*I've about had it with blogger and the mysterious reason I can't type paragraphs. If I had ten more mintues I would fix it.
My kids have been on a lot of plane rides, and a lot of cool places, so I didn't feel sad AT ALL when we saw our budget for vacations this year had accumulated....not a mucha money. It was the universes ways of saying keep it small, which we did, and let me just say it was perfect.
Our intention was to leave Thursday night, but since Karma and I are pretty much full time friends right now, I found myself, instead, out in the garden weeding instead of packing. An awesome neighbor walked by and I whined about how we always left late on vacations because of situations like this growing up (weedy gardens) and how it drove me crazy as a kid. I shouldn't have whined so much because fifteen minutes later the same neighbor showed up with four boys (Jason's scouts) and some hoes, and gloves, and told me that they were going to weed my garden. This was good. It made me realize that scouting is awesome and that letting my husband get to do awesome adventurous outings (without me) may have some perks. It also made me see some value in not throwing in the towel on parenting until I can at least get some serious weeding out of my kids.
We still didn't leave on Thursday. What can I say? I guess I pack slowly. (I could pack faster if I wasn't refereeing a WWF match between my kids...but no need to replay those episodes out loud).
Friday morning we drove to Utah for our MAUGHAN FAMILY CAMPING IT POSH STYLE VACACATION. MFCITPS for short. We set up the tent at my parents house. Awesome huh! No really! It was awesome. I had all sorts of patience letting the kids "help" because there wasn't a river nearby for Jadon to go scuba-diving un-attended in, or a bunch of Edward sized mosquitos wanted to enjoy my plasma without paying me for it. The best real perk, that I hadn't even counted on, was that it was like camping with my parents along--except they got to sleep in their super-take-you-to-heaven-mattress instead of a tent.
The must-do on the list of activities was taking my kids on a pony ride. Noelle is wild about Chief, and Jadon, who hasn't ridden him yet, was also very excited though he would have been cool if we just let him wear his boots while he rode around in the wheel barrel. I think it was neat because Chief was my pony as a kid, and it was really relaxing, nostalgic, and all sorts of rejuvenating to watch my kids have the same experience.
We also ate lots of strawberries from the u-pick that is across the street, rode Bull’s-eye (a tire swing) and visited the brand new kittens.
That night we invited family to a cookout. Brooke's husband Ben brought his sister and Jesse's wife Rachel brought her whole family. (Almost). Rachel roasted a Turkey and I provided some salads. I loved having not just my family there, but my family's family. a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88c1IjO66ISaSDWEvAEEfkM_bS3F6UhkJ39Hz39SFXr7A3AYAh6QSM5oUlTzGTYrZf-ujDGHDaYpJ-oY3h7NoezvLuI9Vdhg-XZo4VwhI5WWQTD3DM5oJaWvS6VzmNcUoC1Q5CyhXs6BR/s1600/DSC_0272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em">
We kept the kids up pretty late (because I was eating smores) and so putting them to bed was easy. Especially when I discovered something curiously furry inside my sleeping bag.....
Do you remember Noelle's stuffed cat Henry? That stripped dude who has followed us from Iowa, to Maryland, to Hawaii, and then disappeared in Maryland? Turns out he has been in my sleeping bag for the last year. Noelle was in tears with happiness, and whispered herself to sleep trying to introduce Henry to her new Care bear. It was pretty cute.
Other than feeling like I had spent the night in a zip lock bag (we were a little crowded) the night went relatively well.
There had been quite a bit of discussion on where we should put our tent so that we wouldn't hear traffic going by. My parents’ property is encircled with trees so I didn't think privacy would be an issue until we all woke up with that urgent I-shouldn't-have-had-watermelon-before-bed-feeling. I unzipped the tent frantically to come nose to nose with the neighbor’s dog, and then was thrilled to see that all the people in the U-pick field could see me in my pajamas running to the house with my crazy medusa hair. But that wasn't even the best surprise of the morning for those little strawberry pickers.
I had arranged with Jason's sister's husband. (Whew, that's a mouthful) for a little mother's day surprise (Only one month late!) for my mom. She had mentioned once that she really wanted to have a bagpipe parade play on their farm someday. So I called in a favor from Brennan and he so graciously showed up in his kilt to surprise my mom. I hadn’t factored in that her dog my not think the surprise was nearly as cool, but once we calmed the head of Farm Security (the dog) down the rest of the recital went well. I don't know what else is on my mom's bucket list, but hopefully it doesn't involve anything more fanciful that a bagpiper because I don't, as of yet, have any extended family relatives that are snake charmers, or contortionists.
