Family Spring Break Vacation: Day 1

Even before our technology woes at work, I had planned to leave at noon.  I have had several very long weeks at work, where I get to Friday morning, and I've already worked about 45 hours.  And since my sister and nephew are in town, taking an early day yesterday made sense.

My nephew has always loved going to Target, and he hasn't outgrown that yearning.  So, yesterday afternoon before the school kids got released, he and I went.  It's interesting to think of what's changed.  Once we might have spent time looking at a variety of toys, but now he's more interested in video games and we spent a long time looking at drones (the kind in the toy section).  He doesn't have an understanding of how hard it would be to take some of those items in the plane, so I was glad when he decided to leave those big boxes in the store.

My parents used to tell me that my earned money was just burning a hole in my pocket, and I saw a bit of that in him yesterday.  I said, "I think you want to spend money just to spend money."  Later, when I picked up a pile of Tic Tacs, he said the same thing to me.  Touche!

With the exception of the Target trip, my nephew spent much of yesterday in the pool, and the grown ups were both in the pool and around it.  Several trips ago, I bought a pool basketball set, and we have gotten our money's worth out of that one.  I would never have dreamed that there are so many ways to dunk a ball in a hoop that's floating in a pool.

I resisted the urge to check the news--whatever's going on in Syria or elsewhere can go on without me for one day. 

Later, we had a fire in the firepit--lovely.  I tumbled into sleep smelling of woodsmoke, chlorine, sunscreen, and bug spray--one of the signifiers of a good day.

My sister apologized several times for not wanting to go anywhere, but frankly, this kind of vacation is my favorite.  I often feel like I'm working long hours to pay for this house so that I can come home to sleep in it.  It's wonderful to have a chance to enjoy the house in the daylight hours.