Sunday: leaving

Today was leaving day.  I woke up way to early, because I was nervous about things that were going to be fine.  But when you're up, you're up.  Oh, I guess the major thing of note is that both boys were negative for COVID.  Greta had a cold and passed it around a bit.  As colds go, it's pretty minor.  But the last thing I wanted was to get to the airport, have a boy cough one too many times, and be required to get a test before getting on an airplane.  Greta's had come back negative earlier in the week so it was more an airport peace of mind than actually thinking they had COVID.  It was Joshua's first test, and I really don't think that he should get to go through the whole pandemic without at least one.

Our first flight was delayed a bit and we were a tad worried about our connection, but we reached it about 15 minutes before boarding started.  It mostly meant that we had lunch in Tulsa instead of Chicago.

Joshua feel asleep on the way home in the car.  He fell asleep a lot in the car on this trip, which I take to be a sign of a great trip.

I got a text later that night that said someone had made popcorn and it took less than five minutes to make!  I laughed out loud and disturbed Ben.  The house had many good features...the private pool, the space, the number of tables, and the number of sitting areas.  The kitchen however, was lacking.  It took us two days to figure out how to get the microwave to sort of work properly.  The oven breaker needed to be cycled twice during our stay*.  The kitchen was lacking some basic pans.  The tables let off a ton of black stain when we first got there.  The house was acceptably clean, but there were still empty bottles around and a rather dirty floor.  I'd recommend it to people with some caveats.

*Ben told us in detail how he fixed the oven the first time.  I found the story rather boring**, but paid attention because it was a relief to have a working oven.  It was a good thing I paid attention because I was easily able to reproduce the fix.

**Sorry Ben.  Breaker boxes just aren't exciting though.

Saturday: last day

Today was our last day. :(  I had earlier told Joshua that he needed to be happy today because he was allowed to stay up late yesterday, but then today Joshua asked if he could be sad tomorrow since we're leaving.  

We had a leisurely morning with a delicious breakfast and a game.  Then we did the annual pictures.  Kids in age order, the whole group, and families.  We added a kids-in-age-order-with-gaps-for-Marshall-and-Violet and an adults in age order (per Joshua's request), but those will come later.

Then we went to the pool.  Joshua had a great time swimming back and forth to the wall without his life jacket; I was a bit surprised at how long it lasted, actually.  Then lunch and rest time and ...back in the pool!  Only Ben joined the kids this time.  It was hot out, so everyone stayed in for a while.  (We actually lucked out on weather.  It was hot, but not crazy hot until today.  It's just supposed to be hotter (and more normal) next week.)

After having the kids eat outside on the lonely tables for the first time, we did water balloons!  Ben killed all the balloon animals at the same time so the kids wouldn't be devastated.

We did our annual picture viewing (minus Katy's pictures), watched some Olympics, and enjoyed being together one last night.

Friday: the Gathering Place and Olympics

As with all days, it started out with mini muffins.  Mini-muffins are a special treat to these vacations and the boys were so excited for them.

Today we went to an awesome, gigantic playground.  (Isaac rated it 17/10, so I'm not really sure there is any reason to continue our playground tour in Holland...)

On the way we saw our first Native American license plate.  I hadn't even realized they were a thing, although it does make sense.

We got to the playground and the first section was this massive castle structure.  It had four different tours, all connected by bridges.  Joshua brought me to the top of the tallest one, then down to its bridge, and then found a "secret passage".  So he climbed the secret passage and told me he'd meet me at the top.  So I went back up the four stories to meet him at the top.  He told me it was for my exercise, which I agreed with.

We stayed here a bit, but not all that long.  It was hot, so we wanted to keep moving a bit.

Then to the splash pad for a short time.

Then the water play area was open, so we all went over there.  There were pumps, dams, rivers, rocks, and it was rather amazing.  The other wonderful thing was that it all worked.  Again, we didn't stay super long because it was hot and we had other things to do, but the boys probably could have spent the whole day at the park no problem.

When we came home the boys were still in their swim suits and I was a ball of sweat, so we all jumped into the pool for a quick cool down.

After a significant rest time, we had some Olympics.  After a torch ceremony, the events included jumping off the diving board, silliest jump off the board, fastest swim across and back (the short way) and basketball.  We then had slip-n-slide, three-legged race, sack race, disc throw, and limbo.  Joshua won the limbo and he was so excited.

Award ceremony!  We can't have Olympics without medals.  Everyone got four, but they were all so proud to go up and get them.

We had some Japanese food for dinner and watched a sped-up version of the opening ceremonies.  The children were allowed to stay up as late as they wanted, but after a movie (ending at 10:45) Joshua completely crashed.  Isaac stayed up to play a game, but went to sleep right after that...at the same time and Ben and me.

Thursday: guys day

Today the guys went out.  They went to a shooting range, had Indian food, did an escape room, and then snuck back into the house for some video games.  Overall, it seemed like a successful day.

The rest of us went to the science museum.  It was a rather small science museum, but it ended up being just the right size for the time we wanted to spend there.

There was a packing tape tunnel/slide.  It used 10miles of tape to make.  The slide wasn't really that slippery, but that was good since kids were going down it in crazy ways and multiple kids at a time.  Joshua went through it many times though, so it was a hit.

There was also a 'floor is lava' section that all the kids enjoyed.

Joshua made a sawblade boss.

Then we went into the second room. 

After lunch we got in the pool.  Joshua's been so cold when we go in late afternoon with shade, so we decided to try earlier.  Everyone else joined us.  I only have one picture because I got in too.  There was a sliver of shade that I used as my home base in the pool.  :)  While going in was the perfect choice, the main reason I went in this time was because I had Joshua skip his life jacket for the first time.  He loved it and practiced going under water a ton.  Isaac didn't put his life jacket on the whole time, which surprised me a bit.  Usually he's been starting with it off and then putting it on.

After a short rest time, we did balloon animals.  I wasn't a great teacher because it's been a while since I've done them; I just remember that they were relatively easy.  First up: an oath.  To not attack, capture, put in prison, or make surrender Ben or me with their swords.  (The other parents were on their own.)  The swords went pretty well.  Then we tried to make dogs.  Those only went ok, possibly because I forgot to make a neck.  They were still animal looking things though.  At that point it was pretty much everyone on their own.  We made a few giraffes, Greta made a few more dogs, and Dagne went to town making up her own things (it was rather amazing).  Most of the children slowly moved on to other things, and then Isaac came into his own.  He made a flower and an amazing four-balloon sword.  He also made a balloon sword called "destroyer" for Seth.

Oh, and hats.  A lot of hats were made.

Once the kids were in bed we played Dominion.  The first game went so fast...there was so much money in each hand and multiple buys and some people were managing to get two colonies per turn.