Early Vacation

Camp Blue Haven Vacation 2010

I think that the biggest disappointment for me in 2011 was our having to cancel our vacation to Camp Blue Haven. We'd planned to spend a lovely week at a cabin in the canyon - far, far away from pavement and sirens and to do lists and cell phone service. And beautiful to boot! It doesn't get closer to Paradise on earth than that, my friend. Alas, the Hand that Feeds Us intervened with an ill-timed but unavoidable call to arms, and P was unable to take the time off.

We had every intention to plan another trip this summer, but apparently that particular week of summer which we've chosen is just a really good week for trials.... sigh...

Now, for those parties intimately involved in our family vacation planning, please do not misinterpret what I'm about to say. I do still deeply desire to have the Blue Haven vacation.

"Pointing" is Sarah's latest trick.
She used that trick quite a bit with the animals she saw.

However, over the last several days, our family has had enough spontaneous fun and adventure that it could almost count as a pretty decent vacation! (And if we were really smart, we'd actually plan vacations for a time of year when the weather is not absolutely. miserable. But whatever. A lifetime of school-year calendars makes it difficult to imagine "vacation" happening anytime other than June, July, or August.)


On Friday, P put in a few morning hours at work and then came home so we could make a family trip to the zoo (along with half a million other people). Since my other mom friends and I have held memberships for a few years now, the zoo is practically our second home. I could probably find things more easily at the zoo than in my own closet... Anyway, I forgot that P hadn't been since before Luke was born, and I kept giving him instructions ("We'll go to the Crocodile Cafe and then circle back to the giraffes") and then getting annoyed when he cluelessly headed off in the wrong direction. But other than that, it was a really fun day. And because Daddy was there, we did stuff we never do on normal days, like riding the train and skipping the barnyard play area!

On Saturday morning, I let Luke open his Easter package from Gram (my mom has this crazy thing about Easter - she continued the "Easter Bunny gifts" tradition with us until we had a kid of our own - and only stopped in order to focus her energies on him...). She'd sent some bunny masks, a doodle board, and a bunny figurine from Hop. Luke loved it all, of course, and we've had difficulty prying the mask of his face ever since.

Then we struck out for the soccer fields to watch my cousin's daughter play. It was a beautiful morning, and the kids loved being outside and in the middle of all the action. We were nervous that Luke would volunteer himself as a walk-on for Sophia's team, but we only had to chase him off the field (during play) one time.

On our way home, we stopped in a roadside field to take our first-ever bluebonnet pictures! They would've been better without the bunny mask, but what can you do?

After lunch, P and I tortured the kids once again with a "looking for houses" drive. Actually, Luke loves it when we get to see inside houses - I think he views them as fun new play scapes. And that's actually very helpful - he's quick to discover any and all kid-friendly flaws. Like banisters wide enough for a child's head to fit through. Or ovens that are too low and easy to open. And of course, he's always eager to try out the bathroom...

We ended a nice Saturday on our front porch, where the kids could both happily crawl around pushing their toy cars, and P and I could sit and savor our pizza.

Easter Sunday was restful. We listened to Acappella's "Easter Song" over breakfast, dressed the kids up in clothes that I'd had to iron, and we did our best to teach Luke to say, "He is risen!" to everyone he'd meet.

(Commence obligatory Easter pictures.)

Philip (with a sigh): "She's a maneater."

Sunday night, the youth of our church presented their puppet skits, dramas, choruses, and speeches during evening service while P and I sat back and dreamed of the days ahead, when Luke and Sarah would be up there singing and speaking and acting and using their gifts to serve the Lord.





Good times. Good times.

N.B. If you have trouble seeing any of the pictures, you can click on them for a better view.