Vacation Week

We’ve enjoyed a fun week with Michael home from work for his vacation time. On Monday for our family night we went and had a “pizza party” (because we don’t play sports on Sundays and Kolby’s and Eli’s t-ball league had their last game and pizza party on a Sunday a week ago, so we did our own family pizza party so they didn’t feel like they were missing out). We went to a place that has a deal for a $7 large pizza on Mondays, so we didn’t even have to splurge too much.


On Tuesday we went out and spent the whole morning and early afternoon getting the school supplies and most of the remaining fall/winter clothing items and shoes that the boys needed. 1st graders need a lot more school supplies than kindergarteners. And they are so specific on the list of supplies – even down to the brand and type of crayons. Oh well, we got that done at least. Now I just need to go through and make sure I have all the school papers completed for both boys, and we’re all set. They start school on September 8th, and both boys are looking forward to it. It’s a little strange for me to have Kolby starting 1st grade, since he’ll be going all day – I’m not really the sentimental type that cries as they send their kid on the school bus for the first time, but I do almost feel like I’m sending off my child to have someone else take care of him. At the same time, I was just thinking that in 5 years all of my boys will be in school all day. Right now with how busy our days are, it sounds like a nice break to have a few hours to get things accomplished. But at the same time it seems a little strange and very far away – I mean, right now with all the boys at home all day, even running to the store to get a gallon of milk can sometimes seem like a pretty monumental task, so the idea of having several hours that I could just pick up and run and errand or something is pretty foreign to me. Anyways, Kolby and Eli are both very, very excited for school to start. Since Eli is in afternoon kindergarten Kolby will take the bus to school in the morning, Eli will go in in the afternoon, and they will both ride home together on the same bus in the afternoon, which will be nice. And we get to go in and let them meet their teachers and Eli gets to take a sample bus ride on Thursday, so that should be fun.

On Wednesday we went to playgroup at Egypt Park, which is always fun. I have been making the schedule for playgroup this summer since my friend who was organizing it had a baby a few months ago, and she offered to take it over again, so that’ll be nice, since I’ve also been keeping busy organizing a monthly ‘Ladies’ Night Out’ group with the women at church. After playgroup Michael and the boys went home and worked on getting all the camping supplies together while I went to the grocery store. We ended up going that afternoon to Corbett’s Glen, a nice little nature reserve area with a little river with some pretty cascades. We went wading, and it’s nice because the water is shallow enough that the bigger boys could safely walk around in it, and the little boys could too with some help from us. The water was cold, but not super freezing. We decided to explore and walk upstream through the water, and had fun for about half an hour before Eli suddenly got stung by a bee on the back of his leg, twice, and it kind of cut the outing short. We headed home not long afterwards and let the boys get a good nap while we continued to get everything ready for camping the next day.

So on Thursday we headed to Watkins Glen, a place I remembered visiting with my Grandma when I was 13 years old, and that I’d always wanted to go back to since we found out we were moving here. We camped with several other families – the Baxters, Silvas, Cases, and Stevensons – and had lots of fun. Now that all the boys are walking around and are pretty independent, camping seemed a lot easier this year than last year. We did have to keep a close eye on Courtland who tended to wander off when we were doing things like setting up tents or tending the fire, but all the other boys and their friends wandered around in the surrounding wooded areas playing and exploring and they just had a ball together. Even Isaac stayed with his big brothers and we never had any trouble with him wandering off. The first afternoon we enjoyed playing at the playground after setting up camp, roasting hot dogs and the kids had s’mores, and then a few of us played card games after the kids went to bed. That night Courtland had a hard time – it was warm in the sleeping bags, but it was kind of a cold night out and he kept wiggling out of his sleeping bag and waking up about every hour or so, so I had to get up and put him back to sleep quite often that night. Other than that, everyone slept great.

