All Good Things Must Come to an End

And that includes our "stay-cation."

Boo for us.

I said to Seth yesterday that maybe we should make taking vacation the week of Thanksgiving a tradition. It has been so nice to just hang out without rushing around, setting our schedule as each day comes, and (gasp) making spur-of-the-moment decisions. We have had great family time together, and each of us has been able to spend time with each kid individually.

I think it is especially good we did it this year since we'll be traveling over the holidays and won't have much time just relaxing at home.

But before our family vacation started, I took Macy to Pennsylvania for my cousin Matt's wedding. We traveled there with my sister and Mikayla. Unfortunately I had a bad head cold, and Mikayla was also sick most of the trip. With mom and dad's help (adjoining rooms - what a great invention) we managed to make it through and have a good time anyway.

While we were gone Seth and Norah played at the park, went out for ice cream, met a friend for lunch at the "fries place," had tea parties, and went to the zoo.

Here are some pictures from our trip, though I did a pretty bad job of fully capturing the weekend:

And then on to the week of "stay-cation." We spent a lot of time just hanging out:

Macy loves her "new" exersaucer. This thing is so old. Lisa and Scott's friends bought it used about 7 years ago. They used it for their oldest, L&S used it for TJ, then back to their friends for their second child, then to L&S for Luka, on to us for Norah, back to L&S for Mikayla, and finally to us for Macy. If I remember correctly they paid about ten bucks for the thing. We have a love/hate relationship with it. It is a complete eye sore and isn't small, but the kids love it. 

We can hardly get enough time like this. Macy is so content and expressive, and has become more interactive recently. 

We busted out a play dough cake making set that Norah got for her birthday. It was a hit! The three of us played with it for 30 minutes, then I showered and got ready while Seth and Norah continued to play for another 30-45 minutes, and then I joined Norah again for another 20-30 minutes. Norah loved it.

It's not a proper week in our household without stickers. Norah received a few packs from Mimi, and the next day she spent 15 minutes putting them all on this piece of paper. Aaaaannnnd, they're gone.

During our time off we also managed to get a number of small projects done around the house - things that are tough to get done during a normal weekend. It feels great to have some of that stuff crossed off our lists!

And now, meals for our lunches are made, groceries are purchased, the house is in order, laundry is done, and the kids are bathed and ready for another week. (Not that we don't take baths during the week, but it is much tougher to get done so we always try to start the week off clean!) 

Back to reality!