I survived!

My husband and I in a moment of pure insanity took our two kids and two of their friends to Branson, Missouri over the weekend to go to Silver Dollar City.  If you've never been to SDC or as the locals call it, Steal Your Dollar City, you're missing out.  This is the only theme park my husband can be talked into that is within a two days drive.  He liked Disney World but who can run over there in a weekend?

Silver Dollar City is like an old town set in the 1800's.  It is clean, shady and full of people that love their jobs and love people.  It is a Christian based theme park that is not overt in it's Christianity but you know that morals and values are important to the people who own and run the park.  It has lots of rides for all ages but it also has music and variety shows and arts and crafts buildings.  My husband calls it arts and crap but that's not what they carry.  They have local artisians doing painting, metalwork, woodwork, pottery and other real crafts.  It's interesting to go and watch these artists make beautiful objects and speak directly to them. 

We took four kids and set them free in Silver Dollar City for the day.  This is the first year that they have been able to go off on their own.  Of course, all four had their cell phones with them so they could call at any minute but it still was a little unnerving to let them out of my sight!  The kids had a ball, riding rides until they were sick and buying the snacks and drinks that they wanted not what I thought they should have.  When they wandered off my husband turned to me and said, 'they really are growing up aren't they?' We hadn't been alone in Silver Dollar City since we had traveled there twenty-two years ago on our honeymoon! Sure hasn't seemed like that long ago!

The kids survived, we survived and I think we all had a good time.  We only had to stop once on the way home to break up a fist fight in the back of Suzy Q.  Our own lovely adorable children were punching away on each other so my husband had to remove them from the vehicle and have a 'little talk' to the two of them.  We were all tired from having too much fun in the sun and were a bit cranky at that time. 

But we survived! I had a friend once that would say of any experience that you'd either have a good time or a great story, I think we have both from this trip!

Valentines Day Traditions

I was blessed to grow up around all of my grandparents. We all lived in the same small town. One set lived across the cow pasture, the other lived in 'town'. That meant that they lived on a paved road! Because of living so close, I got to spend a lot of time with them. As a kid, I took it for granted. I thought everybody could walk across the field and eat a second dinner or find sympathy when I was mad at my parents! Now I realize how truly lucky I was.

I wasn't raised with a lot of extra money laying around. My dad was an educator and my mom was a stay-home mom and then an aide at the school. I never really realized that we didn't have as much money as everybody else until I began to be a teenager. It didn't bother me much because I had what a lot of others didn't have. I had two parents who spent time with me and my siblings and that counted much more than what we 'had'. I also thought everybody else's parents were off the entire summer too! We spent days working in the garden and swimming and going camping and generally having fun but working hard.

One thing my family did better than anybody else I knew was celebrations. We celebrated everything. Birthdays, holidays, presidents day, you name it and we had a special meal for it! One of my grandpa's actually made a cannon to shoot off for Fourth of July! It was his favorite holiday and we had and still have a big family get-together. We no longer shoot bottle rockets at each other, that stopped when I was still a kid. I never could figure out why the grown-ups thought that was fun. Now, we play crazy party games and usually someone gets hurt and has to go to the doctor because they pulled something!

I carry on this tradition of celebration at my house by making special meals for just about any occasion. I read somewhere that families need traditions to stay together. Well, if that's true, my family will always be close! One of the most important days of our family's celebrations is Valentines Day and guess what? It's almost here!

I have not eaten out on Valentines Day since my son was born thirteen years ago. Finding a sitter was impossible, we didn't live close to family and the restaurants were expensive and busy! I just started cooking a special dinner. After my daughter was born, it began to take on a life of it's own. Now, we plan weeks in advance the menu and eat off the crystal and china. My son says he'll bring his dates here instead of eating out! He doesn't want to miss our special dinner!

This years dinner will be very similar to the last few years. The kids get to plan it and they have pretty much settled on this menu:
appetizer: shrimp cocktail
salad: tomato salad with olives, feta cheese and balsamic vinegrette
main course: grilled steak and baked potato (one year I cooked lobster tails but my son was so full by then he couldn't eat it!)
dessert: probably cherry cheesecake - this is still being negotiated! I'm voting for chocolate molten cake!
I buy fizzy grape juice to drink out of the fancy glasses and we eat by candlelight.

I fix everything in advance and have it served on fancy plates like in a restaurant so I can relax too! I put the grilled steak in the bottom of a crockpot on low and place the baked potatoes on top. The salads are pre-made and refridgerated so I just take them out.

I don't miss eating at a busy loud restaurant because at this restaurant quiet music is playing in the background and we can linger as long as we like. It's a memory I hope my kids remember all their lives!

I challenge you to start a tradition at your home, it doesn't have to be Valentines Day. Did you know in January there was a pie day? Well, guess who had pie? You may not have time to make a special dinner but you do have time to have a little something special. It may just be a cherry pie for Presidents day. But I warn you, once you start a tradition, you own it. You will be expected to continue! After all, that's what brings a family together!

Kicking out January!

Well, it's time for a new month! It is amazing to me that we are already one month into the year 2010. My grandpa used to say that time went faster as you got older. Well, now I see what he was talking about. When I was a little kid, a summer school break seemed to go on and on without end. Now a summer break is but a blink, marked with too many to-do's and not enough laying in the hammack contemplating the leaves on the old pecan tree and hacking off the bluejay who's nest is directly above me.

My favorite family vacations are visiting national parks. I thank the people who had the forethought to set aside those lands across our country for people like me to visit and explore. My most favorite was a visit several years ago to Maine's Acadia National Park. I wrote a teachers grant and was able to go for 10 days and study. My family traveled with me. When I say 'my family', I mean MY FAMILY. As in my mom and dad, my sister and daughter, and my husband and kids. I was the only one who had the dream to visit Maine but my excitement caused the rest of the family to want to come along.

We had a time getting to Maine from Oklahoma, including getting dumped out in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the middle of the night by an airlines who will remain to be used by me today, renting a panel van and driving across lower Michigan to get to Detroit before sunrise taking with us two stranded naval officers who were going to be awol if they didn't get where they were going! We did finally make it one day late to Maine. The trouble we had to overcome getting there only made me more resolved to experience Maine's coast to the fullest. We spent two days driving along the coastline from New Hampshire to Acadia, stopping and gawking at the raw power of the Northern Atlantic Ocean like little kids.

As we hiked up Cadillac Mountain and strolled along carriage trails, I began to realize how much more creative I would probably be if I allowed myself to just be still and wait. To open myself up to just experiencing God's gift of nature. Waiting is not something I do well and being still is even harder for me. Besides learning about the varied ecosystems of Acadia National Park, I think the most valuable lesson I learned was that when you are still, you can see things that typically get lost in the day-to-day. The beautiful sunrise or sunset, the loon gliding on the lake or the fog rolling in or the wonder in someone's face at the awesome power of the oceans waves.

Traveling with three generations to a place that was completely foreign to all of us was an awesome experience. My parents were as filled with wonder as my children at some of the sights we saw. We have collective memories that we can share with each other for all the rest of our years.

And we all learned that a vacation doesn't have to include a theme park or a large city. Sometimes, we need to let God's theme park leave us in awe!