Today is Tuesday, July 9th, and I'm feeling pretty depressed. I just spent 10 days with my boys, my beautiful rascals, and I'm faced with a return to work. It's not so much that I mind the job, but after longer stays, I'm reminded of what life with them around means to me. What I'm missing when they're gone.
*This is more of a personal diary, no obligation to wade through it all :)
Friday June 28th
The boys arrive in a blaze of hugs and miniature voices inquiring about our plans for the week. I told them we were having a Staycation, and that made Sam think I was the wittiest person alive. I tested a new pretzel bread sandwich on them, which they requested the rest of the week, then we proceeded thru the scavenger hunt. As they only come to stay every other weekend, our few house rules are often forgotten, driving Elizabeth and I into a perpetual state of madness. This time around, we laminated flash cards with our rules, and hid them throughout the house. 20 mins later, due to my having forgotten the location of one of the 6 cards I hid, we had the boys read the cards off, and place them in appropriate places in the house. To celebrate, we walked over to Rita's and tried out the new picnic tables by the Walmart center. Perfect weather, perfect family, perfect start to the vacation. Sorry Sam, I meant Staycation.
Saturday June 29th
No hurry in starting our morning, but we eventually made our way to The Laughing Ogre to do a bit of shopping for reading material for the week. Ray got a Marvel magazine, Sam a Batman chapter book and I Superman Red Son. Ray was upset because I had him save his birthday money rather than spend it on a Batman plush doll. He has a lot of plush dolls. From there we swung by GG's nursing home to say hello, then back home for lunch and some reading time. Sam finished his book for the week in less than an hour. As Eliz was at a bachelorette party, we met Joe at Highlands pool for a swim before picking Eliz up and heading to Jojo's for an evening hang out. She likely wasn't going to get to go out with the girls that night, so I went to Kroger for party supplies. Torrential downpour. I digress. Jojo and Felicia's, lots of hotdogs and Fruit Ninja-ing. Home.
Sunday June 30th
I woke the boys up kind of early to go enjoy the Westerville Skate/BMX park. I wanted to get some riding in before we had to go clean house and get ready for guests. It is worth noting that unprompted, Ray, on his 16" bike with full training wheels, decided to attempt riding down a ramp. He did great until he let go of the handle bars halfway down. Skinned knee and crying, but I offered (a previously planned) Ice Cream Sundae in reward for his bravery. We spent the rest of the morning getting ready for Frankie, Emily, Omri and Olive to descend upon our condo. They arrived mid-afternoon to much screaming and running about, and we basically spent the day sharing drinks, video games, musics and cigars. I think the kids did stuff too, judging by the WW3 disaster in their room when I put them down for bed. The ice-cream sundae's hit the spot and I ended the night happy that both my children had a blast, and knowing that some folks will always be family, no matter what.
Monday July 1st
My mom took the day off to hang with me and the boys, and Frankie and fam. We went to the zoo and ran around for a bit before parting ways with Frankie. Not before, of course I showed off my favorite bats and ray visited his elephants. The boys got extremely hungry and fought about whether to go to Five Guys or Red Robin. The vote was 3 to 1 and we went to the Robin. To my dismay, my patty was flat, frozen at one point and lifeless. Exhausted, we headed off to Target where Ray spent his birthday money on a Diego DS game and a Yoda/Spaceship action figure set. I thought that was the end of the day, so I dragged the boys back to the BMX park so I could ride off a bit of my burger haha. Sweaty and tired, I figured we oughta use the baseball mitts I had them bring down. Let's just say, I am bad at ball sports and my children are worse. And despite my education background, I should not teach balls sports. Jojo invited us back to Highlands, but it was cold. Carpe Diem prevailed and we went anyway. I'm glad we did. Sam, we discovered, was just tall enough to go on the big slide. He was frightened, so naturally, I bribed him. As we eventually made it to the top, he gripped the tower bars and screamed bloody murder. The lifeguard turned a blind eye as I peeled Sam off the bars and dumped him on the slide entrance. Once his feet hit the slide-water, he shut-up, and a smile went across his face by the 2nd turn on his way down to Jojo in the pool. He begged to go down again and again, and when we got home I hopped on eBay to order his Clone Wars Lego DS game :)
Tuesday July 2nd
Eliz was none too happy that we were enjoying a lot of vacation fun without her, but as luck would have it, she had the afternoon off. The boys and I stalled until she was off, and we headed to Star Lanes, the new posh bowling alley in Columbus. I love this place. The lane couches are new, leather, and awesome. The black-lit lanes are super cool, and they had nickJR and a Justice League cartoon playing on the huge projection screens. I think I'm 5. Then again, the Goose Island IPA was cold and delicious. The gourmet bacon cheeseburger was hot... and delicious. The boys had a blast with and without the ramp. From bowling we loaded up the cards and played arcade games for an hour or so. Fruit Ninja, basket ball, snowmobiling (which Ray did by himself-awesome), whack-a-villain, DDR knives chow style, Guitar hero and all the crappy ticket prizes a family of four could want. And as if that wasn't enough, we crossed the street to Gigi's cupcakes and put ourselves into a sugar coma. Ray ate all his icing before he realized there was cake underneath it. I can't remember anything else we did that day.
