vacation Tuesday: pool

Today was a down day, but there was no shortage of pictures!

There were cranes all around the complex.  When we arrived on Sunday I was rather surprised when one moved because it looked like a statue!

The oldest (kid) and the youngest.

Morning fun in the ninja room.  I think they were building a castle.

The guys were leaving for guys day, so the women took the kids to the 'neighborhood' pool.  It was a really nice one.  The pool was large, there was a water slide (although it opened late), and a lazy river.  It still required a car ride, but was a fun place to go to get out of the house.

I tossed most of the children around.

...until they started getting me with squirters.  The squirters were really funny for the first three minutes, but the kids didn't quite know when to stop.  (Well, they stopped when I asked them too but by then I was done.)

We took a brief stop by the playground to help dry off swim suits.  Correct, we were not supposed to park at the playground.  But seriously, how is it going to be used otherwise?  The adults stayed alert and ready to jump into cars if needed because apparently they tow at the drop of a hat.  The playground did have some nice shade.

I got home first so I was in charge of the dino-nuggets.  Therefore, I made lots of scenes that involved dinosaurs killing other dinos with ketchup blood.  The girls looked at me weird but then laughed.

Movie time!  It was always a highlight.

After resting we played sardines.  It was possibly the highlight of my day.  It was a perfect place to do it, there were lots of people, and Katy was our guide.  So if it was taking too long she'd give some hints, or she'd close the doors to the pantry since there are no handles inside.  I got to hide first and chose the pantry.

The next person chose behind a door in the ninja room.  I looked behind the door and didn't see them; I obviously didn't look well enough and ended up being one of the last ones.

The last group hid in a slide in the pirate room.  Joshua and I were working together, and I asked him to check the slide.  Well, he disappeared but there were other children around me so I couldn't disappear too!  It took them forever to go somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the guys went out for lunch.

and then axe throwing.

And some go-karts.

Home continued to be filled with fun.

One of the kids has mentioned a picture from a group gathering ages ago and they had been told it was an adult activity.  So obviously, we leaned into that and got cans of whipped cream.

The adults enjoyed it at dinner, but since it is an adult activity the kids didn't get any.  Several of them were flabbergasted.  (This way when they turn 21 they won't want to go out drinking, they will want to get an entire can of whipped cream.)

But, since we are good parents we let them have a try outside.  Isaac and Marshall didn't try it, but of the other kids only one successfully did it without making a mess.

And then everyone went in the pool.  Well, the kids went in the pool along with a few adults.

The house also had ping-pong, corn hole, and foosball.  Ping-pong got used the most.  Isaac wasn't too bad at it.

After the kids went to sleep I showed off some martial arts skills.  I couldn't escape from Dusty (although we'll say it was because he was expecting it), but I freed myself from Ryan.

Katy also pretended to be a crazy person attacking me, so she got put on the floor.  And then I reenacted the punch for her camera.

Saturday: would you rather

Joshua has been enjoying would you rather questions lately.  The one I get most of the time is "would you rather be eaten by a shark or a whale?"  I always choose shark; it seems like a nice fast way to go.

I often get "Would you rather be eaten by a shark or a some other animal?"  I always choose shark because the other options are things like 'cat' or 'mouse'.  I'm not sure what I would say if he chose another scary carnivore...apparently that isn't an interesting question.  I'd probably go with the other carnivore so I don't have to drown at the same time.

Friday: banana bread

The big plans of the day involved making banana bread this morning.  It got switched up a bit; Isaac did the wet ingredients and Joshua did dry.  Both of them did their own things with supervision and then I could clean up at the same time.  We had some for lunch, even though that tends to be frowned upon.

Isaac also had a really good time at rock climbing while Joshua is quickly becoming done with it.

I also felt really dumb today because I gave the wrong date in a text.  I said we'd come over Friday and I completely meant Saturday.  But by the time I got a text wondering where we were it was too late as Ben and Isaac had already left for something else.  We've rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but I'm still annoyed at myself.

Thursday: playground

 We went to a playground this morning.  The weather was beautiful: some rain yesterday cooled everything off.  The playground was also empty!  I don't think anyone else was there until the last fifteen minutes or so.  This meant that the kids could enjoy the zip-line to their hearts' content without having to wait in line.  They're fine in the line, but it is more fun without one.

Wednesday: summer

 

Last week Isaac was so sad because he had too much to do.  Today he's bored.  What am I supposed to do?

Tuesday: screen time day

We had a rather unconventional 4th of July.  Isaac had a bunch of screen time saved up from doing extra chores and wanted to use it on a day when Ben was around.  Joshua did several extra chores yesterday to accumulate a good amount of extra time, and so we added a bit of family screen time in and had somewhat of a screen time day.

It was fun.  The kids did a good job taking several breaks.  One of my favorite parts was in the evening in Warcraft a bunch of old-school druids had just happened to resubscribe for the month and we were all on at the same time.  It's been about seven years since I've been on so to have us all on at the same time was surprising.

We did get some of our chores done today too.  One of Joshua's monitors wouldn't turn on and off with the power button, so we pulled out a huge monitor from the back that we had forgotten about for him.  I cleaned the kitchen, again.  I did some laundry.  The normal stuff.

Weekend: cottage

We went to Dad and Pat's cottage this weekend. It was a wonderful trip!

We went up Saturday morning.  We got there a little bit before the Nathan and family.  We played some games and got settled.  Everyone else got there at lunch time, so we had lunch and then the kids started to play.  And they played.  And they played.  Most of the time was spent down at the beach, making water runs to catch foam.

We also taught Dad Space Base.

The next day was similar.  The kids played in the sand a ton.  There were a few additional excursions: kayaking, tubing, and fishing.  Games were played.  There was a big rainstorm in the late afternoon, after we had finished everything we really wanted to do outside for the day.

We left after dinner.  It was a very relaxing trip and the kids played together well.  It was nice to catch up with everyone too.