staycation

a new term was coined this summer. staycation. it's where you vacation in your home. yes, that's right. and yes, it really is as exciting and exotic as it seems. this is what my family decided to do this year because we are really as exciting and exotic as we seem. and i loved it. i loved that i didn't have to pay for anything, i didn't have to pack anything, i didn't have to deal with cranky children. other than the fact that i was still in charge of keeping my own house clean, it was a perfect vacation (i mean, staycation) spot.

favorite: chinatown where we ate real chinese food. and ava insisted on eating with her chopsticks because she was sitting by grandpa and he was eating with his chopsticks. this meant that she picked up the food she wanted to eat with her fingers, placed it between her chopsticks and held them tightly closed in her fist where she ate her food as though it were some sort of popsicle.

amanda was my biggest help and she helped me handle hurricane harbor single-parently. this wouldn't have been as big a deal if ava hadn't taken one look at the large splashes the kid zone was making and decided that looked awful. no, not awful. horrible. no good. disgusting. terrifying. i don't know if there are enough words to describe how she felt about the mild looking pirate ship stranded in the middle of 12 inches of chlorinated and filtered water. seth, of course, loved it. amanda (who is short) and i (who is tall) took ava and seth in the lazy rive (or whatever they call it) and amanda held seth and i held ava. this worked out perfectly. because amanda is short she was holding seth close to the water. and he was happy as a clam, splashing and sticking his face in the water, kicking his legs and squealing. because i am tall, ava was hardly in the water. her toes trailed. and that was, at times, too much and she attempted to climb me and wrap her legs around my head.