Now We Can Relax!

Finally home from vacation. It was a lot of things.

One thing it definitely was not, is relaxing.

With two toddlers, (yes, the one year old is a “toddler” now), hanging out at a beach with sand and water is anything but relaxing.If we didn’t have the amount of help we did, my husband and I would say in unison, “Fuck this, we’ll go on vacation in ten years.”

Luckily, we have the help so we can still go and enjoy my family’s yearly trip to Lake Chelan.

As mentioned in my previous post, our family fun had a few looming threats.

First, were the fires. They were close, but never in sight. We had two days where we could see and smell smoke, but not bad enough to break out the face masks my dad bought for us, (“Just in case.” Side note-The moment we would need a face mask, we would go home.)Second, was the wind. Even when it’s sunny, the wind can be cold and annoying.Third, the rain. The fires needed the rain, so we couldn’t in good conscience complain too much. But the rain forced us to get creative and avoid our usual sunny day activities.

We went wine tasting two different times. We would have gone rain or shine, but since the weather was crap, our entire group went the second time. The tasters, and non tasters. Loads of fun for everyone!!!(Can you feel the sarcasm?) My kids had fun, though. They got to run around like crazy in the grass and they made some new friends. And my husband and I found some great wine to take home.The vineyards were beautiful with views to die for. If this wasn’t a mama blog, I would have plenty to say about each place we visited.My little family and I tried to go bowling one day. Walked all the way down to the alley with the double stroller-the weather wasn’t too terrible, maybe sprinkling. The bowling alley was packed-go figure-so we headed back. That’s when it started to really rain.We played board games every night, and did some shopping during the day.

We had two perfect weather days. Our first full day, and today-the day we left.

We packed in as much as we could.

Little Miss is obsessive about her sandcastles and I’m thrilled she got a chance to make some more today.And the new walker of the family just loved walking right into the water. So he’s the swimmer, apparently.All in all, it was a very “different” trip. It had a lot of highlights, of course. And it also has a lot of stories for next year, “remember last year when…?”Now we’re home. And exhausted. And I’m so glad my husband has three more days until work so he can recover from his “vacation.”

Do you remember when you would come home from a vacation totally relaxed and rejuvenated?

Me neither. Maybe one day.

But for now, I guess it’s just about making memories with the kids. And I wouldn’t, for a second, want to complain about that.