We went on a sweet little vacation week retreat the day before last. With basketball practices, Shrek’s day and night work and teaching schedule, and other obligations it was tucked neatly in the middle of the week. While this meant much of the planning, packing, unpacking, and meal preps fell on me it also meant I learned how I will do that piece a little differently next time. I still enjoyed it immensely. We all did.

Sammy was the skier. Most of the trip was arranged around getting him to the slopes. He is incredible. Suit him up and watch him fly. Like skateboarding and snowboarding-he is a natural. After a few hours of skiing on his own, one of the instructors found us in the lodge and gently advised us that a half hour lesson to tweak his skills it would be a good thing for him, as well as the other folks on the mountain. Oh you mean the two hour lesson he took two weeks ago is not all he needs to be flying down the intermediate slopes on the mountain? Where do I sign him up?

OK, so he is apparently a great skier albeit a fearless one. The lesson was apparently a great idea, and his instructor, “Kat” was also impressed with him. She came in the lodge smiling and clearly moved by the opportunity to hang out with #1 son. It was a win win.  What did we do for the five hours Sammy was grinding, catching air, and making thirty year old friends name Jake on the ski lifts?  We played cards, and people watched. Marcel enjoyed chasing lady bugs, and playing frozen football with Shrek.

Part two of our mini adventure took place in a sweet little country inn twenty minutes from the slope ( the Camden Snow Bowl).  Well, a country inn with a pool, hot tub, sauna, and home made free cookies. (Yes, we kept the chart running the entire time, which meant this was a much more enjoyable twenty-four for all of us.) Both Shrek and I even got time to work out in the little health center. I had precooked a spaghetti dinner so we could save the money the take out would cost, and the aggravation of deciding which take out to get, and who was going to stay with starving kids, while the other navigated with a GPS to find the over priced, soon to be cold food. We chose the inn because of the kitchenette, and the ability to bring the food on top of everything else.

The re-entry was a total disaster, as they often are. I feel compelled to unpack everything at once. Shrek had to get to a work function, and switch into that gear abruptly. Marcel just struggles with transitions period, and Sammy gets the brunt of my annoyance usually when I need him to be helping unpack the car, and he’d rather be playing the new song he learned on the piano fifteen thousand times as loud as possible. On top of that we had to get to the grocery store, the accountant, and piano in an hour. Did I mention that I learned how not to plan a mini vacation at the same time as I really enjoyed this one?

Perhaps the best moment was when Shrek arrived home last night after his work function, took one look at me behind the pile of dirty dishes with the laundry detergent in my hair and said; “I’m putting the kids to bed.”

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If you haven’t voted today, please do. I’ve been nominated for an award that would be a hoot to get, even if there is hardly a chance unless I resurrect my FB account, which I am loathe to do just to shamelessly beg for votes. Unlike what I am doing here…