Giant Family Vacation

Memorial Day Week brought our second annual giant family vacation. (Most of) My family goes away together for a few days to have some fun and torture each other. Because that’s what families do. We also usually take along a few extra folks because our family seems to constantly grow with “adopted” siblings. This year we were minus Trump & Grade A and HLB (They had to work. Work shmerk.) and plus K, NLB's girlfriend, and Coe, one of those "adopted" brothers.

Husband, Caedmon and I left the house a bit early on Tuesday so we could do a little shopping at the outlet mall. We got lots of great things for Caedmon at The Children’s Place outlet (including some $5 jeans), a $17 pair of jeans for Husband at the Banana Republic Outlet, and some cool stuff at the Gap outlet. It only took us an hour to hit all three stores and spend money in each. But we left pretty quickly because more time shopping = more money spent.

We were the first to arrive at the condos, so I decided to check in for everyone. The lady at the front desk kept reminding me that it would be me that was responsible for any damages, etc. I told her I wasn’t too concerned about these folks and if all else fails, I knew where they lived and would beat the money out of them. She looked a little taken aback, then I explained they were my family. She smiled and laughed. Apparently she has a family too.

We got settled in, ate dinner, and played some dominoes. let me tell you, if you’ve only played with one set of dominoes at a time, you’ve missed out on life. And lots of frustration. Somehow, Mom’s two (or three?) sets of dominoes got mixed up. So her double 15’s were not exactly that. There were double doubles and duplicate dominoes all over the place. Except that the colors weren't the same, so those of us who use color to play instead of counting the dots were up a creek. It made for an interesting game, that’s for sure.

Wednesday morning, we got up and had some of Ree’s Cinnamon Rolls that I'd made a couple weeks ago and frozen. (I made them at Mom's because I can do anything 'cept snakes...I don't have the counterspace.) They were greatly anticipated and lovingly devoured. Even though I wanted more, I only ate one and a half because I was keenly aware that I would be wearing a bathing suit in public all day.

And? For the first time since someone told Caedmon the week before that we were going to a water park, I was able to answer his question "We go to the water park today?" with "YES! We are going to the water park today!"

We were at White Water when it opened. As many times as Husband has taken students on trips there, and as long as we’ve lived here, that was my first time at White Water. Caedmon’s too. And I needn’t tell you how much the boy loved it.

Cousin Q was ready to get wet ‘n wild.

Setting up “camp.” Dad’s shirt was a bit loud. However, it was almost identical to the uniforms that the White Water staff was wearing. More than once people mistook him for a staff member and started asking him questions.

(Dad, Mom, Husband)

(K, NLB’s girlfriend, NLB, and Coe…one of those extra siblings.)

Getting down to business in the splash area.

“ I want to go over there!”

My guys in the Lazy River.

The cousins having a little playtime.

Naptime. For the big boys, anyway. I sure do wish Caedmon had joined them.

Caedmon was a bit too short for most of the rides. But there was one ride we could all go on together – the big round raft that goes down the big curvy slide. The first time, we were in line with everyone else, and they got to watch (and hear) Caedmon laugh all the way down. We got to the bottom and he said, “Again!” Again we did. About 7 more times throughout the afternoon.

There are very few other photos of us at the water park. Mostly because we were spending time in the water. And Deputy Guy and Curly were the only ones who thought to bring a waterproof camera. The only downside is that it’s a 35mm disposable, and who knows how long that ancient technology takes to get developed anymore. (A whole hour? Gosh!)

We left the water park and headed back to the condo. For a little healthy family competition. More on that tomorrow.