Favorite Staycation Fotos

Call it a denial tactic, but I've been too busy to think about the fact that my house is empty (except for the six remaining children- Molly went home with her older sister for a few weeks- my husband, and my grandchild-deprived self.)

So viewing pictures of all the fun and chaos was not a good idea until I was ready to face the fact that my grown children and grandchildren live hours and hours and hours and hours away from me.

Twelve loads of laundry later (and after the washing machine repair man left), I am ready to relive some of the fonder moments of last week's staycation.

My oldest daughter posted today on her blog about De-Grandmafication. You'll have to go over there and read it yourself to see how she traduced her own poor mother (!)- but suffice it to say she thinks I may have (inadvertently) done a little spoiling of her children while they were here.

Imagine that!

I'm tempted to say something about how I would not have to hold them so much or be at their beck and call if they lived closer to me....But of course, I won't mention that.

As a matter of fact, my children have been going through a little of their own "De-Grandmafication", but theirs stems from the fact that I spent so much time "spoiling" their nephews and niece that they got away with murder - or at the very least unmade beds, 1/2 done chores, and way too much time on the Wii.

But what can I expect of my younger children when their older siblings had this kind of a laid-back attitude during the Staycation? :)

That picture is especially fetching to me because these two spent so much of their growing up years in "costume". They were the neighborhood detectives (more like spies...), then advanced to script-writing and movie making.

So many of our pictures of Eli have him trying to eat something inedible. I like this one because he looks so determined. I mean after all, it is a fish, right?

In this one I can't figure out whether he's just embarrassed that I caught him trying to eat a diaper, or whether he's taking a big whiff of it before he digs in.

Thomas doesn't eat diapers and fake fish. He prefers sand.
He ate several handfuls during his first 10 minutes at the beach, which would've totally freaked his mother out if he had not been a third-born.

Another favorite picture because of the memory it evokes.
This is Winston's walker left on the shore after he decided, back injury or no back injury, he was going to get in on the Beach Fun! With his shirt hanging from the side, it almost looks like he was raptured, doesn't it? :)

I may just do a whole post about Staycation Food. We had some amazing meals - some at home and some at restaurants. (When you don't spend any money on gasoline you can afford to splurge a little!)

This is the birthday cake that Brite made me. I've had a different kind of cake for my last three 50th birthdays, but I think this is my favorite. It tasted like a turtle candy bar, and the main thing I remember about it is that we should've had two since there wasn't a morsel left over.
I'll get her to tell me the official name and recipe and post it later.

This picture just epitomizes Jacqueline's little family. The world revolves around Eli (in the good kind of way.) They LOVE having a baby to kiss on.

Speaking of my birthday, I got so many cool presents. A silver purse, a watch, a necklace, some antique rooster canisters, and these embroidered handprints of each of my four grandchildren, with their ages. We're not sure whether we're going to put them in red hoops or maybe use some white distressed frames.

Thomas was probably ready for a nap in this picture, but I prefer to surmise that he is chagrined by his cousin's spit up on the outskirts of the Block Town.

In addition to a Staycation Food post I think I'll do a post on the Dive Contest the older kids had one afternoon. If I ever need something to make me smile I can just whip out this photo of Shep, the writer and artist, trying to go All Athletic on us. Looks more like a plie (plee-yae) than a dive to me.


Maybe the best part of the Staycation (if you don't count the spoiling of the grandchildren) was watching the Big kids play around with their younger siblings. I'm truly grateful that they have such enduring relationships. Even with families and busy lives of their own, they do a great job of being Big sisters and brothers to those who are "left behind" and still stuck with the old-fogey parents (who couldn't even think about lifting them up like this!)

Since I only have one granddaughter (so far...) I decided to take her under my Beauty Wing and show her the ropes of Velcro rollers. Here we are heading to breakfast Sunday morning before church. We really bonded during this visit. I speak her language (which is lip gloss and jewelry).
When she turns 3 I promised her a tutorial on pore minimizers.



I miss this face!