vacation 2015 – part one

my favorite week of the summer is vacation week.
i get craig and my kids all to myself.   🙂
we get to just hang out with our kids all week and do only fun things!
no chores!  no work!  no sports!
it’s a sacred week for me.
i look forward to it for 51 weeks a year!

our kids had been begging to go back to The City Museum in St. Louis so we decided to stay one night in St. Louis on our way to Michigan.  The City Muesem is SO COOL!  Our kids were off running around the whole time and i literally sat in a chair and chilled… for hours.  I had no need to go down a 10 story slide or crawl under floors.  They came back soaked with sweat and happy as can be.
if you have never gone to the City Museum… YOU HAVE TO DO IT.
i mean it.

that is sean… up in a tiny wire cage 11 stories above the ground.
i was having heart palpitations just getting this photo.
he said “WHY? You’re not even up here?!”
fear of heights is a weird thing… it’s not logical.
but it’s so crazy real!

we also had a very VERY hot and sweaty trip to the St. Louis Zoo… along with about a million other people.
we didn’t last too long.
it’s a BEAUTIFUL zoo!  AND it’s FREE!
but it was soooo hot and soooo crowded that we took off pretty quickly.

annie had been looking forward to going to Fitz’s for their famous root beer floats again.
they did not disappoint.
🙂

we went late afternoon and every one got their own HUGE float and then we ate pizza at about 10 PM.
so it was basically ice cream for dinner.
(another thing i love about vacation…)

mine was called the Loop Da Loop – root beer with coffee ice cream & chocolate sauce.
dang.
i loved it.

in the morning we loaded back up and hit the road towards Michigan.
the big van we use for Craft Weekend is so good for vacation!
everyone gets their own row!
but sometimes they share a spot to play games or watch dvds together.
the boys just lay down and sleep.
not complaining about that one bit.

everyone asked on every instagram picture “where do you stay?”
and we all thought it was funny because anywhere along the water all the way up michigan is awesome.
it’s all so nice.
we tend to stay near St. Joseph area because it’s what we know best.
we get on vrbo.com and find a place… like a year ahead of time.
its always a gamble… and this year the house was less than stellar in MANY ways… except the location could cancel all of the other things out.
we were right on the beach!
we didn’t have to go up or down 213 stairs to get to the beach or the house.
that was really great!
within minutes the kids were in the water and happy as can be.

we share a house with our friends from Illinois when we go to michigan.
it’s a special friendship when you know you can handle a week in close quarters with 6-7 kids.
this was our sixth vacation together!

the first thing we do is go get groceries… without kids or dads.
we figure out what we are cooking for the week and work through our list.
it takes forever but then we are set for the week!


all these kids just keep growing up!
so rude.

we almost always end up going on vacation over the week of sean’s birthday.
so on his big 15th birthday we let him choose our activity.
GO CARTS!
and then he even beat everybody!  they definitely weren’t letting him win either.
everyone was trying really hard to get in front but sean won on his birthday.
i like that.

and then we played mini golf too!
for all of our activities, Dave had us pair up in teams to compete for washing the dishes that day.
ha ha ha
no one ever chose to be with me or with Jenny! i guess because we are the moms? but guess which team won every ativity?!! Team: Hot Moms! That’s right!  We dominated at all activities and were off Dish Duty all week.  🙂

on our way we drove by this crazy place and i begged to stop.
because… duh.
it was part statue store – part junk yard.

i was in love with the old signs!
#jesusselfie

i’m trying to convince scott to use this for his senior photo in the year book.  🙂

 

we went to Chili’s for sean’s birthday dinner and rushed back to have birthday cake on the deck before the sunset.

i sure do like that 15 year old guy.
he is nice.  he is considerate.  he is funny.  he is a big teddy bear.  🙂

that’s my view for all of our road trips… that smile and saying funny stuff to me all the time.

my girls learned to play card games at camp… in particular… they learned to play B.S.
talby calls it Bologna Slices.
and that brought a whole new element to vacation.
jake and abby already knew how to play.
it was so funny listening to them try to trick each other.

now that our kids have all gotten older – they all sleep in!
and they make their own breakfasts!
and even have dance parties in the kitchen.
i like big kids!

the dads leave super early every morning and go golfing.
(whatever… that sounds horrible to me!)
then jenny and i get up hours later and make coffee and sit outside to talk.
and slowly slowly slowly the kids wake up one at a time and peek out to say good morning.
then they would each go back to their electronic device of choice leaving us to talk some more.
around lunch time the dads come back and we all head to the beach.
DREAMY!!!

skipping rocks is a vacation must.


jake brought his Spikeball game.
My kids had seen it on shark tank and were excited to play.

 

more vacation to come… but this is already long enough.

🙂