Vacation

Vacation.

Is there anything as great as vacation? Really. I don’t think there is…maybe the evening of vacation when the kids are tired and happy from a busy day of running, walking, swimming, playing, eating, swimming, running, playing cards, swimming and we are subdued from the same…and a couple of glasses of red wine with dinner. It truly has been a wonderful week which started with sharing the cottage with my mom and dad and sister and niece. The girls played, argued a little and played some more, sharing in canoeing, swimming, running, walking and spending time with their grandparents, together (there’s something very important to me that they realize that they all share these two wonderful, beautiful beings). It is ending with five days to ourselves out here. You know, how when your kids are little it is often about the next thing, and filling the time for them with fun and play and sometimes it seems to move so fast but every once in a while you get a glimpse or a moment. You are able to see the moment for what it is, not getting to the next but that moment for an instant, a minute or even more and you are in such bliss that this is your life, these are your people and you have so many more of these moments to come! Now, I’m crying and Dave is going to come out onto the porch and worry that something is terribly wrong and then laugh at me a little but agree that he knows exactly what I mean. It’s a good life.

The highlights?

Canoeing to the main beach with my sister and the girls. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t thing we’d make it (there, I mean, not life or death) but of course we did and it taught me to not be so quick to judge. I was worried the kids would be disappointed if we didn’t make it, but I should have kept my mouth shut, set out on the adventure and waited to see what would happen. Sometimes I think I’m so focussed on preparing my children and avoiding disappointment that they loose out on spontaneity and adventure.

Running up the road and seeing my mom with all three girls out for a walk together from a distance, I don’t have any words to describe why this was a highlight, but it was a big one.

Harper jumping off her chair the other day, bending over so her butt is high in the air and making farting sounds with her mouth. When Dave exclaimed. “I wonder where she got that idea?” Hannah responded with, “Not from me, I stick my butt in people’s faces when I do it!”

Harper swimming in the lake with a life jacket but no one holding on to her, and especially her face when she realized she was doing it all on her own.

Seeing a big beautiful buck on the road this morning when I was out for my run. These days seeing deer is almost like seeing a squirrel (but more common) but I was in such thought and looked up and saw this buck and it looked so majestic to me today.

It has been a wonderful week, I was so busy enjoying the moments that I completely forgot to even take out the camera and photograph it. I look forward to telling you about next week and all we are going to do and eat but for now, I am going to join my family in the other room and just be…with my people.

I hope the sun shines down on you this week!