A few weeks ago we went on our annual summer vacation with Tom’s family. This year we went to Lake Anna for the first time. We had an awesome trip, our house was perfect for little ones — a sandy beach area, shallow water, lots of grass for playing, and even a screened-in eating area so
Every morning David asks me what we’re going to do. Is it a school day? Or a park day? Is someone coming over? Is today a church day? Then he gets down to it. “Mommy, is today a swimming day?” No, son, it’s not. That’s my usual answer. Except when we were on vacation. On vacation every day was
When we go on vacation with Tom’s family, there are six kids and six adults. That sounds like a manageable ratio, perfect for man-to-man defense, but it’s not. Somehow toddlers multiply when they’re together. Several times a day one of us would look around and say, “Are there extra kids here? It feels like there are at
We went on vacation with Tom’s family a few weeks ago and it was, um, full. Full, which is a euphemism for crazy, exhausting, hectic. Hectic. That actually nails it. Synonyms for hectic include: frantic, frenzied, feverish, manic, busy, active, fast and furious, fast-paced. But instead of hectic, I’ll get back to that euphemism. It was
The only thing we had on the agenda of our family lame-cation was a trip to the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center. We figured we’d need at least one actual activity because toddlers operate in a time warp. That’s where that saying, “the days are long but the years are short” comes from — toddlers mess with the
I don’t know why I used to think that, as the kids got older, it’d be easier to take pictures of them. “Older” translates to “more cooperative”…right? That’s the sort of thing a mom of toddlers says. Like, “Oh, I can’t wait till my kids are teenagers and I can stop worrying about them!” Go
This is at least the fifth year we’ve spent a week at Smith Mountain Lake with Tom’s family. It’s a summer tradition now — we’ve done this every year since Tom and I got married. Except I can’t really remember the first years, the years before we had kids. Now there isn’t much relaxing, recharging,
Did you ever see the show Fear Factor? It was a reality show where bikini-clad women and shirtless men would “face their fears” by competing in icky and scary challenges for $50,000. Most of the challenges involved eating, and some sort of swimming/underwater challenge. My brother and I really wanted to apply — most of
One of the highlights of our vacation was watching David and Caleb play together. David is just now old enough that he notices Caleb and wants to hang with him. And Caleb is an amazing cousin; he is patient and gentle with David. Caleb is great at sharing, and since David doesn’t share yet, “sharing”
I grew up near Smith Mountain Lake, and if you grow up near a lake you perennially hear stories of scary things that happen on the water. Though growing up on the water made me a confident swimmer, it also made me a little more nervous than the average lake-goer. Take lake nerves, add in