Tonight we returned home from an epic family vacation. We were gone about 11 days. I posted lots of photos on Facebook in order to chronicle the trip, and to share with our family and loved ones back home. We don't take vacations regularly. Vacation is expensive and time-consuming. This one was motivated by the Anniversary party for my parents-in-law. Their 65th. 65th. yes. 65 years married this year! I didn't take my computer on vacation. I rarely used my phone except to take pictures and I took a lot of pictures. Every single day I was amazed that all of my family was together all day long. That does not happen at home. Claire is at college and doesn't live here. Isaac and Jeremiah are in high school and busy with sports and school and friends. The little kids are around but usually not doing anything I want to capture on camera....and Roger and I work a lot. And cook. And clean. And do the mundane work of living life. We do it willingly and happily. We like our life. We also learned that we like to leave our "life" and do vacation.......
On vacation we spent time coloring pictures with gel pens. We played cards and learned new games. We smiled on demand whenever mom said it was time for a picture....and the smiles were real. We tried new things. Precious ate her first burger from In and Out. She didn't even pick out the sauce or relish or tomato. I participated in Top Golf even though I stink at golf. Jeremiah loved Top Golf and got a sweatshirt. He also spent as many minutes as possible in the sun because it is his happy place. We hiked a mountain. We saw our first NBA game. Josiah was brave and excited to fly. He could say, "we are taxiing the runway now" when we were ready to fly home. Claire was an exceptional help with the little kids and it made me wish we could go back 4 years to when she lived here every day.....but then I remembered she is grown up now. She wants to return to Grand Canyon as an adult and hike and do adulting things there....and I want her to. We got up pre-dawn and watched the sun rise over the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Isaac got in on some really stellar funny moments because he sat right behind me and Roger most of the trip. He gets car sick. We laughed. To tears. At least once......or twice.
We did some gold-mining, and horse-back riding. We ate out a lot. We went to church with gramp and gram. We swam in a heated pool. We threw snowballs into the Grand Canyon.....We really had an amazing vacation. I have the pictures to prove it.
Our pictures may portray an idealistic holiday vacation. That's nice, huh? When we take pictures we don't try to make it seem like we are perfect, I promise. I just want to remember it all....so there was this one picture I am thinking about. Claire and Jeremiah are sitting together on a stone wall in the Grand Canyon National Park. He has his hand around her shoulders. I did post it on Facebook and lots of folks liked it. I should explain it a bit. I took some pics of Claire and then she flung her legs over the rock wall and said "take a picture of me looking at the canyon" so I did but my heart skipped a beat because there was no railing and she was legit hanging over the canyon. I asked her to please leave that spot because it made me nervous. Then Jeremiah, Mr. Jokes a lot and Mr. so so funny....jumped over that daggum rock wall and sat with her and said "take another picture mom" so I did. and I was palpitating and the idea of throwing up was close. My kids were on the edge of a cliff at the Grand Canyon and they could fall over. I had trouble breathing. I was sick to my stomach. I begged them to get off of that stone wall. I may have been screeching a bit. to get off the wall.
Eventually they did.
The picture looks calm and inspired and beautiful. That's good. In this house, when we see that picture we all laugh because we know, the way families know, that things are not always exactly the way they look.
Take vacations people. Even if it seems unaffordable. We had help this time. Lots of help. I am really grateful for the help. Vacation and time with your people is important.
On vacation we spent time coloring pictures with gel pens. We played cards and learned new games. We smiled on demand whenever mom said it was time for a picture....and the smiles were real. We tried new things. Precious ate her first burger from In and Out. She didn't even pick out the sauce or relish or tomato. I participated in Top Golf even though I stink at golf. Jeremiah loved Top Golf and got a sweatshirt. He also spent as many minutes as possible in the sun because it is his happy place. We hiked a mountain. We saw our first NBA game. Josiah was brave and excited to fly. He could say, "we are taxiing the runway now" when we were ready to fly home. Claire was an exceptional help with the little kids and it made me wish we could go back 4 years to when she lived here every day.....but then I remembered she is grown up now. She wants to return to Grand Canyon as an adult and hike and do adulting things there....and I want her to. We got up pre-dawn and watched the sun rise over the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Isaac got in on some really stellar funny moments because he sat right behind me and Roger most of the trip. He gets car sick. We laughed. To tears. At least once......or twice.
We did some gold-mining, and horse-back riding. We ate out a lot. We went to church with gramp and gram. We swam in a heated pool. We threw snowballs into the Grand Canyon.....We really had an amazing vacation. I have the pictures to prove it.
Our pictures may portray an idealistic holiday vacation. That's nice, huh? When we take pictures we don't try to make it seem like we are perfect, I promise. I just want to remember it all....so there was this one picture I am thinking about. Claire and Jeremiah are sitting together on a stone wall in the Grand Canyon National Park. He has his hand around her shoulders. I did post it on Facebook and lots of folks liked it. I should explain it a bit. I took some pics of Claire and then she flung her legs over the rock wall and said "take a picture of me looking at the canyon" so I did but my heart skipped a beat because there was no railing and she was legit hanging over the canyon. I asked her to please leave that spot because it made me nervous. Then Jeremiah, Mr. Jokes a lot and Mr. so so funny....jumped over that daggum rock wall and sat with her and said "take another picture mom" so I did. and I was palpitating and the idea of throwing up was close. My kids were on the edge of a cliff at the Grand Canyon and they could fall over. I had trouble breathing. I was sick to my stomach. I begged them to get off of that stone wall. I may have been screeching a bit. to get off the wall.
Eventually they did.
The picture looks calm and inspired and beautiful. That's good. In this house, when we see that picture we all laugh because we know, the way families know, that things are not always exactly the way they look.
Take vacations people. Even if it seems unaffordable. We had help this time. Lots of help. I am really grateful for the help. Vacation and time with your people is important.
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