What I Did On My Summer Vacation

At the end of last week I picked up a rental mini van, packed up the kids and a ton of crap, and headed off for the 6 hour drive to my parents house for a 5 day visit.  The kids were very excited to go see Oma and Puppa as it's been over a year since we made the trek up to see them (they have come to visit us in the interim).

It was a fun and busy visit and everyone had a great time.  I think I'm still recovering.

Saturday morning we took the kids to a local playground to run their beans out a bit.  They'd been trapped in a car for most of the previous day so they needed some time to run.

Oma and Jamie enjoying the swings.

Saturday afternoon we took it easy and then four of my high school classmates drove in from various parts of the state to hang out for awhile.  I saw Jan and Paul about a year and a half ago at our class reunion but I hadn't seen Phil since high school.  I also got to meet his lovely wife and his adorable son.  They all hung out at my parents place, we grilled, ate, drank beer, and chatted for several hours.  It was really a lot of fun to see them and I was grateful they were all willing to drive to my parent's house so that I didn't have to find someone to take care of the kids.

The 2011 Meeting of the Sarcasm Society

(L to R: Jan, Phil, Me, Paul)

We tried to keep the kids busy for most of the days we were there by having some sort of activity in the morning and then be home by lunch/nap time.  This way Jamie still got his naps and we were home in the air conditioning during the worst of the high heat in the mid-afternoon.  We spent time at the beach and the zoo on separate days and one morning we went to the local mall to avail ourselves of the playground as well as the children's clothing outlets.

Up, up, and away!

I'm sitting on a giant ear of corn, Mom.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.

We stayed through Tuesday and drove home on Wednesday.  We were all glad to be home again.  This was the longest trip away from home the kids have been on and they were missing home and Scot by the time we finally returned.  I then celebrated our homecoming by smashing my car into the brick corner of the garage.  Welcome home!