Awesome Hanging Out Times

We went on vacation to Santa Claus, Indiana with Bruce's family, and that was a good time. Actually Bruce, Clayton and I went down two days later than the rest of the crew. We spent two days at Holiday World. We had enough grown-ups so that I just had to keep track of one kid most of the time. We let Lydia and her two girls cousins (one of which is 15) have the run of the park with no more adult supervision than a cell phone. How crazy is that?!

In an effort to atone for leaving all my children with Bruce's family for two whole days without me, I volunteered both days to be in charge of the youngest child (Clayton). Looking back, I think this was a mistake. I didn't hardly see my older children the entire vacation.

Through one thing and another, I ended up walking around the park by myself for an hour and a half looking for my father-in-law who had Justice while my mother-in-law took a break with Clayton who was napping. During this time I realized that they didn't REALLY need me there. I had just spent two days with only one child, and here I was at an amusement park all by myself with no one really hunting me down. I was at an amusement park with all kinds of rides and shows and shops all by myself. I could enjoy it to my heart's content, and no one would really care. The curious thing is that in both of these situations, I didn't really know what to do with myself. What the heck fun is a ride without a kid to share it with? What do I want in a shop full of silly souvenirs? I'll admit that catching a show was a tempting idea, but I preferred finding my kids to hang out with. How funny is that? I spend loads of time wishing for just a bit of peace and quiet, and just a minute to myself. Here I was with just that, and I don't even know how to enjoy it. Is this what they mean by losing one's self in the service of others?

Anyway after walking aimlessly around the park for over an hour and a half I finally found Terry and Justice. I rode a couple of small rides with Justice and sat there while he ran around playing at a huge tree house thing. Toward the end of the day, I pawned Clayton (who had come back after his nap) off on Bruce and I rode a ride with Ross. That was really fun! I think that 2 minutes with Ross was my favorite of the entire vacation.

Whenever I take my kids anywhere, I spend so much time and energy trying not to lose the youngest two that I hardly get to interact with my three oldest at all. It's a shame. Usually I end up wanting to scream and pull my hair out because it is just that stressful going anywhere with the two little ones, so it kind of ruins it for everyone. I love my two little guys, and I love hanging out with them (though both at once is a bit stressful in public). But I need to not miss out on the three older ones.

ANYWAY, I took Ross and Mark to the movies the other day, just the three of us. That was a good time. We laughed and hung out. It was good.

This last paragraph was so great that it REALLY deserves it's own post, but I'm too lazy to do it that way. In the middle of the night last night my parents, my sister, Bruce, the kids and I all drove up a cliff in a park out of town to watch the annual meteor shower. I hadn't done that since I was a kid. We spread some blankets out, had some snacks and watched the shooting stars. It was just the greatest thing! Justice and Clayton were both asleep in the van for pretty much the entire thing (which was good). Since it was in the middle of the night, we were all pretty slap happy and we just laughed over the silliest things. I definitely want to do this again next year! We didn't get home till almost 2:00 in the morning. Clayton woke up at 6:00 a.m. which wasn't happy, but I begged Mark (bless him!) to watch him and went back to sleep.

Okay so this is the last paragraph, I promise. I find it just a little sad that there is a piece of bread AND a piece of lunch-meat sitting unguarded and unwanted on my floor. *Sigh* I miss my doggy vacuum cleaner.