My [abbreviated] Weekend Vacation

The weekend didn't go quite as planned, but I had fun regardless. Prior to going, I had promised myself that I'd take a bunch of pictures to make up for the past two year when I was too sick to pick up a camera. I did alright but unfortunately the camera ended up stuck in a cabin for three hours Saturday afternoon while Shiphrah was napping so I didn't get any pictures of the lake, pool, or our UNO and Nerts games.

Upon arriving in Leakey (pronounced "Lake-ee") the kids and I met the family at a tiny Italian restaurant for dinner. Shiphrah ate a bunch of pizza and I ate one piece and then finished off Will's chicken marsala, which was to die for. I mean, what could be better than pasta with a bunch of butter and mushrooms! It was heavenly. Too bad I didn't order it for myself. :)

Friday night's activities included several rounds of volleyball at the camp's gymnasium. Shiphrah really got into cheering for the teams...
Her Grandad was pointing out what was going on and what team her Nana was on and Shiphrah started yelling "Nana! Ball! Nana!!!" It was pretty much awesome. :)

I was planning on letting her stay up late, but by around 10-o-clock she was getting rather grouchy and couldn't understand why no one would let her play volleyball. So I took her back to my parent's private cabin in the hopes of putting her to bed. (They graciously offered to keep her for the night since there's was no way she could have slept in the main cabin with all the kids.) Unfortunately she was quite freaked out by being in a strange place so we ended up heading back to the gym after 20 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get her to fall asleep. Strike one for the weekend. She went to bed that night at 11:30 when Grandad went to bed with her.

I knew I was in for a challenge with Kirk, but I was optimistically hoping that he would be tuckered out and ready to go to sleep by midnight. No such luck. He ended up nursing for over an hour before he finally fell asleep when the cabin quieted down. Strike two. I slept a few hours before Mom woke me up with Shiphrah around 8-o-clock. Since my dad is an early riser, Shiph had woken up at 6:30. Oh and she had soaked through her pajamas. So I got her dressed, nursed Kirk, and we all went to eat a breakfast of blueberry muffins out at the picnic benches.

Nine-o-clock was softball and Shiphrah spent the next few hours playing with the extra balls and chasing other kids around. Here she is with another little boy. She started doing her silly squat-and-walk thing and he imitated her.
She was pretty much spent by lunchtime, so after lunch she and my mom went back to the cabin to take naps. I attempted to take a nap with Kirk also, but he pretty much refused and screamed for 45 minutes before sleeping for 20. Strike three. At that point I was so physically exhausted that I was shaking and I began to realize that I didn't think I could last through another 24 hours. I walked down to the river with Kirk and then over to the pool where most everyone was hanging out (since the river was too low for tubing the camp opened the pool for our group for about 2 hours). The pool looked incredibly inviting, but since I had Kirk I didn't get a chance to put on a swimsuit so I just got to stare longingly at the water.

At some point after that I was able to hand Kirk off to my dad and I played a couple games of UNO and Nerts with my sisters. I felt a little better after getting to sit down in the AC for an hour or two but I had still decided to head back home after dinner that evening. I wasn't about the try another night with Kirk and then drive home the next day. I don't think it would have been safe.

So I packed up the stuff and we hit the road around 8. I was hoping the kids would sleep the whole way back but Shiph decided she wasn't tired and Kirk started screaming an hour into the drive. So I nursed him in the parking lot of a Shell station for about 10 minutes with Shiphrah whining and telling me, "Kirk no eat! No Kirk eat!" (She's really starting to form phrases and sentences...it's so cute!)

All in all the weekend wasn't a total bust. I enjoyed getting to spend time with my parents and my sisters and it was nice having other people to entertain the munchkins for a bit. It could have been much worse, after all the kids were pretty well behaved considering their lack of routine and overall tired state. Oh, and Shiph discovered that eating watermelon is just about the best thing ever:
Kirk was pretty much an angel as long as someone was holding him and he napped periodically on Grandad's shoulder. Here's my big boy with his Aunt Rachel:
I'm glad I cam home early though. I got to see my husband (who I was missing terribly) and we got to go to church this morning and hear an awesome sermon from the pastor who was my youth pastor years ago when I first started youth group at Wayside Chapel. We also were able to eat lunch and catch up with friends we hadn't been able to hang out with in over a month.