Vacation

It's almost time for my Mommy vacation.

Yep, it's that time of year when I ship the boys down to the farm for a Week At Grammie's House. I'll spend the week cleaning, planning, doing little projects, and shopping in all those stores that I can't seem to shop in with four boys in tow.

I also have to look for a new dining room suite.

While I'm doing all that the boys will be doing this....

And some of this....

And probably a good bit of this....

and all that other stuff they do while hanging out at Grammie's house. After a week, they'll come home rested, pampered, and spoiled rotten.

Made it this far.

Wow...he sure is getting big isn't he? I would like to know who swiped my baby and replaced him with the almost grown man.

Tomorrow night, I'll head up state to camp out. It's 4 hours to the camp and the parents are supposed to be there by 9 am Saturday morning. (Yeah, I did that same math and my eyes bugged out.)

The idea of leaving the house at 5am, picking up 5 smelly Scouts who have been out in the wilderness for a week, stuffing them and their gear into my nice clean van, then turning around to drive home for another 4 hours.....well that just doesn't scream "fun-filled day" to me.


It sure is a beautiful camp. You can't see the mountains in that shot....but they are there. It's just what camp is supposed to look like.
So the parents have been invited to camp out Friday night but we have to bring our own gear. Thankfully, there is no shortage of camping gear here at the Zoo. It's also cheaper than a hotel.

I'm rather proud of myself that I haven't already run up there and grabbed the boy and drug him back home. In fact, my entire family is impressed with my restraint. That's not the say that I haven't been miserable. I do OK during the day, but at night I fall apart. It's those cabins that do me in.

Would you call that a cabin? That's the quarters for 6 boys. At least he was wise enough to get a bottom bunk. I would rather have a tent personally. At least, you can keep the critters out of them.

I know he's had a great time. I can't wait to hear about his adventures.

Aahhhh...the chlorine

Went to the pool this morning. I felt much better after coating myself and the boys with sunscreen and then baking in the hot sun for a few hours and read an Odd Thomas book.

Plus I got to people watch, which is always fun. There are always different types of people watching to do. Today I did teen people watching which consisted of seeing how long it took my 13 yo son and his buddy to manage to get themselves conveniently in line near teens of the opposite sex. It was especially fun to see just how many people they would let cut in front of them on the water slide line just so they could chat with the two young teen girls. (2 minimum, 5 maximum) The joy of teen-age boys and scantily-clad teen age girls. Fun, fun, fun.

Also on my radar today were tattooed people. There was an old guy who was still rocking his 70's gold chains....and a slew of tiny tattoos on his chest. I didn't get a good look at them due to the gold chains and grey chest hair that pretty much obscured them. Thankfully, he was not wearing a speedo. The pool has a policy against them and thongs....of which I am glad.

I saw a woman who totally failed at the soccer mom look that she was shooting for. She had the whole thing down. Pony tail, Croc flip-flops, Nike Swimsuit, cute matching tote and coordinated children. But she had big angel of death on one calf and a Holy Mother on the other. Then she turned around to show a line of big Roman Numerals tattooed down her back.

My oldest looked at her, looked at me, then said, "25, 20, 16, 7, 4? What the heck does that mean?"

I had no idea. Maybe lottery numbers? I was impressed at his Roman numeral comprehension though. Tattoo soccer mom also had a tramp stamp, an ankh, some pyramid shape, a little flower, and an alpha and omega. And that was just on her back....and visible.
(shrug) She had two sweet little kids though. Serious props to her for handling a temper tantrum very well. When she said, "Stop or we'll go home," she took them home when her boy didn't stop. I figure, if she cold sit through all those inkings, she sure isn't going to put up with 4-year-old drama.

Then there was the guy with what looked like a big smiley face tattooed on his stomach. It was actually 2 small circle shapes on each side with a curve of script writing underneath them. But from a distance....I'm sure it was not the look that he intended. He made my 7-year-old chuckle every time he walked by. ("His belly is smiling at us, Momma.")

I felt fine at the pool but then I cam home and coughed for an hour and discovered that I didn't put sunscreen on my forehead. At least my feet weren't burned this time.

I'm going to cool dinner and spend the rest of the evening playing around with Homeschool Tracker. I think I have it figured out this year. I've been watching the tutorial videos. Now I just need another dozen or so videos and I'll be a pro.