Post-vacation crap

Sometimes I seriously wonder which is worse - preparing to go on a huge vacation, or cleaning up the mess afterwards.

We got home early Friday afternoon. My stomach revolted against me the second we crossed the Kansas state line (not kidding) and so I felt like crap for the rest of the day. I didn't do much except help unload the van (in between trips to the bathroom) and make sure that the house was still standing. On Saturday we ran around for the big festival here in town, but I managed to get a few loads of laundry done here and there.

Today was the busy day for me. It was hard to get started, but I kept working on laundry and even though it's not all done I can at least officially say that all of the sleeping bags have been washed, dried, and put away.

I had planned to work outside today, but woke up to a little bit of rain. It stopped, so I decided to go ahead and mow the grass. I figured that if I at least did the front yard, my house wouldn't look quite so ghetto and I could take my time getting the back yard cut. We apparently got quite a bit of rain while we were gone, and the yard was a disaster. What normally takes me about 2 hours and less than a tank of gas ended up taking me 5+ hours and about 2 1/2 tanks - the grass was so overgrown and wet that it was almost impossible to get it done. It still looks terrible because it's all clumpy and nasty, but it's cut - and after it dries out a bit more I'll mow again and get rid of all of the clumps.

Once I got that done, I came inside and worked on more laundry and other stuff. I really didn't get as much done as I had hoped to, but I was exhausted from mowing and my body hurt. A lot.

But, I managed to get quite a bit of stuff done - nowhere near what I wanted, but every little bit helps at this point.

Of course, things never go as smoothly as I want them to, and when my vacuum decided to give me attitude, I figured out that the one hose was split - which totally explains the lack of suction lately. I knew I could "fix" it, but then I couldn't find a screwdriver and then I couldn't find the duct tape and as I threw an internal temper tantrum (I was too tired by this point for a real one) I found them and I rigged up the vacuum so that it works. At least it worked enough for a few swipes across my bedroom carpet because I'm tired and I'm not vacuuming everything that needs to be done right now even though I really should.

 I had hoped that we were going to have a fairly quiet week this week, but since it's the last week before school starts, I know that's not going to happen. I just found out about 10 minutes ago that Alex has to have a football physical sometime in the next 2 days in order to play (oops), and that's on top of the girls both needing physicals within the week, along with trying to get school shopping done and deal with real life at the same time while also trying to recover from a vacation that exhausted me both physically and emotionally.

I'm really just not in the mood for all of this. I'm just not.

I need a vacation.

More road trip planning

It's that time of the year again.

TMOART:15 is just around the corner.

If you haven't been around for very long, that stands for The Mother of All Road Trips: 2015 Edition. It's our annual (for the most part) road trip from here in Kansas to my parents' house in Pennsylvania, usually with a few (or a lot of) other stops thrown into the mix.

This year, we're keeping it simple. Renting the short bus last year cost us a small fortune, so we're taking my van this time - which means that luggage has to be kept to a minimum. Side trips are going to be eliminated due to finances and time and overcrowded seating arrangements. But we're still doing it. We're going to spend more time with my parents (including a reunion of all of my siblings, something which hasn't happened in a lot of years), more time relaxing and less time running around like idiots trying to see everything and do everything and run run run run constantly.

Of course, along with planning the actual itinerary comes planning for all of the crap that has to be done before we can even pull out of the driveway. There is a lot of stuff that we need to do first, things like an oil change in the van and weeding out the garden and flowerbeds and mowing the grass. And of course my constant obsession over the financial aspects of it, budgeting for gas and food and fun stuff and (please no) emergencies.

The lists are running rampant. On my phone. On scraps of paper. In my head. On my gigantic new-to-me white board calendar that I got in a thrift store in OKC earlier this week.

But the funny thing is that even now, as we get down to just over a week before we leave, I'm not spazzing out about it like I usually do. We've done these trips enough over the years that I know that no matter what, unexpected things are going to happen (remember The Great Flying Boulder Incident?) and we'll just make the most of it and have as much fun as possible before the reality of another school year starts less than 2 weeks after we get back.

The kids are excited to go, I'm more than excited to get away from reality for a while, my parents are looking forward to seeing the kids, and it'll be nice to have some real quality time with The Dude.

