Last Summer Jaunt of "09

Last week the children and I had one last summer vacation and went to visit my family. The husband joined us for the first part of the trip, but had to return home to work part of the week (only after partaking in his favorite pizza buffet of all times).

The children had great fun at Nanny and PopPop's house, enjoying new (to them) toys, new friends and cooler temperatures (we could actually play outside after 11am without fear of heat stroke. Yippee!).

A unique thing about my parents' particular part of their neighborhood is that no one has privacy fences around their backyards. My children come from an area where EVERYONE installs a fence and therefore backyards are merely kept to the family that owns them. This is not so in my parents' neighborhood. Children roam aimlessly from yard to yard, with spontaneous baseball games breaking out and bicycle gangs forming everyday after school.

Because my parents have a swingset and a fairly large yard (which happened by mistake...don't get my father started about their lot woes), children seem to descend mainly to their backyard. Words cannot even express how thrilling this is to our two little children. Not only do Nanny and PopPop have a swingset, AND cooler weather...they also appear to have instant playmates as well!

Isaac could barely sleep in anticipation of going outside to join the others on the swingset. Evelyn basked in the nurturing glow that only nine year old girls can give to a toddler whom they still deemed to be a baby. I only had to pull out my "mean mama" voice a few times when things got a bit out-of-control at times (the spare baseball that came within inches of hitting another small child).

It was good times and I think the children missed the fenceless yard this morning as they were enjoying their own backyard. I doubt the single lady who lives behind us would be too fond of me ripping down the fence that separates our yards and allowing the children to run free between the two spaces.

I took a few pictures during the course of our visit...

My mom rolled E.'s hair one day and it looked adorable. I think I snapped about 46 pictures of her in curlers.

Playing outside on the driveway...sister making brother pull her in the wagon. At home, she makes him push her in our Little Tikes cozy coupe. I hope her future husband is a patient, patient man....

We visited the park of my childhood one morning and "hiked" up to the public pool. The children were not very interested in me attempting to tell tales about all the hours I spent in that pool...they simply complained that it was closed at the time.

As discussed on another post, the family enjoyed a day on the lake in the family boat. I am not a huge fan of boating and was nervous about taking two small children out on the lake, but I survived. Everyone had a blast and both kids really loved their time on the "ocean".

Isaac was all about helping drive the boat, pull in the tubers and inspecting things on the dock when we fueled up with gas. Such a boy.

Both kids got on the intertube and had an excellent time. Miss E. jumped on without any hesitation, having fun with just Tobe and then with Tobe and myself. Isaac was a bit more hesitant, but finally decided to give it a try. Once he got on he exclaimed, "Wow, this IS fun." Silly kid.

Tobe and I realized that in all the years we have known each other and in our eight years of marriage, we have never gone to the lake together. We tubed together several times, which is a great marital bonding experience as we flew over the water together. The real test of our marriage vows was when Tobe thought it would be funny to let go and simply hold on to my waist while we were being pulled at top speed. Silly me thought his grip had slipped and that I was now having to hold onto the tube for both of us. We eventually fell off the tube, skidding across the water in fits of laughter. I believe all marital counseling should require couples to partake in such activities.

How are you wrapping up the summer?