I think you could categorize our vacation as a staycation.  We stayed here but my parents came out.  YAY!  I can't even express in words how excited Stewart was to see his Grammy and Papa.  It was all he could talk about the days before they showed up.  I love that he gets so excited to see them.  He knows they are special even though he sees them only once a year.  It makes me sad that the kids only have one set of grandparents but on the up-side, I don't have to worry about the in-laws not liking me.

1. I saw my dad drink alcohol.  It was only the second time in my whole life.  I'm 30.  I saw him drink a cold beer ONCE while playing golf on a really hot day.  They got some really bad directions from the GPS and they ended up about 50-75 miles past our house!  Dad had 2 glasses on Chere Marie from Breaux.  We just bought some bottles of it while we were there for Key West Fest on the 18th.  I think he enjoyed it!
2. Stewart had fun spending the night in grammy and papa's "camp".  Their RV is big enough for 2 adults, 1 rambunctious 6-year old boy, 2 Boston Terriers, and 1 Shih Tzu.  He loved every second of it!
3. Because Stewart was spending the nights with my parents, Bill and I had our very first alone time with Parker.  And it was great.  I felt like I got to see his personality and appreciate the little nuances that make him Parker.  It also felt great to not feel guilty about spending alone time with Parker; I knew Stewart was having fun roasting weenies and marshmellows with my parents.
4. We went rafting.  It was fun - and our first time on the Shenandoah river (I'm sure I called it the wrong river and Bill will correct me.)  Parker had to go to daycare while we went but it was just for a morning.  It was fun.  Apparently I have mad skills when it comes to rowing. 
5. Papa took Stewart fishing.  Poor Stewart.  He loves fishing and Bill can't fish and I hate to fish.  His only chance to fish is when he is with my parents.  I got him a cute little Spiderman tackle box and I let him pick out a couple of lures, some cork bobbers and I picked up a few other things I thought he would need (like weights!)  They had fun wading out into the river.  Stewart said he saw the "anchovies" swimming around his legs.
6. the KOA campground at Harper's Ferry has his really fun Jumping Pillow.  I posted some pictures in a previous post.  It was a blast.  Stewart can jump for HOURS.  Parker liked to sit there and get bounced around.  Our last day there, I scooped him up and was trying to jump while holding him and I really messed up my back.  I felt it the second I started jumping with him - but he was giggling and laughing and having so much fun.
7. The pool was fun too.  Parker has a little bit of baby OCD.  While in the baby pool area he would get in, but it had to be on his own terms.  He would crawl in, splash around for a second, crawl out on his tummy, crawl up into the chair that was next to grammy and then get down and walk over and crawl up into the lounge chair - and then he would start all over again.  I think he did that for 30 minutes.  It would be really cute except that I just learned in a class that children that had difficult births or illnesses immediately after birth tend to have behavior disorders and/or exhibit aggressive behavior as they get older.  (HEY WAIT!  I guess I did learn something in class.)
8. This was like a 100,000 calorie vacation.  I cooked and we cooked and I cooked and we cooked.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs, sandwiches, ribs, smoked sausage, more hot dogs, lots of white bean avocado salad, 2 chocolate cream pies, homemeade vanilla ice cream, homemade peach cobbler, chicken fried steaks, lots of corn on the cob, chips, and we had a big dinner out the last night.  Bill and I also managed to squeeze in mexican food for dinner while Parker slept in the booth and Stewart was with my parents.  We ate a ton.  I'm still full.  The homemeade ice cream was SO GOOD.  It's a good thing we don't have an ice cream maker.  A very good thing.  Bill loved it.  Stewart licked the "paddle" clean and Parker loved his little bowl of it.
9. I finally got to go shopping with someone other than my kids.  My mom and I went up to Kohls.  They were having a great sale.  She bought the kids some fall clothes and me a bright pink purse that has black and white zebra print lining.  She kept insisting that we weren't leaving until I spent $100 and picked out something for myself.  I felt guilt picking out something for myself because it seems like the kids ALWAYS need something.  The last thing I need is another purse - but it's so cute.  I haven't bought a purse since before Parker was born.   I have so many of them, they always seem new because I rotate them out.  But this pink purse is snazzy - and since I am always wearing black, it always matches!
10. I'm not gonna talk about all of the homework/paper writing I did in the evenings after we left my parents - but I was exhausted.  We would get up early, play hard all day, and then at night I had to stay up and write papers.  What a drag!  My parents left friday morning.  I still have 5 pages to write on my paper.  So, with much guilt, we took the kids up to the daycare.  I sat down and managed to whip out 5 pages by 10am.  We ran over to Ikea to get 2 bookshelves to finish off our office and we were home in time to get the kids and Bill took Parker up to the Friday Fun Run.

It was a busy week but we had a great time.

The Campground in Harper's Ferry was really nice.  They have a big pool and a toddler pool and they had this big shaded jumping pillow (www.jumpingpillow.com).  It's kindeve like a moon bounce only it isn't enclosed and it is bouncier.  I think we all enjoyed it - and when I say all I mean me (of course), Bill, Stewart, Parker, Grammy, and Papa!

This is a little video of Papa helping Parker jump around.

MOV04059.MPG (3.50 mb)

Stewart on his first day of Kindergarten (Aug 2008)                       Stewart on his last day of Kindergarten (June 2009)

I am officially a senior.  It has taken me 11 years to get here, but here I am.  This summer I managed to get 4 A's and 1 lousy stupid B.  I got the lousy stupid B because the instructor was more concerned with my use of APA formatting than the actual content of my paper.  I am a good writer.  I do not get C's on papers.  But i turned in that same paper (with a different intro and summary) for a different class and got a strong A.  I got A's on the other papers that I was stressed about in a previous blog post. 

I wrote about how sex ed needs to be reformed to counter the strong influence of the media which I creatively turned into a paper about adolesence stressors.  I also wrote about divorce and how even though the divorce rate is high the American Family is not in complete dissolution.  LOL - this is also the paper that I turned in at the end of last month for a different class.  And then I wrote a paper on parenting techniques as it relates to my family.  To be honest, I didn't try very hard on this paper - especially after i found out that I got a C on my sex ed paper.  So I whipped out 7 pages of parenting techniques and how it makes me a better parent.  I turned it in without proofreading it - and I got a 96.  He praised my organizational skills and how well my paper flowed from one topic to another.  This made me feel a little better about my writing skills.

This week I have no homework.  I'm not sure I know what to do with myself.  I wish this week of nothingness would have come last week when my parents were here (and I was on vacation!) but I'll take it anyway.