I’m home from our not-so-spontaneous spontaneous summer vacation. We decided to hit the west coast. Of Michigan. haha. There are sand dunes out that way that my family has never seen and I decided if we were going to ever move out of state, now might be our last good chance to see a bit of Michigan before we leave it.

Hubby traveled with us. The deal was he was going to work during the day while we did touristy things. This sounded perfect. It turned out to not exactly be perfect, however. Our hotel had a weak internet connection and no cell signal so work was difficult, he was stranded without a car which meant I was on a somewhat short leash and we had almost non-existent communication thanks to essentially no cell signals on that entire side of the state. Cingular might not drop calls but that’s becuase they have no towers to begin with!!

BUT! We had fun, darnit!! We walked the most luxuriously silky sandy beaches that ever exist, I am sure of it. There is so much silica in this sand that it is one of the premier places to find fulgarites (petrified lightning). The dunes are an incredible sight to see, Lake Michigan is beautiful and the kids were most definitely impressed.

First we went to explore the beaches of Lake Michigan. Gorgeous. Truly amazing. The kids sort of tide-pooled which was fun for them and they played in the water and splashed around despite the water temp (58 degrees). None of them had ever been on such an amazing beach with amazing sand. If I could have caught their expressions the first time they put their toes in the sand, I would have. They were truly awe-struck. And remember we have our own little beach in our own backyard so they aren’t exactly cityfolk but this was different – this was a REAL beach.

I made the mistake, straight away, of climbing the dunes on Day 1. Have I ever mentioned how pathetically out of shape I am? I am out of shape. Very out of shape. I was looking forward to this vacation for it’s plethora of enjoyable exercise opportunities but this was, perhaps, not the smart one to begin with. I felt faint walking up the very steep flight of stairs which then abruptly ended in an even steeper, non-shaded hill of sand. Every step I took, I swear, my feet sank 4 inches and my ankles would turn and it was so hard to walk I thought I might die. The kids, of course, were sprinting off like little antelope. Then they’d say things like “It’s not hard to walk in – your feet don’t sink in at all!” Well gosh, not when you weigh 50 lbs I suppose! Sigh. Finally, at the top I saw a tree. Or rather the top of a tree (the rest was covered by sand dune which apparently is “alive” and moves and shifts to the tune of 10-20 feet a year – not great for local homes and businesses!!). And I sat under it to catch my breath and stave off the heart attack. That’s when I saw it: miles and miles of nothing but hills of sand. I thought I might die just looking at it. The kids were thrilled. I immediately knew doing this adventure, in my condition, without my husband was a grave error. I let the kids run off and play but then quickly realized I had no way to find them, get hold of them or rescue them should something happen. I wobbled slowly over to the top of a hill and just started miserably calling for them, sure I’d lost them to the Dunes forever. Thankfully they heard and made their way back to me. I thought I had lost them forever! Never again, I swore. But they convinced me to let them go off and play on some dunes within sight so I stayed with Noah, under the shaded tree top, and let the bigger kids go off and play. This worked out well. I was none too thrilled to get out of there eventually with my heart still beating in my chest Unfortunately there was one big casualty. I set our digital camera down on the dune and it hasn’t worked since. Sand. I was so sad – no more pictures

Later we went out and did this dune ride and it was amazing and thrilling and relaxing and beautiful. That is definitely the out-of-shape fat girl grown up way to explore the dunes! The kids all loved it and said it was the most fun they had while on vacation!

The next day sort of sucked. We had to check out of our (crappy overpriced) hotel by 11 and Tony had to work so we had to sort of run back and forth with me keeping the kids out of his hair and him trying to pack up and get us out of the hotel. It wasn’t fun. We did get to walk out to some lighthouses and do some pier fishing but not nearly enough. When Tony could escape, we headed out on a rafting trip and that was fantastic. It was so quiet and gorgeous. Unfortunately it appears neither Tony nor I can actually navigate a raft! haha! We spent an inordinate amount of time crashing into trees, rocks and whatever else came our way. Occasionally I’d drop my paddle (or oar? I dunno) into the water when I had to quickly make a choice between small child and large tree branch. Eventually we figured out that if we just spin the raft enough we can avoid maybe 50% of the obstacles in our paths! haha. Really it was beautiful and we all had a great time. It was hard work but definitely my kind of exercise – very invigorating. I’ll trade dunes for rafts any day.

