5/07/2012

A Great Non-Vacation

Our dear cousins moved over the weekend. We will miss their closeness, but we are glad they aren't too far away. While Debbie was busy up to her eyeballs packing and cleaning, I got to do all the fun stuff to keep 6 little bodies entertained. And I tell you, it was a BLAST. I find myself wondering, "What made it so fun?" I think 1) all the kids had GREAT behavior for 2 straight days, 2) I had no distractions with housework or anything else (my house was a disaster so I just decided not to worry about it), 3) since we were uncertain about how much time we'd have we just kept doing spontaneous things and all of them turned out delightful. It's funny, our last trip to Disneyland kind of blew up on us (due to Summer being sick and keeping me up all night every night) and since then I've been thinking about what makes a great vacation. I'm realizing that some of the best vacations with little kids are the simple, close, well-rested, spontaneous, giggly, new family adventure events.

Here's a quick rundown of our events:
A visit to the BYU duck pond. 


Where we discovered...



A new river and waterfall. After a few minutes of floating objects in the river, the kids jumped in and walked up the river, then clambered up and down the waterfall. Their clothes were soaked, but it was SO much fun.






The next day, aunt Heather joined us for a trip to the Lehi swimming pool (sorry no pics). The kids swam for 2 1/2 hours (usually I wrap it up after 1, but again, it was great to be on "vacation"). That night we watched movies and Kalyana warmed her aunt Heidi's heart by playing one of my favorite board games with me (how fun is it to have a 9-year-old around?!)

On Saturday we went to a park close to my house and took our time exploring it, playing in the river, and climbing this cool old gnarled tree.



Six kids can be a lot of work. And a LOT of fun. When you're on vacation.