Wednesday July 3rd
Aunt Felicia & family did us a major solid by setting up an entire fun day in her hometown of Newark. For the afternoon we splashed away at the Heath Municipal Pool (which I'm sorry Westerville, puts ours to shame). The boys romped in the freezing cold splash park, Joe made me go down their awesome slides (which apparently I don't know how to use and am still nursing a bruise on my elbow), Felicia packed snacks and we generally had an awesome time. We got rained out for an hour so I left the boys with their Aunt/Uncle and went home to pick up Elizabeth. When we made it back, the boys were water-logged and it was time to head to OSU Newark for the festivities. Felicia's mom had packed a righteous picnic for all of us, so we feasted, and enjoyed some family time on the beautiful campus. Live music provided by Styx & Stones (who to my knowledge played neither Styx nor Stones) as well as a live orchestra. I channeled my inner Bluth and bought the boys and I chocolate covered frozen bananas. A few glow-sticks and a game of tag later it started raining just before launch time. We covered up and enjoyed as the fireworks lit up the buildings and the rain sprinkled on our heads. It was a wonderful day, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the tweakers in the parking lot next to us as we waited to leave. They looked like they had snakes crawling under their skin if they didn't get a fix or get out of the parking lot. Good times.
Thursday July 4th
The day I planned this week around for a year. The day I had missed every year with my boys since they were moved up north. Westerville fireworks day. I had originally thought we could help with the WPR float and have the boys ride in the parade. That wasn't an option this year unfortunately, so we settled into our street-side seats (Thank you Miss Sherry and Craig!) and watched the floats...float on by. I like a kid to have a little spunk, but the little shits that stepped all over my blanket and right in front of my boys and made sure they got nothing but sloppy candy seconds, you can go suck an egg. You, and the drunk guy behind me. The afternoon brought us yet another cookout (It was quite the week for the grill). This one had some killer sliders and the boys got their Kaitlyn fix while we prepared for nightfall. We have the geographical advantage of living about a 1/4 mile from the Westerville Fireworks launch site. So at most, we walk 50 ft to our field and watch from there. This year, I was even lazier and set up our chairs right in our front yard. It was awesome. Aside from one pesky street light we had a perfect view, and I sent the boys in to potty without getting up from my seat. They were in awe of how close we were. They kept thinking the mini-bursts during the display were the finale. I kept telling them "just wait". When it finally hit, the boys were mesmerized and jumped to tell me that they were the best fireworks they had ever seen. I felt vindicated. If this week wasn't worth it already, it was now. We finished the night with sparklers, snaps and snakes. ...And the boys may have stayed up til 11:30 playing xBox.
Friday July 5th
Independence day hangover. No, no alcohol, just a busy as hell week. Slept in for the morning, Eliz had the afternoon off, and we were counting down to a much needed sleepover at Jojo's. We made it over to Marcus Crosswoods for Despicable Me 2 in 3D. Cute movie, the boys had a ton of laughs. I won't lie, we shuffled the boys over for the sleepover, where I'm told they baked pizzas, went to Millstone park (that Jojo made), went to Rita's, had a watergun fight, colored, and played video games until, ahem, 1:30a.
Saturday July 6th
We met the boys at my moms for an afternoon hang out before our (hopefully) annual slip 'n slide party. ~150 feet of sheet plastic and a big hill makes for a good time. The boys had some friends over and we flung our bodies down the hill as much as we could stand. We cooked out (gasp). At the end of the evening, torsos shredded from grass, legs tired from the hill climbs, we packed in the Tucson, drove home and collapsed.
Sunday July 7th
Sunday rolled around, I was tired, penniless, and hoping the boys wouldn't notice. We had some free time in the morning and eventually made our way to the Westerville Putt Putt & Batting cages to enjoy a Groupon deal courtesy Miss Elizabeth. Eliz and I were exhausted and did not really want to go, but the sun peaked through the clouds, there was a slight breeze, and the well-kempt mini-golf course showed us an excellent time. We didn't keep score and had a three hit rule to keep things moving, and the boys were ecstatic. We moved onto the batting cage where Sam managed to hit a few, way to go buddy! We rounded out the evening with yet another trip to Rita's, and made it home for an 8p sharp bedtime. After which I snuck in to watch my boys sleep for the last time for our vacation. I got more than a little emotional in that room.
Monday July 8th
I won't lie, Monday didn't count much. Get up, get dressed, get driving. But on Monday we recounted the weeks events in the car, and I realized that the boys had an amazing time. I teared up as I dropped them off, and was more than touched by the huge extra long hugs I got. I don't wish regular goodbyes to one's children on anyone, but I'm glad the goodbyes are so hard. They show me, after I quit being depressed, that we have something worth missing.
I love you Sam and Ray. See you in 2 weeks.
