Category Archives: Vacations

Where To Go On Vacation, Again

By

The words that I’ve been writing lately have been far more reflective than I ever thought they would be, when I began blogging last year. I’m waiting patiently to see where all of this reflection is going.  Hopefully, somewhere with a glorious bent?

In the meantime, it’s time for a little levity.

What better way to lighten up than to look at… vacation pictures! Aren’t you “so stinkin’ sited!” (as Sweetgirl would say)? You are not required to answer that. 

During our April vacation week, we went to Disney World.

Again.

It was magical.

Again.

There is not a one of us who doesn’t want to return.

Again.

And soon.

It makes all of us so incredibly happy to be there.  It really isn’t much more complicated than that.

Watching our children, walk hand in hand – or even better – skip, hand in hand, on their way from here to there? Seeing the absolute joy in their eyes, as they spy their favorite characters or rides? Eating every single meal together – as a family – and hearing them chatter away about all the things that touch their hearts in the course of a day? Dole Whip? I cannot put a value on these things.

And this, from a woman who grew up down there and swore that she would never fall into that mousetrap as a parent.

Ha! The joke’s definitely on me.

Oh, indeed it is.

Without further ado, here ya go:

Disney_Vacation_Collage_Missindeedy

Has there been a vacation spot that you wish you could return to (or have) again and again?  Share, please!  I’d love to know.

Wanna Get Away?

By

Right about the time that I reached into the very last box of Devil Dogs only to realize I was down to the final two…

And The Colds came back with a vengeance…

And someone named Rube Goldberg began interjecting himself into our peaceful homework routine…

And the mailbox got obliterated…

mailbox_death

That’s about the time I began to lose my mind.

Forget about the 2 loaves and 5 fishes multiplying. What about the 2 loads of clean laundry I just put away that have suddenly multiplied into 4 more loads I need to do? I do not like that kind of math. Oh no I don’t!

Whatever is a mama to do? Because a simple Calgon bath isn’t gonna take me away, y’all. (And if you don’t get that reference? That’s okay, we can still be friends.)

I’ll tell you what this mama started to do.  I started planning how I could get out of Dodge.

And I found a way to do it for free!  Yup, free.

Well, sort of.

The wonderful team of women over at (in)courage are inviting you (yes, you!) to their second annual (in)RL Virtual Beach House Retreat on April 26th and 27th. (That stands for In Real Life, in case you were wondering.)  With other women longing for a little spring get away, just like you! All you have to do is click here to find the community of (in)couragers meeting closest to you and register. Women in over 400 locations around the world are offering to host this virtual retreat from their homes or churches, or are choosing to meet up at restaurants or parks. From Jacksonville to Joplin to Japan, there’s sure to be an (in)RL meet-up near you.

inRL2013

And me?  Well, I am hosting one of these meet-ups here, at my home.

“Um, she does realize this means she’s not going anywhere, right?”, you might be wondering.

Why, yes! Yes, I do.

You see, my Sweetman?  He’s da bomb diggety (And I don’t care that I’m the only one still using that phrase.  It’s fun. I like it.)  He offered to take the kids to the grandparent’s house that Friday night and stay until Sunday.

And even I realize what that means.  2 WHOLE DAYS TO MYSELF!  I apologize for the yelling.  I’m just so excited! I get to hang out with women longing to connect and drink hot chocolate without having to share the marshmallows and not worry about the laundry being sneaky and multiplying behind my back.  And doesn’t that just sound so… Awesome!!??

Ya with me now?

I promise, with this year’s theme of “The Challenge to Stay in Community”, we all have much to learn and share.  And celebrate! Isn’t this entire Spring season about celebrating the one Victory that makes community such a beautiful thing in the first place?

So, even if you don’t know a soul in the community group meeting nearest you, GO!  Run to register! Make some new friends with other women who are longing to get away and refresh their souls. You can find out more on the FAQ link or Register to host or Register to attend, here.

Have I piqued your interest?  I surely hope so.  And if you are the husband, brother, father, or loved one of a woman who could use some encouraging?  Send her over to (in)courage to find out more!  She’ll thank you. Promise.

And, if you live in New England, use one of the social media buttons to the right to contact me, and I’d be happy to share my meet-up info.  I’d love to meet some of you in real life. Oh, yes indeedy!

 

How to Know When Your Children Are Growing Up

By

You do know, don’t you, that this is going to be  a bit tongue-in-cheek?

Just checking.

