The not-kid-friendly vacation

When we told the kids that we were taking a vacation from school, and Daddy was taking a vacation from work for a week, they couldn't figure out why we weren't going out of town anywhere. It was hard for them to learn the difference between "a break of doing something" and "a trip."

James hadn't used his vacation time the entire year so we kept discussing what we would use it for, since this year is almost over. (wow, really?) But when he's so busy at work, he spends his weekends enjoying his family/errands/date/get together, sometimes even catching up at work... or mentally recovering before repeating it for another busy week! That leaves A LOT of projects that never get attention.

Like a patio. You don't realize how unpretty your surrounding gets after a few years, until you pressure wash! James pressure washed the entire house, patio, front porch, playground set, and even got a little carried away and pressure washed his riding lawn mower.

James also switched outlet plugs for pretty white ones instead of 20 year old ivory ones with paint on them.

He installed new light fixtures in the bathroom and hallway.

Put a new stain on the freshly pressure washed playground.

Trimmed bushes and pruned various fruit trees and vines on the property.

Took over my duties for a day of kid classes and meal fixin'.

And my favorite... finally hooked up plumbing to the master bathroom sink that we remodeled 2 years ago. I don't mind having to now clean 2 bathrooms for that little gem.

We also had to put in a new one of these puppies, which wasn't on the agenda.


The old one was original to the house, about 20 years old. The front panels started leaking, and it poured into the hallway, so it was a matter of time before it burst. It wasn't repairable, and I'd like to avoid another flooding of my house thank.you.very.much. James took Kellan for "guy time" to go buy this, and when they got home Kellan asked me "How many more minutes until our house explodes?" He took that one literal, my little worry-wart.

Here was my big one: The boys room!

This book case used to be red, now it's a dark chocolate brown.

James is very proud of his hunter motif he is instilling in his boys. I concede, it's pretty cute.

I also (finally) made a few sewing projects for my soon-to-be new nephew, got to sleep in until noon one day, had fun at a birthday party with the kids (click the link and try to spot my kids in the mayhem of kids on a sugar rush) and snuck in a date night with the husband for the Harry Potter premier.

This afternoon wrapped up the whirlwind with the kids in the Union County parade on the float for the Nutcracker. (sitting in the middle is their friend Andy, thanks Tiffany for the pictures!)

I hope to never vacation like this again for a very long time. I have never looked forward to a Monday for the hopes of slowing things down!