Summer Vacation - Part III - Tears, Hugs, Mud, and Screams

One month after we returned from our Boston trip (definitely a study in extremes as Clark pointed out), we greeted Superman at the airport for the start of his long-awaited leave and our summertime adventures continued...

What We Did During Our Summer Vacation - Part IIIa

by the Nagle5

Superman arrived at our little international airport on August 19...he was greeted by enough tears and hugs that the normally stoic/impersonal security person leaned over and gave me a kleenex.  To say we missed him would be an understatement.   I think we just about melted him with our tears of happiness.  To say he was surprised by Valiant standing next to him at a full 6'2" would also be an understatement.  He stands eye-to-eye with both our sons these days and that is just so strange.

Anyway, Superman carefully timed his leave so that he could, jet lag and all, participate with the Nagle5 in The Dirty Dash the next day.  Bright and early Friday morning, we got into our cars (even Charming headed out of his place to join us) and headed over to the race location.  It was crazy.  Our heat began at 9:00 a.m. and what followed was 6.2 miles of mud, dirt, hay, and water.  We ran through mud pits.  We ran through dirt. 

 (Superman, Valiant and Me,

trying to finish together...

harder than it looks!)

We jumped over hay bales and walls.  We ran through the river and walked across beams.  We even slid down a giant slide. 

(Buttercup and Charming coming off the slide...

the fire hoses the race people aimed at them did wonders!)

Good "clean" fun for the entire family.  We can hardly wait to do it again next year!

PS.  Yes, we ARE insane!
Still, Superman said it helped him beat his jet lag, so he said we need to figure out something exhausting to do for the first day of his next leave.   What? Braving the malls at Christmas isn't exhausting enough?

The next day, we hooked up the trailer and headed to our favorite campground with our friends. 

(In the meantime, our beloved Charming showered a few more times (the mud was everywhere!) and headed off to work for the week...such is the life of a new hire!)

While Charming worked in the salt mines, we played in the water,

(Valiant is giving his dad

 a lift out of the water!)

the "men" played a mean game of Risk,

and we pretty much messed around for four days. 

But we didn't stop there...oh, no.  We all hooked up the trailers once more and headed to Silverwood, the Pacific Northwest's own little theme park.   Disneyland it is not, but it is definitely a fun place to play.  Superman and the kids did roller coasters...don't they look like they're glad they didn't puke on Panic Plunge? 

Me?  I relaxed at Boulder Beach...Superman did a little of that, too. 

(Aren't we cute?  I am still sporting that farmer's

 tan from whale watching in Boston!)

Okay, I did like the log ride and the bumper boats.  Can you tell?  I was drenched!

Finally, it was time to head home...it had been fun, but I was ready to sleep in my own bed.  Besides, we missed Charming!

Summer Vacation - Part II - Whales, the Mayflower, Food Poisoning, and Fireflies

What We Did During Our Summer Vacation - Part II

by the Nagle5

Ten days after we got back from our first camping trip of the season, Valiant, Buttercup and I headed for Boston.  Flying used to be a lot more fun, didn't it?  The TSA and Homeland Security have taken all the fun out of arrivals and departures.  No friendly faces waiting for you as you disembark from the plane at your destination and no happy visiting at the airport before you fly off into the wild blue yonder. 

We arrived in Boston and headed over to my sister's house for dinner.  We were so tired...it didn't occur to any of us to take pictures.  Still, when we got back to our hotel, I went into the restroom to wash my face and came out to this.  Yes, flying was exhausting.

The next day we went whale watching to celebrate said sister's birthday.  It was so nice to be at the beach again!  I so miss the beach...I didn't care that it was the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Pacific Ocean...it was so beautiful. 

We lucked out and actually saw a mother/baby duo of humpback whales.  It was so cool.

I don't have the group picture of all of us (my sister has to scan it in for me--hint, hint), but here are the kids.  Aren't they delightfully windswept?