On Friday our whole group did a nice long hike up through the gorge at Watkins Glen, where they have a series of beautiful waterfalls, cascades, and pretty pools of water. It’s too bad that it’s not safe enough to swim there, but it was a beautiful hike, just as nice as I had remembered it from when I was a kid, and definitely worth the hour and a half drive to get there from our house. After lunch we also swam in the pool, which was enjoyable, even though it was only 71 degrees in the water. It was sunny enough out to enjoy wading in the kiddy pool, and a couple of the more daring husbands (including Michael, of course), were eager to dive in from the diving board and get nice and cool. After dinner, a yummy dutch oven peach cobbler, playing at the playground some more, and some scripture stories and other stories around the camp fire, the boys went to bed. Then all the adults gathered at the Silva’s camp fire and just enjoyed talking, many sharing stories about their favorite camping trips and funny wild animal stories. That night Michael took his turn with Courtland, and he said he did wake up, but I don’t think it was as often as the night before.

After packing up camp in the morning, catching a frog, playing at the large playground at the camp entrance, and eating a picnic lunch, we headed home in the afternoon on Saturday. The boys are enjoying listening to their latest audio books from the library – the set of ‘American Girl’ books about Addy, a girl who was a slave and then escaped to freedom in Philadelphia. The books are actually better than I would have thought (it’s been a long time since I read those books, and I didn’t remember them much), the stories are interesting for the kids, but throw in a lot of historical details and a short historical essay at the end of each book, so they are pretty educational. Anyways, after we got home from camping I bathed and dressed all the boys while Michael unpacked the car. Then I showered while he checked his e-mail, and then he mowed the lawn while I dug up the potato plants in the garden. I don’t know if potatoes are worth planting – we didn’t get a ton, and digging them up took quite a while, since I was trying to dig carefully around the other plants, but we did get a nice bowl full of potatoes and small onions, so it made for a tasty side dish for dinner tonight. Oh, and yesterday was my 10-year high school reunion. I didn’t go because lots of my friends weren’t going, it started in the evening and went till 1 am (which I assume means it was a drinking party), and it would have been expensive to go just for one night. But I can’t believe it’s been 10 years.

Today at church we had some nice lessons. A family that we met last year that hasn’t been coming to church much has come the last 2 weeks and it’s been nice to sit with them in class. Oh, and Courtland adjusted well to his nursery class, but Isaac has been having a hard time the last few weeks. We bribed him today, saying that he would get 5 raisins when we got home (yes, he thought that was a special treat) if he didn’t cry in nursery. He was very excited about his special treat and he tried hard, but still had a difficult time when we left him in his class. So he got one raisin after church for trying hard, with a promise of 5 if he doesn’t cry in class next week. Hopefully we’ll get over this stage before too long. All of our boys have done well with not being upset when going to their church classes, (with the exception of Camden and Isaac each having a hard time for a few months after our most recent move) so hopefully we can think of something to help Isaac be happy too – he likes his class and usually has fun, but still gets upset when we leave him, and it doesn’t help that church is right during his nap time too. Anyways, the boys enjoyed their classes, and Michael went to a young men’s class while I went to a combined Sunday school meeting about the house that our congregation is helping to donate money for and build with Habitat for Humanity over the next 3 months. Although I know we won’t be able to donate much money, I’m looking forward to hopefully being able to get involved with the building of the house – doesn’t that sound like a great date night? So, after church we picked up all the boys from their classes. I’m not sure what Kolby’s lesson was about, but his class had made animals out of play dough. He was very excited to tell me that they made farm animals and he made a rat. (It struck me as funny that his choice of farm animal was a rat, although I’m sure that many farms have their fair share of rats). After church Michael and Camden went home teaching, and Michael’s companion went along for the visit for the first time, so that was great. While they were gone and the younger boys napped I made the invitation for Camden’s 4th birthday party next month. He chose ‘Land Before Time’ for his theme this time, and I think the invitations turned out pretty cute. (Actually, this is the second invitation, because I made another one the other day and saved it, but when I went to open it the file was corrupted and wouldn’t open, so I had to start over again this time). After dinner we were invited over to the Ruder’s house for dessert, which was really fun to be invited.

And tomorrow Michael has to go back to work. No more reading books that don’t have anything to do with skin diseases, playing video games, and playing all day. He will be on call over Labor Day weekend, then starts into 5 weeks of inpatient, so September will be a busy month again. But we sure have enjoyed this week off! Now back to real life.