Watching your almost-ten year old boy with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, who will tell you at every possible turn that he  “just isn’t a sports-type kid” try snow skiing for the first time, every day, for One! Whole! Week! during school vacation?  And watching him love it and nail it?  Oh yes he did!  And how proud am I?  So stinkin’ proud.  I’m proud of him for trying.  I’m proud of him for keeping at it.  I’m proud of him for sticking it out even on the sopping wet, drizzly, sleet-y, and rainy day, midweek. The sense of accomplishment that he felt at the end – being handed his certificate confirming that he completed the week?  You could see it All Over His Face.  Oh, Lord, thank You! He’s moving into a new stage, people.  And it’s a Very Good Thing.

boys_pre_lesson_blog

boys_on_chairlift_blog

Sending your youngest, at almost-five, on her first sleepover to her grandparents house, an hour and a half away, and realizing when you go to pick her up the following day that you had forgotten to pack the night-time pull-up? And you arrive and The Gammy tells you that she just put her in her underwear, and she did just-fine-I-tell-you? She just officially became a “big girl” and I only turned my head for One! Day! (The forgetting of the Pull-up? It was unintentional, I promise.  And, those are rather bitter words to write, as my “word” for 2013 is , um… intentional. Yup, I’m a Work In Progress, people.  Work. In. Progress.)

Just for clarification, I did inform them both that I’d be perfectly happy for them to cease and desist all future growing.

They laughed.

I cried.

Oh, yes indeedy – I sobbed like a Soap Opera starlet.

And then went and ate this:

gelato

In celebration of their growth, of course.

Have your urchins had any growth spurts lately?  Tell me!  Tell me I’m not eating the gelato alone!?!

We Are Family

By

You’re singing it in your head right now. Aren’t you.  Yes, you are.  Admit it.  It’s practically an unwritten rule that when anyone hears the words “we are family”, they will spontaneously burst into song followed by the words, “I got all my sisters and me.”  I‘d stake my last Devil Dog on it.  Oh, yes indeedy!

Chatterbox, in Italian, is pronounced “Yak-uh-share-owna”.  This, I learned, among many other things this weekend. It was chock full of long-overdue time with my brother and sister-in-law and their kidlets.  My own children were fairly bouncing off the walls at the opportunity to see their beloved cousins.  They love them dearly.  And Sweetboy, in particular, has a deep and abiding affection for family members who do not live in this house.  That is not to say that he doesn’t have an affection for family members who do live in this house; just that he loves those who do not extra, with jimmies on top.  (Or, sprinkles, as those of you below the Mason-Dixon line call them.)

Just how much does he love them? He was so excited to have a “sleepover” with the long-lost cousins (we saw them at Thanksgiving), that he sacrificed his bed, for three nights, for the camp cot (in the same room, of course!) While his older cousin, let’s call him Buddy, got to snuggle down into the cozy fleece sheets on his bed, Sweetboy enjoyed, and I truly do mean this, a sleeping bag spread out on the cot.  I asked him how he slept after that first night’s slumber.  His response?  “Fine. Great.  I was with Buddy!!”   ‘Nuff said.

And, I must admit that I love my Sweetman’s brother and his wife somethin’ fierce.  And not just because my sister-in-law is first generation Italian and teaches me all sorts of fun phrases that make me snicker.  I genuinely enjoy them. We love nothing more than sitting around the table enjoying a delicious homemade meal, a nice big juicy Cabernet, and a rousing game of Spades. (The girls won.  The girls usually win, don’t we, Sweet Sister-in-law? And it has nothing to do with the fact that we always sometimes give each other a head’s up when we have a bad hand. Ahem…)

My niece, let’s call her Bia, is on a new-to-her gluten free diet.  Whenever we get together, The Gammy makes a delightfully delicious 2-layer chocolate cake with a whipped frosting in the middle. (Now that I think of it, it’s an awfully lot like a gigantic circular Devil Dog!)  Everyone enjoys this cake, but Buddy and I have been known to engage in some Dueling Forks over the last piece.  I sometimes always let him have it, of course.

But, with the snow a blowin’ and the winds a howlin’, The Gammy and The Grampa weren’t able to make the hour and a half drive up to see all of the grandkids.  Everyone was crushed. God is good, though, because at the grocery store the day before, I noticed that good ol’ Betty Crocker had come out with a Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake boxed mix. And the angels – they were singing. So, I bought it, because, HELLO?  Have you met me? I don’t bake!

