Big's Dream Vacation

We were invited by my folks to go on a quick last-of-summer vacation to their timeshare. So, I headed out, sans Rophone (he felt his 'roid rage agitation shouldn't be confined to a hotel room for the weekend), for a weekend of fun with the kids. At least, I hoped it would be fun.


Swimming was the first thing on the agenda when we got there on Saturday. All the kids had a blast. Well, except Edith. Pen didn't know that when you're taking a baby into a pool for the first time it needs to be done gradually. Oops.

It didn't help that Edith managed to rub sunscreen in her eyes. My poor, poor baby!

She managed a little binky smile, anyway. What a little trooper! 


When we got back to the hotel room, the boys discovered that people watching can be quite entertaining. 

They only made nice observations, I was glad to hear.


I was a little worried about how Big would do with what we had planned for Sunday, which was nothing, really. We had planned to just hang out in the hotel room, playing games for the majority of the day, with maybe a walk and a nice drive up into the mountains on the agenda. Not a whole lot to entertain a 4 year old. 


Then, we woke up to this:

It was an excavator ripping up the asphalt to prepare for some new asphalt to be laid. The excavator driver was also the dump truck driver, so he traded off between the two. Big was in heaven. Now our problem wasn't keeping Big occupied, it was trying to get him away from the window. We even resorted to placing some of his meals and snacks on the windowsill so he wouldn't have to miss any of the action. 


I tried all morning to get Big to join us for a family walk, but he didn't want to go. Finally after much begging and pleading (and, I admit, threatening) I convinced him to join us for a little jaunt outdoors. 


You can see his enthusiasm about joining us in this picture I took of the kids:

A little more threatening...

That kid's quite the actor! A little while later, his grandpa came downstairs and volunteered to take him back up to the room so he could watch the work. My dad said it was the perfect babysitter. Big was happy as a clam, that's for sure.

I took a few more pictures of the other kids while we were out.

Sunday afternoon, when the excavator had stopped its work for the day, we took a lovely drive up into the mountains. This photo is neither in focus nor very good of anyone, but here we are:

We didn't get to stay long because of mosquitos, so we'll have to make a trek up there again at an earlier time in the day. Big claims that he has 30 mosquito bites. When I asked him why I can't see them he told me they're invisible. Thank goodness the invisible variety don't seem to itch. 


Monday morning, we woke up to this:

A backhoe to get into the spots the excavator couldn't, 2 dump trucks (two!!), a paver and a roller. A dream come true for Big, that's for sure. A dream come true for me, too, to be truthful. Being on vacation with all 5 kids and no Rophone... well, let's just say I was glad that Big was so well occupied.


Luckily, Big was really excited for the things we had planned for the day. Each kid got to pick one morning activity, and he couldn't wait to take a ride on the airplanes.

He grinned the entire time. The whole 5 minutes. Bud loved the activity that he chose, too. He, perhaps more wisely, chose to play miniature golf with his grandpa-- it took a looong time. It took even longer to play the 18 holes of mini golf than it did for the girls to ride up the chairlift and come back down on the alpine slide. I'm not sure, but it may have something to do with the fact that on one hole he scored a 34. 


Maybe if he hadn't used a full golf swing...

Plus, it was rather breezy so I don't think he could see what he was doing.

And this one I just love:

Fantastic form, Bud!


In between taking pictures of Bud, I hustled on over to the alpine slide track to take pictures of the girls as they arrived at the finish. Pen was the first to come into view. One of the biggest letdowns when riding an alpine slide (besides crashing and getting torn up by the track) is getting stuck behind a slowpoke. I was happy to see that Pen only kinda slowed one guy down.

Then, many, many minutes later, Ginger came into view and I saw this:

Oooh, total bummer! If I had a lot of money, I seriously would have offered to buy all those folks another ride. It was Ginger's first time going it alone, and I guess she didn't have enough upper body strength to keep the lever pushed forward very far. So, so sorry, people.


Here. I'll just zoom in so you can't tell.

After lunch, we headed to the pool for one more swim before going home. I took a few photos of the kids before I jumped in.

Then, once I was in the water, my dad took a bunch (thanks, Dad!). Edith joined in, and this time she loved it! She even kicked her legs!

Great shot, Dad! 


Thanks for the invite, Mom and Dad, we had a fantastic time!