Is there a statute of limitations on the length of time that passes before a blog post is viewed as way too old/stale/outdated to post? I finally had a chance to get through some of the photos that I took of of our 4th of July cabin camping trip and I'm embarrassed that it's taken me so long to get them up. I'm even more embarrassed that I'm still working through all the photos from our beach vacation back in May, which I'd also still like to post here, so long as it's not just sad and pathetic by now. Yes? Well whatever...it's my blog and I can be sad and pathetic if I want to.
Over the 4th of July holiday weekend, we packed up the kids and the dog and nearly everything we own and headed down to the Current River to do some cabin camping. We found a really cute little place right on the water with a huge yard that was perfect for fishing, swimming, tadpole catching, grilling, s'mores making and firefly catching. Sounds pretty perfect, right? However, if you follow me on Instagram, you may remember hearing that while fun, the weekend was anything but easy. It's one thing to post beautiful photos of your outdoor adventures with kids online and quite another to actually live through it.
I'm going to keep it real here and tell you that it was by no means a relaxing weekend. We started off with a three-hour drive where Mim screamed bloody murder the entire ride and neither kid napped. Upon arriving we realized we left a large part of our groceries (including the vodka) at home in the garage. We emptied the car while the kids played on (and fell off) the deck. Mac fed Mim a ladybug. I found a giant nest of spiders in the baby's room. We made our way down to the river to cool off and do a little fishing. Ryan got a hook in his hand. Mac was throwing some rocks in the water and Sage tried to catch one like a tennis ball and shattered three of her teeth - blood everywhere. The kids were hysterical. We were freaked out (and very sober, unfortunately). And we'd only been there an hour.
The weekend did get better, but vacationing with kids is sooooo not a real vacation. It's just parenting in a more scenic, yet less convenient location. Mac went 4 days without a nap and lived off sugar the whole weekend, so he was a real delight at times. Mim napped great, but wanted to have dance parties at 3 a.m. The locals also thought that the road right next to our house would be the perfect spot to shoot off whistling bottle-rockets for five straight hours every night. Sage's poor mouth was a mess and she could barely eat, but wouldn't slow down for anything. At one point she got wrapped up in the fishing line and Ryan went in the river after her, phone and all. His waterproof case apparently had a hole in it and he lost everything on his phone - all the photos and videos of the kids he'd taken since Mim was born. So...good times.
I don't mean to be all negative. We did have fun. We did get vodka. And we did catch fish, eat s'mores, feed the trout, swim in the river and get lots of fresh air and sunshine. It was nice...at times. :) Anyway, here are the photos!
No, but really, even after all the crazy stuff that happened, we had a blast. Adventures with kids are just that...adventures! And the great thing is, I guarantee you years from now when I look at these photos and think back about this weekend, I'm not going to remember the lack of naps or the tantrums or the spiders (I will probably remember Sage's teeth because that was seriously traumatizing). I'm going to remember the look on Mac's face when he caught his first brown trout. I'll remember how excited he got about s'mores and how obsessed he was with the tadpoles in the creek. I'll remember Mim's tiny little wet footprints across the deck, her squeals when she splashed in the cold water and the way she buried her face into my neck when she fell asleep at night. Even just a few months later I'm already thinking about how much fun we had and wondering when we can go back. That's the great thing about having kids - the highlights are so high you barely remember the lows.
P.S. Sage is fine, she's had a root canal and now has a very pretty (and ridiculously expensive) silver canine. She's a total badass.
