main point of happiness for that week was that both parents were home, meaning that Ella did not get too much in the way of his being held and nursed 24/7. It was very cozy indeed. He is very attached to me, which I love about 90% of the time, but that other pesky 10% when I need to, say shower or eat, gets to be an issue.
Our Wheaton visit in particular was great. We really have a lot of fun with Andy, Amy and Abby and it is a blast to watch the girls play. Benjamin handled all of the pint-sized estrogen pretty well. The girls really love each other and get each other riled up. Abby took us to her special place -- "the purple and orange park", one of the many very nice parks in the Wheaton area. A highlight of the weekend for the adults was when Scott and Andy slipped away for a beer on Saturday afternoon and Amy and I slipped away for a trip to Target with Starbucks in hand on Sunday. Very, very nice indeed. Of course, Amy and I spent the trip shopping for the kids, but it was nice to do it on our own terms.
We are now planning the rest of our summer's vacations and taking advantage of getting away as much as possible before Scott and I officially start back to work in September!
As usual, my post is upside-down and picture are out of order because I can't move my pictures when using the Safari browser. Sorry!
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