staycation '12

(granted, every "vacation" is a staycation.)

last week was the july 4th holiday, obviously, and marc's parents and sister and her daughter, kayla, came up to be with us. marc took the week off, everyone arrived on monday, and we had as much fun as a group of people can who are stuck in a week-long gauntlet of 217° days. we were troopers, i tell you.

marc and his family lived in ecuador for decades - they were missionaries there - and lived in a large city near the coast where it was always hot and humid, so their adaptability to the weather hell that befell minnesota (and the rest of the country) last week was more highly evolved than mine. so much so that on the first day they all headed over to the park to play basketball. (trust me: i never, ever would have chosen to do that.)

however, being out there, watching everyone shoot the ball and run around, took me back to the christmas break in college when i got to go to ecuador with marc for three weeks and see this place where he was from. the week we spent at his parents' home in guayaquil was hot and sticky, and yet every day the boys were outside playing basketball. i thought they were all nuts.

but i was in love and obsessed with watching marc play. he was amazing to watch. and my white man could dunk, which was super impressive, even to a girl who swore she would never be "into" a jock. funny where life takes us.

anyway, back to last week.

everyone gave being outside the old college try for a good hour. during that time, we discovered that our 12-year-old's hands are now a wee bit bigger than his dad's, and he can actually palm a basketball. at 12. a feat marc was only ever barely able to do.

sadly, henry's coordination on the basketball court is still lacking. we'll have to keep working on that to see if he can learn the skills that his dad has. then again, he may be like me and only find his grace and athleticism when he's in the water. on dry land with a ball? uh ... no.

however, it turns out that our youngest just may be the basketball player in the family. she has a natural form that i only noticed when i saw this picture.

huh. who knew?

guess marc needs to spend some more time on the court with the kiddos.

after nearly an hour of "having fun" at the park, the kids headed back to the house to get the hose out. harp and kayla spent the next 20 minutes soaking themselves and each other, while marc and henry and grandpa hopped on bikes for a spin around the 'hood.

the next day was the 4th, and we spent the first part of it at mall of america. kayla really wanted to see the american girl store, so we had reservations at the bistro for lunch. harper has never been into american girl before, but this time she actually found herself enjoying the borrowed doll, especially since they had one that sort of looked like her, and looking at all of the money-sucking merchandise.

she and kayla even held their girls' eyes closed when we prayed for lunch. that took a level of "into it" that harper's never had with dolls.

the american girl stuff might have been more interesting, except kayla had noticed the amusement park on the other side of the windows, and getting out there became her sole focus.

(just for the record, kayla is nine days younger than harper. nine. days. my daughter is an amazon.)

we took the girls out, bought them wristbands, kayla immediately ran toward the roller coaster, a ride harper has been on dozens of times, and ... harper freaked. didn't want to ride it. didn't want to ride anything. decided to be in a pissy mood. with a brand-new $30 wristband on her arm.

yeah. it was awesome.

so we let kayla ride the roller coaster a few times, during which i finally got harper calmed down and back to reality, where she decided that maybe riding the carousel would be okay.

so they rode that, and then the swings, and a few other of the smaller rides. then kayla really wanted to go back on the big rides. harper agreed to do the log chute ride with her because she saw it splashing down into the water at the bottom of the hill and thought that might be nice.

well ...

sorry if i just made you pee yourself.

she ran to me after the ride, buried her face in my shirt, and told me that she "never ever wants to do that again."

kayla went on a few more rides, we met the guys, who had gone to a movie instead, and laura and i did a little shopping while they got to negotiate the park for awhile.

then it was time for fireworks.

because it was 340° outside, we decided to just stay at our house for fireworks. the way our house is situated - near several smaller towns, up the hill from a lake, and just south of a casino - we knew we would be able to see fireworks, just maybe not as "up close and personal" as we would have had we packed bags and camp chairs and snacks, drove to a park, walked to find a spot, sat there for two hours waiting for dusk, smacked countless mosquitos off of ourselves, watched 30 minutes of fireworks, packed back up, walked back to the car, sat in the exit traffic, and got home by midnight.

besides, marc had bought sparklers and smoke bombs, so we were good to go.

now, what you don't see in these pix - because i sat down my camera at about 10:15 and didn't pick it back up, even though now i'm kicking myself - is that we were, in fact, able to see fireworks from the house. lots of them. everywhere. for nearly two hours.

it started with smaller ones shot off in the neighborhood and on the lake. then it grew to larger ones. we counted more than a dozen individual sites across the lake, and half a dozen or more out the front door.

and then the main ones started. the ones by the casino. they were huge and constant and wonderful. and right outside our front door. what i now wish i'd done is walk around the house while everyone had a window at the front of the house staked out. some of us were in the loft, some in harper's room, watching this amazing fireworks show taking place right at the end of our neighborhood. we were in the perfect spot ... and it was air conditioned. with no bugs. and afterward, instead of fighting traffic, we had brownies and ice cream.

i think we'll never go out to watch fireworks again.

the next day was, again, 487° outside, so laura and the kids and i decided to check out the lake. we walked down (well ... they walked. i drove all the bags and sand toys so the car would be there in case we needed a fast getaway.) ...

and waited for the kids to get acclimated to "lake" swimming. it took awhile. i won't lie: i may have called my kids pansies and told them to get over it.

the girls were more into digging in the sand and finding bugs than swimming,

but soon the heat won out and we all got in and swam for the next two hours. it felt so good that even the kids soon forgot it was a Lake and they started to have fun.

however, they much preferred the safety of the slip and slide in the backyard later.

it was even more fun when marc turned on all the backyard sprinklers. which, of course, henry then sat on so it looked like he was peeing.

why are boys so gross?!

they stopped only once, briefly, to sing happy birthday to their cousin jason, who was turning seven in costa rica.

and then it was back to the slide.

all too soon, the week was over. harper was completely bummed that her cousin had to leave. she had such a good time having a five-day sleepover, regardless of the power struggles and clashes over henry's attention.

but they'll be together again for thanksgiving. so we have that to look forward to, as we wait out the long, hot summer days.

oh, and in other news? the friday before they arrived, on the last business day in june, guess what we finally got to do?

that's right: the old house is SOLD. no longer our responsibility. no longer a financial albatross around our neck. huge sigh of relief. now we get to spend the next eight months paying off the debt we had to incur to hand over the keys to someone else. however? worth it. we're done. and NOW we can enjoy our summer, because it's officially in full swing.

Comments

[Christine Newman]

You took some fantastic photos! Looks like your daughter will be the basketball player in the family. The log ride photo is too funny and a great one. Congrats on selling your old house!

[Lilith]

Congrats on the sell of your old house. Amazing photos as well!

[jen@thecottagenest]

Oh my. That picture of Harper on the ride just slays me! I would print that out in poster size. Priceless!

We are suffering with the heat too although it's been a bit better this week. We had NO fireworks around here due to the drought that we have also been slammed with. Good times.

I'm so happy about your house. I look forward to you getting beyond that 8 months and just focusing on your new, wonderful life.