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What we did on our 4th of July vacation...

July 6, 2006

We are back from our 4 ^th of July trip to be with John's family.  Like most family trips it had its highs and lows.  The lows were driven largely by John's father's significant mental illness, fueled by the fact he had neglected to take his medication his explosive anger, tinged with paranoia and a need to control led to some really devastating moments for John, his brothers and their mother.  I don't think Ava was aware of what was going on, but Meghan and Lane were certainly affected.  Fortunately they are old enough, mature enough and sensitive enough to have pretty candid conversations about their grandfather. It cast an undeniable pall over the gathering and has left especially John feeling sort of 'hungover' from the trip.  But the trip wasn't totally dominated by that.

Our weekend started on a high note when we went to pick up our rental car.  Neither John or I have a car that will hold our entire family and necessary luggage for a long trip.  We had reserved a full sized rental car to avoid putting miles on our own cars and to buy a little extra space.  We got a screamin' good deal on the car, but when we arrived at the rental place they didn't have our full sized car, but a mini-van instead.  John and I are world class mini-van hypocrites.  We don't have one, have no intention of buying one, but the space it afforded us this weekend was soooooo nice.  And we got the same great price.  Ava was an absolute angel on the drive out.  It takes about 5 hours to get to John's parent's house and she was delightful.  Singing, chattering, looking out the window, but with no nap!  Meghan and Lane were suitably occupied by their iPods and Meghan's portable dvd player. 

The hotel we stayed at had a water park in lieu of a regular pool.  We met John's brothers, their wives and their kids and spent a good part of the rest of the trip in the pool with the kids.  Ava continues to be very brave and fairly fearless in the water.  The part of the trip I was most looking forward to turned out to be my favorite part...  the whole family piled in the car, piled into a hotel, enjoying time together.  Meghan and Lane were very patient with the lulls in the weekend and Ava was an absolute doll.  Her temperament leaves me feeling like such a lucky mom.  She went three days without a nap, staying up late and playing hard in the pool, but you would have never known it.  I know many/most kids are this way, but Ava just loves being with her family.  So she was thrilled to have the continuous time with all of us plus her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandmother.

I have two great Ava stories from the weekend.  On our way back to the hotel early on in our trip she said 'Daddy, are we going back to the sleep store?' Cracked me up!  For the rest of the trip she referred to the hotel as the sleep store.  Each morning she woke up in her own big bed and we would go downstairs for the hotel breakfast (the breakfast store).  Like at home, Ava would not change out of her jammies until after she was done eating breakfast.  I decided not to fight it and let her.  Our little creature of habit!

My second favorite story shows that I am, perhaps, an indulgent mom.  During our stay Meghan shared her portable dvd player with Ava so she could get a 'hit' of Dora the Explorer.  Ava was beside herself with her own little computer to watch Dora.  Meghan and Lane are both huge movie buffs – they watch them all the time.  I couldn't quite see how Ava was going to part with Meghan's 'little computer' for the ride home and I sure didn't want to ask them to give it up!  So we swung by Sears to see if we could find an inexpensive portable dvd player for Ava.  Fortunately we were able to find one on clearance, pink of course.  (Lane saw it and says 'Well, she said she wanted a pink one.')  We quickly purchased it and headed to Starbucks for some coffee for the road.  Starbucks sells kids drinks in small coffee cups, so there's Ava, sipping on her lemonade (which she called a latte) watching Dora on her pink dvd player.  I took a picture, which I'll try to post at the bottom of this.  If it weren't so darn cute it would probably be a little obnoxious! 

We headed for home Monday morning and couldn't have been happier to pull into our own driveway.  Our 4 ^th of July tradition is spending the day with our friends Jim, Sandra and their daughter Sophia.  We had a delightful day – the weather was unbelievable, low 80's, not much humidity, but perfectly clear.  I've said many times, but I feel so fortunate to have friends like them.  People I feel completely relaxed, at ease, at home with...  There's the family you're born into and the family you create for yourself and they are definitely part of our family.  My parents have a pool in their backyard and they recently remodeled their deck and gate surrounding the pool.  My dad installed a gate over the steps leading down to the pool with a lock that is sort of awkward to get at – it is a bar you have to lift and hold while you roll the gate open.  He said 'there's no way those girls will be able to get the gate open.'  The girls were so excited to see each other and couldn't wait to get outside.  We let them out onto the deck where in two minutes flat they were collaborating to get the gate to the pool open.  Sophia held the bar while Ava rolled the gate.  STINKERS!  We were right there before they got anywhere near the pool and the next day my parents installed a pool alarm and a more complicated lock for the gate. 

Our week has settled down a little bit since our trip.  Ava was super clingy Wednesday morning after a week of constant attention from mom and dad, going back to child care was a little tough.  We've been going on walks around our neighborhood at night and she kept rubbing my back saying 'we go for a walk tonight, right mama, right?'  It took a lot of rocket fuel to get me to work that day!!  It has taken a few days to restore order to the house, sort through all the mail, newspapers etc...  do the laundry, unpack, sort...

A pretty low key weekend coming up for us.  We've got a political fundraiser Friday night and Ava has her first swimming lesson Saturday morning.  I row early that morning, so I'll hurry home so I can take her.  Yes, I know John is perfectly capable of doing it, but I want to be there! 

Thanks for reading –

--Kate

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