The first post of many...

There's nothing like a family vacation to get some fabulous blog fodder! I have so many ideas swirling around in my head, that I don't know where to begin!

I'll start by saying that I never fail to be amazed at how a little bit of space (like, a day or so) after a vacation is all it takes for me to say, "Hey! It wasn't that bad! We had some great times and that's all that matters, right?" The crazed moments, where all 7 children were yelling/whining/singing/etc. or when my dad got ice water spilled all down his back at a restaurant, or when I narrowly averted an accident and called a truck a "mother-f*cker" only to hear Corinne ask why that big truck was a "Mother-trucker" don't seem quite as awful when I'm looking at the Big Picture. Which is, of course, that we had a memory-making experience that can never be replicated. Never again will my sisters, their families, my family and my parents vacation together with 3 school kids, 3 toddlers and an infant. Never again will we have so many in diapers or potty-training. Never again will our kids go down those big BIG slides for the "first" times...

The biggest kids, Justin and my niece, "S", spent a lot of time during our vacation's first half riding the water slides and playing in the squirting area at Chula Vista. I had a difficult time at first, when I realized that they wanted to go off by themselves and do so much together... withOUT me. Without any adult, for that matter! Not that they weren't dragging us off to slide and swim, but they were perfectly content playing and swimming with each other. Chatting about who knows what. I had flashbacks of their toddlerhoods... Justin and S hugging each other, calling each other "best buddies." Their squeaky voices have been replaced by those of Big Kids, and I am not too thrilled about that! :( My baby's growing up and I reserve the right to be a bit pissed off about that...

Speaking of growing up, Evan surprised me in a reverse way in that he was perfectly content playing in the kiddie pools and smaller slides for the majority of the time. My daredevil? My rollercoaster freak? Huh. But, as I said, he was perfectly content, so I tried not to fret over him too much. I just didn't want him to feel left out. Turns out that I was the one with the issues, not him!

Corinne had a blast. An absolutely fabulous blast! She would have gone on every single water slide, including the wedgie-maker that Patrick convinced me to ride, had she been tall enough. Thankfully, for my own sanity, she wasn't tall enough! But the body slides and kiddie slides were enough for her and her toddler cousins to spend hours (and I literally mean HOURS) on.

I wish that Patrick and I had had more time together, but he had to go to work during the vacation, so we spent most of the vacation either with the family or apart.

Well, the laundry is literally calling to me (that's how dirty it is. It's on a speaking term with me) so I must leave you. Hope to visit the over 300 posts that were waiting for me, in addition to 243 emails. I feel so loved! But seriously? The man power involved in that is just above my time limits. Especially when I realized that there are only 3 weeks of summer left till school!! :( I'm not ready for the routines!!! Neither are my kids. Justin started crying when I announced the countdown to school... poor kid.