Family (x2) Reunion

I don't know why sitting down at the computer to type a short ditty on summer vacation drains the very life from me--it just happened to be the case this time. Never mind the usual few photos per post--this time I've gone crazy. My kids' grandparents like to be involved in our lives...can I blame them? I might just stop blogging if it were not for them--writing for my own pleasure has woefully taken a backseat these days.

It was only a short while ago that we sailed away on a plane bound for Utah; the four of us filled a row of seats and quietly sat in anticipation to see loved ones we hadn't seen for 18 months. Seeing the familiar rising mountains of the Wasatch Front made my heart jump. Utah's dry heat had my naturally curly hair shouting for joy. When was the last time I had a good hair day? I can't remember. Two weeks later (ever so quickly because those 14 days were jam-packed with family-bonding goodness), we were back home to the green leafy goodness of the Upper Valley--filling our lungs with wet muggy air and adjusting ourselves back to our muted rural solitude.

Two weeks seems like plenty of time, but when you divide the time with 26 people on Boy's side of the family and 18 on mine, vacation time turns into an agenda: Lake Powell one week, camping in American Fork canyon the other. Family can be so demanding, you know?

The kidlets had a blast.

Their parents nearly keeled over in fatigue.

But, oh, was it worth it.

WEEK ONE:

 ***********
WEEK TWO:

Going to visit our roots is essential and much needed, but it ain't easy (and there's never enough time) to reconnect with all of those we love.

See ya next year, Utah. When? Who knows. I'll keep ya posted.

It's August Already?

What I might've spent time doing in a week's time after taking a long 2-week long "vacation":

1. Slept in until 8 or 9 a.m. every morning to slowly eek into Eastern Standard Time again. Quarantined my children into their rooms to enforce extra naps.
2. Blasted the fans at their highest setting in every corner of the house because Utah made us forget about humidity's blanket of death.
3. Commenced another round of teaching my three-and-a-freaking-HALF-year-old how toilets are our friend. Also brought in the little missus to join the party because she is fortunately/unfortunately? showing more bodily responsibility than he is. 
4. Read through or deleted two weeks worth of e-mails in three different e-mail accounts. Momentarily interpreted that the number of items in my inbox equaled my soaring popularity...and felt defeat when the truth revealed a whole lotta junk mail. Waah.
5. Dinked around on Pinterest more than usual:  'repin' + delete someone else's superfluous and corny commentary + remove all forms of exclamation marks + think to myself "is this really something I'll use someday?" + disregard that last thought and do it anyway + 'pin'. Two or three hours later... 
6. Watched a little too much Netflix in the basement because it's the coolest level of the house--just because I'd rather not pursue the game of hide-and-seek with the Jiminy Cricket family who made (and still continue to make) surprise appearances in and out of the cracks in our unfinished walls. 
7. Sweated over making some delicious smoothies only to wish I would've pocketed my sister's enviable blender that can grind rocks into gravel.
8. Ate bowl after bowl of our hand-picked blueberries at every snack and meal. End results: looking down into the toilet to see a nice bluish hue is fun, isn't it? I love having these types of conversations with kids' innocent minds.

It's not every day that I can be frank with my utter laziness (sigh) but it's a good thing I've now hit my max. In fact, the other day, my kitchen floors were incredulously questioning me, "You let yourself live with a floor like this?" Yeah, sure. I fancy having play dough crumbs in-between my toes and I hardly notice those dried-up ketchup and raspberry jam blobs anymore. Tomorrow, I'm back to productivity. And the day after that, maybe I'll be back to blogging.

Don't get too excited.