Vacation

I didn’t intend to take a vacation from my blog, but it appears that I did nevertheless. I had gotten into a somewhat regular routine of writing while C.B was at preschool and the Banana was napping. But that precious timeslot has recently become known as “Mommy’s Naptime”. Either this pregnancy is really wearing me out, or I have finally found a decent excuse to take naps in the middle of the day. Either way, I have been sleeping instead of writing. And I'm not ashamed of it either. Because despite what my kids think, naps are AWESOME!

I’m not sure I can actually recap an entire two weeks worth of activities, but I can probably hit some of the highlights. We had our annual family camping trip a few weekends ago. The weather was wonderful and a great time was had by all. And by “all” I mean Grandma, Grandpa, 5 Aunts, 8 Uncles (including one on leave from Iraq), and 11 cousins besides the six of us. We try to reserve the same three campsites each year. We like that area because it’s right next to a big open field for playing kickball, football, Wiffle ball, etc., it’s near the playground, and, most importantly, close to the bathrooms. We have campfires each night complete with s’mores and campfire games. Click here for the photo set.

We were excited to learn that we had purchased a winning raffle ticket at our church picnic last month. Our prize was a 50-inch, flat screen, plasma television. We chuckled about how comical it was that our family won this awesome television because we don’t subscribe to cable or satellite – we’ve been using rabbit ears for the last two years. We decided since our new prize was HDTV compatible that we’d try an HD antenna and see what happened. We were surprised to find not only a beautiful, clear picture, but we are also receiving a few bonus HD channels that we never knew existed. We are not TV people, but we are thrilled to be able to look at the screen without seeing lines running through it. We are also pleased that all of our local channels are actually viewable. My husband is enjoying the crisp colors of the football games on Sunday afternoons. It was definitely worth buying those raffle tickets!!

And speaking of Sundays, ours are becoming increasingly crazy lately. We started Sunday School two weekends ago, which was also the same weekend for plenty of other activities. After Sunday School, my parents took the Banana to my cousin’s baptism party, C.B. and Dad took Big D to his soccer game, while I took Miss M with me to choir practice. She was later picked up by a friend for her volleyball game. After an hour I left choir to catch the rest of the volleyball game, then Miss M and I met up with the boys back at the house. We all got nicely dressed to join Banana and Gramma and Grampa at the baptism party. We didn't get home until nearly bedtime that night. I thought the craziness was over, but the very next Sunday was almost as bad. Big D and Dad left immediately after Sunday School for their soccer game, the rest of us caught up with them there. Miss M and I actually packed lunches to eat at the game because she and I had to leave right afterwards for a Girl Scout field trip. The troop went horseback riding, which was a lot of fun, but we didn’t get back home until 6:30 that night. Maybe I did need that vacation after all!!