It turned out to be a really tasty cake.  And that there is not only my professional opinion, but that of all the kidlets under 40, too.  Here’s a picture for those of you so inclined to check it out.  (We used traditional frosting in a can, because we live high on the hog around here.)

glutenfree_cake

The kids sledded, built a snowman, rose each morning far earlier than any child should be allowed, set up a grocery store in the playroom, and snuggled in and watched a movie together, among other things. There was a little Texas hold em’ goin’ on, a rousing game of Yahtzee (man, I love that game!), and we ate like “gabones”, as my sister-in-law would say.

The most comical (and there were plenty!) conversation of the weekend, however, went a little like this:

Sister-in-law (to her husband): “How come you never tweet at me?”

Brother-in-law: “Um, you have to have a Twitter account to get tweets.”

And the best one-liner went to Sweetboy.  “Sissy, you’re da bomb diggety, you know that?”  (Man, I love that kid!)

Let’s close out this sweet little familial recap with some pictures, shall we?

We shall.

Snow_Fun1

Snowman1

Snow_Clothes1

2_PeasA

The Most Magical Place on Earth

By

I was mostly mainly a “believer” before; that Walt Disney World was The Most Magical Place on Earth. But, in all seriousness? It was. And still is. God surely endowed Walt Disney with brilliance and foresight, because his ability to inspire the imagination and thrill the senses was without equal. In the words of Sweetman, “I’m ready to go back!” (And this from the one who heard each “cha-ching” as if it was an approaching rattlesnake!)

 

Disney_World_Missindeedy

 

I want to start by saying that the new Art of Animation Hotel is fantastic. That is where we stayed, and in the Nemo Suites, to be exact. It was delightful. On every level. The food choices for the kids were pretty great, overall (especially with one uber-picky eater in the bunch and the other one with a nut allergy!). And the Sweetkids enjoyed the splashpad and zero-entry pool (and hourly pool activities) so much so, that we had to carve out a little time each day to “chillax” there. It was a tough job people, but someone had to do it.

 

Sweetboy would tell you that the New Fantasyland was his Absolute Favorite place to be (beside Space Mountain, of course!). We all rode the new Barnstormer ride, well… a “few” times. It is a delightfully short roller coaster that the whole family was able to go on. Even Sweetman! It was a Christmas miracle, y’all. Just sayin’.

 

Sweetgirl would tell you that the New Fantasyland was her Absolute Favorite, as it had the new Under the Sea (or, “Ariel Ride” as she would call it) and the new Enchanted Tales with Belle adventure. Although, the Akershus Hall “Dinner with the Princesses”, in Norway, at Epcot, would rank right up there, too. (This has to be one of the best kept Princess Dinner secrets of Disney World!) It was an incredibly interactive dinner; and the personalized attention that each Princess gave each child was just a joy to watch. Truly. It made me want to be a Princess. For 45 whole minutes! True story.

 

And Sweetman and I simply must, as the parents of a child with a nut allergy, give a huge shout-out to The Palace Restaurant, in the Magic Kingdom. We had lunch there one afternoon. Besides the fact that Sweetman asked the chef for the recipe to “the best meatloaf he’s ever had, ever!”, the level of care and concern they took to provide options for our nut-allergic Sweetboy were stellar. And the chef made numerous visits out to us to check and see how things were going. (And, I’m certain it wasn’t because he was asked for the meatloaf recipe. Really!) Fabulous. Just fabulous. We were so grateful.

 

And here are some pictures to give you a little idea of the fun that was had by all.

 

Disney_Collage_Blog

 

All “being fleeced by The Mouse” joking aside, Walt Disney World really is the most magical place on earth. Oh, yes indeedy! And we’re already plotting a return. Before 2020! I know. Right?

What I Learned On Vacation

By

On vacation, I learned a few things.  Try, just try, I ask you, not to be impressed.

  1. Family time is precious, indeed. (In a related lesson, cousins sleeping in the same room after being apart for 6 months? No sleeping in. Ever.)
  2. Brushing your teeth in the morning as you listen the ocean lap the sandy shore? Blissful. (Hazelnut coffee after a Listerine rinse, however? Not so blissful.)
  3. Sheets that smell of the beach and have a bit more sand in them every day? The best! (Washing said sheets a couple of times each when you get home to rid them of said sand? Not so much.)
  4. Thank you God for inventing shrimp!  And, no, as it turns out, you can not over-shrimp yourself.  Just ask my family. (I think my new peachy-pink skin color suits me just fine, thankyouverymuch.)
  5. Being unplugged for the week is quite a feat. (If you don’t count the 2 iPads, 3 DS’s, and 4 iPod Touch’s that were necessary to allow the adults to enjoy adult conversation. We don’t count those, right?)
  6. Margaritas taste better when shared over a rousing game of Spades. (And apparently, my spades game improves with each new pour. Especially considering we narrowly averted a lost “nil” due to dealer error.  Let no more be said on the matter.)
  7. Moments like this make it worth every cent of the grocery bill that somehow triples when away from home:

    Footloose and fancy-free… just the way I like ‘em.

