Long Overdue Vacation Summary

I intended to post our vacation summary on the kids blog instead of on mine... but that's not where it ended up. So now it's going to be copied and pasted.

The short version: We had a fabulous vacation.

And here are some photos for you to enjoy while you prepare yourself to dive into the longer version.

The long version takes slightly more words.



We found incredible airfare out of KC, so we drove 4 hours to catch our plane...which was delayed...twice. The plane ahead of us hit a bird on the runway, and they had to clean up the mess before we were allowed to take off.

We had to connect through Minneapolis, which is a nightmare airport anyway -- but we only had a 45 minute layover in the first place. We were scheduled to arrive with 5 minutes to spare. Not likely to make it!

When we landed, I checked the flight status -- it said, "Delayed until 7pm to wait for connection passengers!"

NO WAY! That NEVER happens!

Praise God for flight mercies. It's one thing to get stuck in airports for work...quite another with the kiddos.

So we hopped off and RAN to our next gate. Jon carrying two car seats, me pulling two wheeled carryon bags, a laptop case, and hoping that the kids could hold on and keep up!

They couldn't.

We were halfway to our next gate when I heard them call final boarding of our plane. We saw a man with a cart and begged him for a ride. The kids were already saying it they were tired. His cart was empty, and we hopped on. We were dropped at the gate just in time for the door to close and wheels to pull up. I nearly cried tears of relief!

As we flew into BWI it was dark, and the city lights were twinkling brightly. Amara, who has been on more planes than most adults, was actually enjoying the first ride that she could remember. She glanced out the window at all the lights and gasped, "Mommy.... Maryland's BEAUTIFUL!" I couldn't agree more completely!

We finally arrived at our destination (our friends' house) at nearly 2am. Oy vey!

SATURDAY:
We went back to the "old neighborhood" and spent the afternoon swimming in their pool, grilling, chilling, and enjoying the company of amazing friends who treated us like family. The kids spent the day swimming and getting thoroughly spoiled. Amara was tall enough to walk around the shallow end of the pool, and she was thrilled with that! Dominic charmed the older girls (i.e. 10 year olds) into continually diving after the torpedo and other pool toys he'd throw into the deepest water he could find.

SUNDAY:
What an amazing homecoming. We were able to visit our old church and worship with our church family. It was "home" for sure and man do we miss it. Most of our community group was there that day, so we were able to do a little bit of catching up with them. They were all "family" when Amara was born, so they were part of a really exciting time in our life, which makes our relationships with them just that much more special. The kids were completely loved on after church, which I think overwhelmed them a bit. But it was still fun to share how much they've grown with our friends. After church, we went back to our old neighborhood for a steamed crab feast (heaven!) and some more swimming. Then we drove to the beach.

THE WEEK:
We spent a good portion of the week with our friends at their parents' vacation house about an hour south of Ocean City. It was so relaxing to have a home base. Their son was born 3 months before Amara, so the kids really had a blast playing together. We did a lot of swimming, a lot of relaxing. The guys did some golfing. We played the Wii. It truly was a relaxing vacation, which you don't say often. It was also a time of renewal and recharging, especially for Jon.

Their neighborhood also has a pool, where we spent some afternoons swimming. During the second trip to the pool, Dominic finally decided his life jacket could be trusted, and he started swimming on his own (with jacket)! I was SO excited about this development. The water bug in me was worried I'd have kids who would never be able to swim. He was quite proud of himself, too.

That first afternoon, I got out of the pool to take pictures of him swimming between Jon and David. Midway between his hundredth lap, he said, "I'm running out of gas!" It was cute, and not surprising!

When we finished swimming, I asked him on the way to the car, "Are you outta gas?" He responded, "Nope, I've got more gas now. God filled me up!"

We did do some venturing out of the neighborhood accommodations as well.

CHINCOTEAGUE:
We drove into the little town/island and played some mini-golf, ate some amazing pizza, had ice cream, and bought the book "Misty of Chincoteague." We didn't see the wild ponies or do any of the Chincoteague/Assateague typical vacation stuff, but that was my favorite book as a kid, so it was fun to start reading it to Amara. I was shocked, but Amara (age almost 5) enjoyed the book -- it's a chapter book, and we made it to page 56 on the first night! She said she wished it had more pictures, but she was still captivated by it. Yay! :)

OCEAN CITY:
We drove into OC one day with plans to stay overnight so we could enjoy the ocean, but wash up afterwards. The kids LOVED the ocean, which was fun to see. Amara even declared it "the best day ever." After the ocean, we went to our room and cleaned up. Then we took the kids to ride all the amusement rides. I was really proud of how well they did, especially Amara. Dominic had an absolute blast, which we expected. But Amara is typically more tentative and cautious with amusements....even the scariest one she did well on -- despite the look on her face!

FRONTIER TOWN:
We didn't really plan anything for the trip home from OC, but decided to stop at Frontier Town on the way. It's a little 1800's old west town that "actors" inhabit and they reinact events from the wild west. Dominic walked out of their with a nice little cap gun and an even larger flair for the dramatic. Amara walked out of there petrified by the "bandits" but boy, can the girl protect the gold! All of the adults left there thinking...hmm....that was more fun than we expected it to be.

On our last day, we just hung out at the house, did some swimming, and lit sparklers. Miss Amara also decided she was tired of Dominic getting all the swimming accolades, and put her whole face/head in the water. Two huge swimming breakthroughs! I was again SO EXCITED. Amara needs to be allowed to do things on her own time -- and in time, she'll eventually do them. But if you force her -- not a chance. She also needs to be reminded that she's brave, but that it's OK not to do something that scares her.

In the swimming arena, she put her nose and mouth in the water and blew bubbles, telling me to watch her. I did. I cheered! Then I said, "That's GREAT Amara, now can you put your whole head in? Your nose and mouth blowing bubbles are the hardest part." She was leary, but when I offered her a snorkel mask, she was all for it. Once the wonderful underwater world was open to her, we couldn't get her out of the pool.

Does a Mommy's heart good.

So our vacation....
It's amazing to see the world through a child's eyes. The two days we spent in Ocean City (as well as the whole trip) really cemented in my mind the importance of family vacations and really intentionally carving out time to spend away from home and with the family. It was an amazing and wonderful vacation.