At-Home Vacation

I have taken a bit of time off.....which is something I think that everyone needs to do to reset themselves for the regular "grind" of real life.

We had grandparents here for an entire week.....and we spent as much time soaking up time with each other as possible....as visits do not happen very often now that we live in 2 separate areas of the USA. We did things this week we have never done before.

My kids got to experience the southwest in wonderful ways. We did festivals, got caught in the rain, got beat at euchre (several times), laughed a lot, rested, hiked, took walks, traveled to local towns, did craft shows and bought some cute souvenirs. My husband had a week of vacation time he took off of work so we spent lots of time together as a family.

Fall began this week. The weather turned colder. Snow now sits atop the great Sandia mountains. We switched over our swamp cooler so we could turn on the heat. We ate pizza and mexican food, hot chocolate in the wind and rain, had very large drinks at Applebees. We cooked at home. I cooked for them. They cooked for me.

We put on scarves and bought gloves and extra umbrellas. We learned to play spoons. We sat in front of the fire playing checkers on the ipad and Angry Birds on the iphone. We picked goatheads out of our carpet and taught the midwester's to take off their shoes so we all would not be maimed. We watched hundred of balloons both from up close and from our own house. We listened to music of plastic spoons and recycled "trash." Our kids make corn-husk dolls and sampled apple cider. We saw a millipede, snake and coyote in real life. We fed ducks and petted a tarantula.

The dog went on walks and got forgotten outside in the rain. Our daughter played many recitals of her few songs she has learned on piano. The baby practiced cruising and crawling all over his grandparents. Many block towers, farms and houses were made and destroyed.

We skyped other family members and fell asleep in the movies. We sampled wine, goat cheese and green chile jelly. My husband and I had a date to the mall. We got donuts for breakfast and my son skipped preschool. My kids made beautiful memories that will stay with them a lifetime.

Now back to real life with memories we will take with us until we see each other again.