In other news, I went on vacation and all I got were these lousy mountains of laundry.

The majesty of these mountains escape me…

“Why, that’s only 5 loads!”, you may be tempted to say.  No, no, my friend.  That was simply as many loads as I could get into one shot without revealing the disaster zone that is my house right now. And, although I have no problem what-so-ever sharing pictures of my dirty unmentionables with you, I simply must draw the line at pictures of the dust bunnies and toy box that looks like it vomited all over the floor.  Of every. Single. Room.  I’m off in a cloud of turtle dust to vacuum some sand and ponder my lessons learned. Oh, yes indeedy.

A Wee Bit O’ Packing

By

Because I am certain that you were all stupefied by my photography skillz in yesterday’s post, I thought to myself, “Self, what do my 7 friends and 8 family members want to see next on my blog?”  And you know what my self told me?  More pictures!  That’s right.  But, before you run screaming get too overly excited, I’ll give you a moment to decide whether you really want to waste 5 minutes reading on.  You do?  Fantastic.  I can count you as one more odd fig in our bunch. God sure does know how to make em’, doesn’t He?

We are leaving on Sunday for our Official Vacation.  Yes.  While The Nana and Captain Ahab are just dee-lightful to visit down in sunny F.L.A., we rent a beach house for a week with my in-laws for our actual “unplug and chillax” vacation.  And so, I will be gone all of next week.  Try to contain your enthusiasm sorrow.  And I will write about it. Oh yes, I will. I may even pop in here once or twice while I’m gone.  Since I’ll be vacationing with just about half of my Sweet Readers, I’ll be curious what the other half of ya’ll are up to.

So, let’s talk packing. I’ve been doing a wee bit of it and I gots to tell ya – I. Are. Tired.  Is anyone else exhausted after packing for a long-ish trip? I seriously feel like I could take a 3 day snooze after all of The Rounding Up.  True story.

Why, yes! That IS a garbage bag housing all of the linens and towels we are taking with us. We know how to keep it klassy.

I might be an odd fig, myself, because I like to lay items out as I think of them in an obvious location and then go back and organize them into the appropriate bags after I’ve piled them up in one location.  Does anyone else do this?  If not, I’m curious. How do you organize (or do you organize) your things for a trip?

I do, indeed, have a stragedy. It may not be a great one

Our bed, however, has paid the price for my “rounding up”.  I’m not quite sure where we’re going to sleep tonight.  Sweetman assures me the bed will cleared off.

Get the pukey bucket; our dressers threw up on the bed!

At the very least, by next week. Yes indeedy.  Next week, for sure.

Sunshine State of Mind

By

Family is pretty stinkin’ precious. We feel that in full measure tonight. We spent a blessed 2 weeks with The Nana and Captain Ahab and oodles of time with the cousin, too.  Our fourth of July celebration was subdued, but with family and close friends, so altogether lovely.  As we closed our vacation time out in  sunny Florida with the grandparentals, we started realizing that there would be a few things that we would be missing somethin’ fierce. These things put us all into a sunshine state of mind, and here they are, in no particular order:

1)  I’ll miss being able to go out into the yard and just grab a mango off of a tree.  Back to grocery store mangoes for me…

We had delicious mangoes almost every single morning or afternoon.

2) That Sweetgirl – she does NOT nap.  I mean… ever!  The motion of the ocean finally got to her, though.  Praise The Lord! And Amen.

Naps don’t get better than this. Right?

3) I get great pleasure out of seeing my Sweetboy do this; and he did a boatload of it:

The child – he surely does love his snorkel and mask.

And lastly,

4)  I realized two things after I planned and executed the following picture.

It’s been a great vacation when you’ve got a ring tan!

The first is that it makes me all kinds of happy to see a ring tan on my finger there.  (Hopefully, that’s obvious by my… you know, ‘planning and executing’ a picture of my tan-lined ring finger. And now that I’ve written that down, I do believe I might just need an intervention.)  And the second thing is that Sweet Moses! I have some unsightly man-looking hands.