Here is a replica of the Mayflower.  Look how small it is!  Can you imagine how brave the first colonists had to be to set out in that?

Finally, I thought you'd like a view of the quintessential New England coastline.  Look at Cape Cod with the spired buildings.  Isn't it something?

After the whale-watching outing, we had a little birthday celebration for my sister.  She was such a trooper...that sunburn had to have been terribly uncomfortable!

Right after she blew out her candles, Valiant started vomitting and food-poisoning was the phrase for the trip.  By that night, the three of us were taking turn vomitting (etc.) in the hotel bathroom.  It was horrible.  I really can't remember a time when I was sicker, actually.   Not many more pictures after everyone spends three days sick as dogs!  Still, we hadn't come all this way to sit in a hotel room.  We hit the road to see the family we'd come to see.  No, we didn't have personalities, but still, the kids got to meet their East Coast relatives.

We made the trip to the cousin's house and saw the amazing treehouse their dad built in their backyard.   It was amazing.
The next day we headed out to Connecticut to meet my little niece.  Isn't she adorable?    She'll be two next month and is definitely the apple of her daddy's eye (just the way it should be!).

 The kids got to see fireflies while we were there.  (I don't think they really believed fireflies existed, so Buttercup actually shot a movie of them for Superman.)  Thank me now for not posting the video!  There was also a bunny in their backyard.  Buttercup was enchanted!

The next day, we hit the Museum of Science in Boston...the electricity show was so cool!

Saw a toad in the hotel parking lot that night.  And shooed it out of the parking lot and into the bushes before we could head up to our room.

And played in the trunk of our rental car.  It was quite and impressive trunk.  Valiant is 6'2" and Buttercup is 5'3" and they seem to have plenty of room.

Then we flew home...and began anticipating Superman's leave the following month. 

P.S.  Did I mention that none of us gained weight during this trip?

Did you miss me?

We put Superman on a plane yesterday (Friday) at noon PDT and he hasn't yet arrived back at work (right now it is 9:00 p.m. PDT the next day!).  (How is that for some serious travel time?)  It has been a whirlwind two weeks and, I must say, the best surprise I didn't mess up. (There were times I came so close to spilling the beans, it got to the point that I just stopped calling people.)  We had so much fun with Superman and Superman had a great time being home.  We didn't do anything special.  Superman just wanted to hang out at home and do "home" things.  We hit our favorite restaurants (we hit one of them twice!), we did projects around the house, and we just goofed off. 

Even though there was work to be done and we seemed to be busy all the time, it felt like the most relaxing vacation ever. 

We managed to get all of Superman's various appointments scheduled for one day so he could get those out of the way and out of his mind.  Yes, you should picture me trying to make all these appointments without my children hearing me...I was quite the covert operator.   He and the kids even worked with Mr. R. for a few days of the vacation...they had ball and Mr. R needed the help. 

So, since he's been traveling back to work, we've been settling back in at home.  We even got a surprise package shipped off to Superman right after his plane took off, so he'll be getting the package right when he settles in.  The kids have the next week and a half to savor summer and then school will begin in earnest (we've been keeping up with math and typing and a little spelling all summer long, so it won't be horrible). 
I've been getting caught up on laundry and cleaning.  (I only put my finger in the proverbial dike during the vacation.)  I've been catching up on some blogs (I've missed reading them) and I've been getting ready to post here again.  So much has been going on and I have so much to share with you (hint:  I asked Superman to teach me to use all his 'big man' power tools and he even bought me my own 'impact driver').  

I guess we're finally learning how to be the family of an overseas contractor and that feels good.  We're excited to see what the next six months brings us.

UPDATED:  Superman's plane got in early (although, I did have to wonder how 1/2 hour really helped after 30+ hours of travel).  Unfortunately, his luggage didn't get in at all.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Superman's luggage (translation: his clothes!) is lost somewhere between Eastern Washington and the Middle East.  So far, they know it didn't make it on the plane in London (duh!), so now they have to figure out if it even made it to London.  Fun times.