Vacation!

Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning Jason and I were on vacation. As in without-the-kids-vacation. As in no-responsibilities vacation. As in sleep-in-do-what-we-want-anytime vacation. My parents watched the kids for us and we rented a nice lake home in Clear Lake, Iowa. We jokingly would tell friends that we were going south for our vacation and got a lot of laughs when we mentioned that it was Iowa. What's so funny about Iowa? When we were deciding on somewhere to go we thought about Mexico, maybe Cancun or someplace like that. But then we considered how much travel time it would entail and decided that somewhere closer to home and my parents would be a better option. I told Jason that I could vacation almost anywhere, I just wanted to sit around and do nothing. So we settled upon Clear Lake.

We got to IA in the morning and visited Jason's great aunt Norie in Clear Lake, then went back to Forest City to have lunch with my grandparents, then off to Grandpa Don's and Grandma Sue's. Sam had been asking to go to Grandpa Don's for weeks and all morning while we were visiting and lunching he was insisting upon going to Grandpa Don's. He was actually pretty patient for a two-year old.

The plan was for the kids to play a bit, then nap some at which time we would leave. Well, Sam had other plans. He did not want to nap and rather wanted to play. He was pretty much hyper from being at Grandpa Don's and Grandma Sue's. So Sam missed his first afternoon nap ever. Can you believe that? He's never missed a nap. And actually over the course of his visit he missed two naps! Yesterday was a little rough for the kiddo, but today he seemed back to normal and not too sleep deprived.

Anyway, Sam was playing with cars when we left and barely looked up. He said something like, "Grandma Sue come play with cars" when we were saying goodbye. Matthew was napping. And we were off. I've been away from Sam overnight one other time and haven't been apart from Matthew for much over 6 hours maybe.

Our vacation time was filled with a lot of knitting (by me), reading (by Jason) and watching bad movies. I can't believe how many bad movies are out there. We sat in the outdoor hot tub plenty and watched the snowmobiles race by as there was a big snowmobile race in Clear Lake that weekend. We did some antiquing (didn't find anything), wandered around the Mason City Mall and Menards and ate pizza for dinner all three nights. We went out for lunches, but there was a really good pizza place just down the road so we ordered out and enjoyed some stellar pizza in our nice rented lake home.

The kids were stellar too, apparently, although I don't know if my parents would tell me the truth if it were otherwise. Matthew slept all night every night and Sam did too. The napping situation for Sam was a little different as I mentioned earlier. Matthew did his usual short, long or no nap routine...in other words, he was unpredictable. I gave my mom a "typical day" timeline for the kids and included two naps and their "usual" duration for Matthew but I forgot to explain that the timeline was my ideal and not his reality. He wasn't unpredictable about eating, however, as he amazed my parents with his ability to eat large quantities of food.

When we got back Sam greeted us at the door. Well, not exactly. He came to the door but didn't really even look at us, opting instead to excitedly point at the dog. "Dee!!! Dee!!!" he yelled. Matthew was napping and when I went to get him up as we had to leave for church I found him napping while sitting as I described in a previous post. He was rather dazed upon awaking and was a little more clingy that usual so at least we were missed by one child. After church and during lunch Sam often said he wanted to return to Papa Don's and we carried him crying to the van after lunch. "Papa Don's! Papa Don's!" He was quite sad to leave and also quite tired. Jason and I, however, were quite refreshed in mind and body and were ready to deal with a crabby Sam. He fell asleep within minutes of starting our drive home and Matthew too slept a good portion of the trip home. I wonder if my parents took a good nap Sunday afternoon too?