I can’t win em’ all.  Indeed.

I sure hope y’all are  enjoying your summer so far!  Whatcha doin’?

That’s More Like It

By

It’s been raining on and off since we arrived here in Not-So-Sunny-Florida.  We are, however, with a Nana and a Captain Ahab that we haven’t seen in a good long while;  and, so, we’ve been enjoying each other anyway.  Imagine. The Captain, however, is up to his same old tricks.  I haven’t  come up with a catchy name for the debacle that occurred this morning yet.  It could be called Watergate.  It really could.  But that’s already been taken.  Here’s the gist:

Ahab: “Let’s run the kids over to the beach to check the ocean before the day gets rolling.”

Me: (Naively) “That sounds like a great idea!”

The sun was sparkling across the water and peeking out just enough at 7:00 in the morning to give us hope for a decent day. We grabbed hold of that hope with a little more zeal than caution would warrant for the skies that were overhead. Can I just stop here a moment to tell you all, (all 8 of you), how poignant it is to watch my children walk the beach early in the morning with Captain Ahab?  That same daddy walked me and my brother when we were their age.  Oh, how the beach shell turns…

Aren’t Those Skies Talking?

Far longer than a “short beach run” later, we arrived home soaked to the bone.  You see, Captain Ahab thought it would be a mighty fine idea to walk the kids (including the littlest – Sweetgirl) all the way to the jetty.  And back. From where we started out, it was a good quarter-mile (or more) there, and then another good quarter-mile or more back.  That would have been great if we just had the two 9-year-old boys.  Alas… Halfway TO the jetty, Sweetgirl started telling us that her legs were tired of All The Walking.  Not a good sign.

Just about the time Ahab and I realized we should probably start heading back from the jetty, the skies decided to get angry.  We tried to shuffle the kids away, but dang it, there was a hot-pink mask washed ashore that was just Sweetgirl’s size, and a half-dead sea fan that begged to be brought back (despite the stench); not to mention the two turtle hatchling eggshells we found.  Oh, The Excitement!  Unfortunately, all of The Excitement made trying to hurry them along kind of like herding cats.  Only, harder.

Happily at the Jetty

All that to say, about 2 minutes into our 15 minute walk back, the skies opened up and rained on our beachy parade.  Here are a few things I heard from the lolly-gaggers before one of them needed to be picked up to keep the party moving along.

Sweetboy:  “We’ve walked 3 or 4 miles now, haven’t we Grampa?”

Sweetgirl: “My Eyes!  My Eyes are getting wet.  See, Grampa?”

Cousin:  “Can I just go ahead and jump in the ocean and go swimming?  I’m already wet!”

We did make it back. Wet, but happy to have enjoyed the adventure.  And to have made it back without getting struck by lightning. Obviously. As, I’m now sitting here in the comfort of the house telling you all about the latest adventure “abroad”.  Only, “abroad” is really just down South from up North.  Indeed.

Heading For the Hills (Or As the Case May Be, The Ocean)

By

I should be sleeping in preparation for our flight outta Dodge tomorrow morning; but instead, I’m here.  Here are the top 5 things that have gone down around here this week.  A few of them even caused a giggle or three.

1) Sweetgirl started packing her own carry on all by herself.  On Monday.  Unfortunately, she’s realized each day that something she packed she’s just “gotsa have now, Mama!”. We’ve spent today rounding up each and every one of those said items and corralling them back into her carry on.

2)  I do solemnly believe that Sweetdog now knows how to spell. I’m 99.9% positive that her ears perked up when she heard me mention packing her bag up for the kennel yesterday.  It may also be why she left us a “parting present” early this morning.

3) Benadryl just may have been created in Heaven, because the sleep we’ve been able to get around here, despite 4 of the 4 of us having colds,  has been divine.

4) The pending trip has an amazing behavior modification effect.  And I like it.  A lot.  Forget about the ol’ Stink Eye.  Go with “Oh My! Whatever will The Nana and Captain Ahab say when they hear/see that next week?”.  Pure gold in verbal form.

5) The thought of being with my peeps down in Florida and letting my hair go all “roller coaster” on me is just fine and dandy with me.  Or, in other news, I’m getting old enough that I just don’t give a hoot.

I’ll be posting some enthralling pictures, I’m sure.  In the meantime, what sorts of things do y’all do to prepare for big trips?