Outta the swing

As you could tell I was trying to do some limited live-blogging of our vacation. That may be boring as all get out for most, but I did it mostly for my Dad. When we planned our trip we had hopped he would be joining us. But because of the time off and money required to deal with the situation with my Grandparents early this year, he wasn’t able to join our Floridian excursion. And I just wanted him to know what we were up to. And that he was missed.

Our trip was lovely. We got to spend some much needed time with family. For those of you not clear on my insane disjointed family tree I will try to explain. We went to visit my 24yo half-sister Elisha (through my Dad), her husband Chris and their 2 yo Hunter and my ex-step sister Barbara (I say ex- because my Dad and her Mom divorced), her husband Ryan, their 12yo daughter Summer and 10yo son Sean. But honestly I try not to think with those labels of half and step, because family is family. If you are blessed to have good people involved in your life and those of your kids it doesn’t matter how much actual genealogy is involved.

We wanted to visit last year but when Ray was finally conceived it made it a difficult time for us to travel. So this was a long awaited trip. I am a bit freakish with worry about imposing on people so we didn’t feel comfortable squishing our family of four in the home of someone with limited space. And since hotel rooms are pricey and not really ideal for a family we decided it was most cost effective to rent a house. Our family lives inland and we thought if we rented a beachfront place maybe we could lure them to us for a little vacation of their own. And it worked. Everyone spent some time on the beach, and kicking around the house, eating big family meals and making little day outings. Everything went really well. Even flying with the boys went pretty smoothly. Of course vacationing with small children isn’t ever very relaxing, but it was good. It was heart-wrenching watching my boys play with Elisha’s little one and touching to see Barb’s older kids look after them. I have a bunch of funny little things I should eventually relate but the one I have to mention immediately is Noah’s fascination with Summer. Two years ago when we visited he was quite taken with her, and this time it was even worse. He was bordering on stalking. When she wasn’t there he was asking when she was coming back. He had to sit where she sat and do what she was doing. And he told me repeatedly that she was one of his "loves” and that he loved her more than anyone, except Mama of course. Sheesh kid, adolescence is going to be a bitch.

It’s insanity here. The city is going nuts about the Series win – and frankly not only don’t I care but I’m annoyed. I find it all to be so competitive, so us-against-them, so bandwagony, so reminiscent of rampant dangerous nationalism. Ahem. But that’s all in my humble opinion. Aside from screaming, honking and fireworks outside my house last night, there is some mayhem inside too. We’re excited for Halloween which takes some doing and organizing, and then Noah’s fourth birthday party is on Sunday and I have a hella stuff to do. Oh and on returning home our bags burst forth piles of laundry, both clean and dirty and we have to figure out how in the hell we’re going to get some of this shite picked up.

A proper blog entry about milestones and whatnot should come soon. At least before Noah’s fifth birthday.