We had intentions to spend the rest of the day picking strawberries and going to Summer Fest, but instead everyone opted for a nap, and after 30 very hot minutes at the Summer Fest we left and took the kids out for ice-cream.
Saturday night we packed up the tent and went to Jason's parents’ house to hang with cousins and to prepare for Ethan's homecoming. The homecoming was awesome and the perfect ending to our perfectly simple MAUGHAN FAMILY CAMPING IT POSH STYLE VACACATION.
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Friday morning we drove to Utah for our MAUGHAN FAMILY CAMPING IT POSH STYLE VACACATION. MFCITPS for short. We set up the tent at my parents house. Awesome huh! No really! It was awesome. I had all sorts of patience letting the kids "help" because there wasn't a river nearby for Jadon to go scuba-diving un-attended in, or a bunch of Edward sized mosquitos wanted to enjoy my plasma without paying me for it. The best real perk, that I hadn't even counted on, was that it was like camping with my parents along--except they got to sleep in their super-take-you-to-heaven-mattress instead of a tent.
The must-do on the list of activities was taking my kids on a pony ride. Noelle is wild about Chief, and Jadon, who hasn't ridden him yet, was also very excited though he would have been cool if we just let him wear his boots while he rode around in the wheel barrel. I think it was neat because Chief was my pony as a kid, and it was really relaxing, nostalgic, and all sorts of rejuvenating to watch my kids have the same experience. 
We also ate lots of strawberries from the u-pick that is across the street, rode Bull’s-eye (a tire swing) and visited the brand new kittens.
That night we invited family to a cookout. Brooke's husband Ben brought his sister and Jesse's wife Rachel brought her whole family. (Almost). Rachel roasted a Turkey and I provided some salads. I loved having not just my family there, but my family's family. a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88c1IjO66ISaSDWEvAEEfkM_bS3F6UhkJ39Hz39SFXr7A3AYAh6QSM5oUlTzGTYrZf-ujDGHDaYpJ-oY3h7NoezvLuI9Vdhg-XZo4VwhI5WWQTD3DM5oJaWvS6VzmNcUoC1Q5CyhXs6BR/s1600/DSC_0272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em">
We kept the kids up pretty late (because I was eating smores) and so putting them to bed was easy. Especially when I discovered something curiously furry inside my sleeping bag.....
Do you remember Noelle's stuffed cat Henry? That stripped dude who has followed us from Iowa, to Maryland, to Hawaii, and then disappeared in Maryland? Turns out he has been in my sleeping bag for the last year. Noelle was in tears with happiness, and whispered herself to sleep trying to introduce Henry to her new Care bear. It was pretty cute.
Other than feeling like I had spent the night in a zip lock bag (we were a little crowded) the night went relatively well.
There had been quite a bit of discussion on where we should put our tent so that we wouldn't hear traffic going by. My parents’ property is encircled with trees so I didn't think privacy would be an issue until we all woke up with that urgent I-shouldn't-have-had-watermelon-before-bed-feeling. I unzipped the tent frantically to come nose to nose with the neighbor’s dog, and then was thrilled to see that all the people in the U-pick field could see me in my pajamas running to the house with my crazy medusa hair. But that wasn't even the best surprise of the morning for those little strawberry pickers.
I had arranged with Jason's sister's husband. (Whew, that's a mouthful) for a little mother's day surprise (Only one month late!) for my mom. She had mentioned once that she really wanted to have a bagpipe parade play on their farm someday. So I called in a favor from Brennan and he so graciously showed up in his kilt to surprise my mom. I hadn’t factored in that her dog my not think the surprise was nearly as cool, but once we calmed the head of Farm Security (the dog) down the rest of the recital went well. I don't know what else is on my mom's bucket list, but hopefully it doesn't involve anything more fanciful that a bagpiper because I don't, as of yet, have any extended family relatives that are snake charmers, or contortionists.
We had intentions to spend the rest of the day picking strawberries and going to Summer Fest, but instead everyone opted for a nap, and after 30 very hot minutes at the Summer Fest we left and took the kids out for ice-cream.
Saturday night we packed up the tent and went to Jason's parents’ house to hang with cousins and to prepare for Ethan's homecoming. The homecoming was awesome and the perfect ending to our perfectly simple MAUGHAN FAMILY CAMPING IT POSH STYLE VACACATION.
<
1 comment:
It was good to have you here! Now you know there is plenty of excitement even on the farm.
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