What I Did Over Summer Vacation
I've never "vacationed" well. This has something to do with the fact that my father (and thus my family) rarely went anywhere when I was a kid (two words of legitimate excuse: farm animals).
Now that I'm an adult, I also have never seen the point of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on oneself and family just because one can (not that we can, of course; I'm just speaking hypothetically).
Don't get me wrong: in recent years, we've done a few things that some would consider "vacation," but as they have almost always involved extended family, I've tended to think of them more as "trips" than "vacations." However, my definition might be changing, at least after this past weekend.
On Friday, Megan and I loaded up the kids and drove across the Show-Me-State of Missouri to my aunt and uncle's house, 45 minutes south of Kansas City, KS. In addition to our family, my two sisters and their husbands/kids made the trek from Illinois, as did my parents (that's 18 souls if you're keeping track).
We met that evening at Kaufmann Stadium, home of the cellar-dwelling Kansas City Royals. The Royals were playing the Minnesota Twins, and the kids did great during the ten-inning game, which ended with a special Friday-night fireworks presentation (when your team is as bad as the Royals, you gotta get/keep fans in the stadium somehow).
It was a late night driving afterward (we got everyone to bed about 1 a.m.), but Saturday was laid back. We had breakfast outside on the deck, played a little baseball of our own (kids against adults, though strangely, the adults never got to bat and the kids got more than their share of strikes and outs), and took plenty of golf cart rides all over the mowed paths in the pasture.
After a simple lunch of ham sammies and homemade ice cream, it was naptime for everyone (I also got a few innings of baseball watched). The kids loved my relatives' pets (two very affectionate dogs and a "talking" cat), and Megan and I enjoyed the grandparents' help in looking after the young ones. Dinner was burgers on the grill, followed by a movie before bedtime and some very restful sleep for all involved. The little ones were sound asleep by 8:30 p.m., and so was I.
This morning, we drove back listening to a sermon podcast, wishing we could somehow make the 5-hour drive back to St. Louis in time for church this morning. However, we stopped in Columbia for lunch, and I introduced the girls to Shakespeare's Pizza and my alma mater, Ol' Mizzou. Duly (or barely) impressed after our 100-degree mini-walking-tour, we got back in the van, cranked the AC, and rocked out the rest of the way home, with Megan as Podmaster.
It's the end to a good day and a nice, simple, short vacation (yes, I can actually use the term when it applies). Thanks to my aunt and uncle for the invitation, my family for the time together, and Megan for packing and mothering the girls (and me) on the trip.
And special thanks to my girls, for being so excited by the smallest of things - swings and playhouses and slides and kiddie pools and baseball and dogs and cats and box turtles that we almost ran over on the golf cart and having to share beds with their sisters and watching stupid kid movies that so insult their intelligence and milkshakes and pizza and loud music and hugs and kisses and forgiveness and unconditional love when Daddy gets impatient with them and an appreciation of beauty and morning and blue skies and green grass and humor and God.
Now if they'll just go to sleep, for crying out loud...
(Note: If you'd like to see the pics from the trip, click here. You'll need to be a "family and friend" to see all the good ones, so email Megan and she'll send you an invitation.)