We drove on to Muskegon where we stayed the night in a very beautiful room only to be kept up half the night be people partying above us. Eventually they shut up or were kicked out and we got a few hours sleep before it was time to head to Michigan Adventure amusement park. We’ve never been – we are Cedar Point lifers. But I heard Michigan Adventure – owned by Cedar Faire, the same company as Cedar Point – was geared toward younger children and also doubled as a water park. Perfect! It was definitely more fun for those who aren’t interested in the whole stand-in-line-for-2-hours-for-15-minutes-of-top-thrills variety of amusement. The water park was a huge hit as well. We had a great day and decided to head the 2.5 hours home at 7pm.

And here we are! It wasn’t exactly the “live free, fly by the seat of your pants” trip that I had hoped for and needed. But it was a realistic good vacation. The kids were (generally) well-behaved, they all had a great time and we did, too.

Well we are back from our last-minute trip to Stepford, USA.

My kids are honestly very very good on an ordinary basis – a fact which I don’t take credit for and truly feel blessed about. But this was very very different. It all started when the little guy slept in suspiciously late and his brothers even later giving me a freakish boost of energy after an unusual restful night of sleep. If that wasn’t clue enough, our youngest son insisted on brushing his teeth first thing in the morning instead of watching a morning show or having breakfast – his usual requests. The kids were too kind to each other, too helpful, too low maintenance and in general a little too perfect. I had bountiful energy and managed to clean the house top to bottom, dusting places that hadn’t seen the light of day in a year, washing windows, cleaning the inside of appliances, vacuuming the entire house plus furniture. I did about 5 loads of laundry and watered the flowers and reorganized the kitchen counters and soon discovered that the entire house can stay clean all the time and there is still time left to relax. I feel like a housewife! I even managed to do some homeschooling with the oft-educationally-neglected 4 year old (turns out he is still quite smart despite my best efforts!). I even loaded them up, despite my blog from the previous day regarding taking kids shopping, and ran errands. Boring errands like Sears for a refrigerator filter. Then more daring errands like Toys R Us. There were no fits, no arguments, nothing but joy. Then bedtime rolled around and I got the little guy to sleep by 9pm – a good hour or more earlier than usual.

Then I woke up.

I had an odd sore throat. My flowers died despite my best efforts. The dog pooped on the carpet. Our “breakfast experiment” of “omelet in a ziplock” was a gigantic failure involving melted plastic bags and my entire body was sore from way too many hours on my feet and going up and down stairs the day before. Supermom-mode caught up to me. Hello reality check!! Still, carried by the previous day’s joy and harmony, I plugged on steadfastly planning a day of extreme productivity. I started working on cutting out quilt squares for various swaps due soon and then the headache-caused-by-hunching-over-the-floor-cutting-fabric came on with a vengeance. The day was pretty much shot but I managed to do that time-honored thing most other parents who aren’t spoiled by full-time-house-husbands and no jobs do and just kept on keeping on. The baby threw a few pint-sized fits, the kids weren’t always thrilled about playing together, I forgot to take out the Uncrustable for lunch, I was exhausted, sick, sore. But the day wasn’t a total failure. I got all my fabric cut out (no easy feat – that’s like 100 fabric squares precisely measured), I made my wishes for the quilt swaps on the computer, I taught the kids how to load the dishwasher *properly* and got them into the habit of loading it after meals instead of stacking in the sink, we made homemade cookies and turned them into ice cream sandwiches and I managed to get the baby in bed and *to sleep* by 8pm, kept the house clean, vacuumed, dusted and free of dishes.

I woke up this morning, too early (that’s what happens when the baby goes to bed at 8!!!), the pain in my feet and legs and head is (mostly) gone and the garbage made it to the curb in time (first time in 3 weeks, I might add – that is a LOT of garbage!!) and I didn’t bother making a hot breakfast. I decided I’m no one’s maid which means I’m not jumping up to get new drinks, forks, or other things the kids are capable of getting themselves. I’m taking more time for me. I’m insisting the little guy play by himself once in awhile. I think today might be my day of happy equilibrium.