I'm so ready.

Wait, tomorrow?!?

Ah, The Dude. He should know that conversations like this never end well for him.

But being the good guy that he is, he usually ends up dealing with whatever crazy scheme I've cooked up for us.

A friend of mine messaged me today and informed me that there was a local 5K happening tomorrow. I had heard little bits and pieces about it, but didn't really pay attention to it. I think I was trying to hide from it because if I actually knew about it, I'd want to run it. Because I'm weird like that.

Anyway....I haven't run a step since I did the half-marathon back in May. I've been wanting needing to get back out there again but just haven't really had the initiative. But I want to do a 5K when we're in PA on vacation, and if I'm going to do one there in the mountains then I need to at least get my butt in gear and start running again here where it's flat so that I don't die mid-race and fall over a cliff or something because that would kind of put a damper on the whole vacation thing.

So yeah. Because I have nothing better to do than to make a fool out of myself first thing in the morning....

So I guess now the only question is:
tutu or sequined skirt? 

Camping (TMOART:12)

So while we were on TMOART:12, we ended up camping at two different locations. We spent 3 nights at Prince Gallitzin State Park in Patton, PA and then one night at Gifford Pinchot State Park in Lewisberry, PA. Both of the campgrounds were gorgeous - but we didn't do much other than sleep at both. The Dude took the kids swimming at Pinchot while I started setting up the tent (yes, you read that right) and they had a ball - I, on the other hand, enjoyed the peace and quiet for a little bit and got to visit with a childhood friend who got there while I was tent-wrestling.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from both campgrounds:

The world's most perfect s'more - complete with dark chocolate

Sleepy girls

Preparing for breakfast

Fire! So easy a caveman can do it....

....just to heat up a couple of pop tarts.

Not as remote as it looks. We were right next door to a camper and across the street from the bathrooms.

A constant visitor - we don't have chipmunks in Kansas. Boo.

The stay at Prince Gallitzin was great. We were there for 3 nights. We got there much later than planned the first night, thanks to a missed exit on the good ol' Pennsylvania Turnpike, and we had to set the tent up in the dark. We finally laid down for the night, and were entertained annoyed by a couple of rowdy raccoons that were running amok around our tent and getting into our neighbor's stuff. They were squeaking and squawking and running around like maniacs for hours - we could actually hear them breathing and sniffing around the bottom of our tent at times. Then they disappeared just in time for the massive thunderstorm to roll in - so we were laying there, watching the lightning strike all around us, with horrible wind and a torrential downpour. At that point, I was pretty sure that we were all going to die - and all I could do was lay there on the air mattress and wait for lightning to strike a tree nearby to end our adventure. But, the storm only lasted an hour or two, and then stopped in time for us to sleep for maybe 2 hours before we had to get up again.

Our last night of camping was at Pinchot:

Jared helped The Dude to get firewood.

Pre-tent

Hard to believe that the huge tent fits in that tiny bag...

Someone got a little dirty...

Sunset over the lake

Hanging out in the tent

Sunrise through the tent

There were turtles EVERYWHERE in the morning.

For the first time camping with all of the kids, they really did great. They had a lot of fun and didn't argue and bicker too terribly much. They got bored at times and wanted to go run around, but we didn't have a lot of time so they didn't get to do too much other than hang out with us, but they seemed to enjoy it. They didn't even complain too much about having to sleep on the ground (ok, they had sleeping bags, so they weren't on the ground, but you know what I mean) and they all said that they would like to do it again. We're talking about camping again next year when we do TMOART:13 so we'll see what happens when that time comes!

Flight 93 National Memorial (TMOART:12)

One of our stops on vacation was at the Flight 93 National Memorial outside of Shenksville, PA. We hadn't planned on stopping there initially, but we realized how close we were after we missed an exit on the turnpike and saw signs for it. So on our way back west, we took the side trip to go see it.

It is in a gorgeous setting, and the memorial itself is simple and beautiful. I'm not exactly sure when it was built, but there were signs indicating that they are still working on it, and are looking to expand it a bit more. Trees are being planted around the area as well.

There was a place where visitors could leave notes.

And there were places along the wall where mementos could be left.

40 slabs of marble, each engraved with the name of a victim.

It's hard to see it, but after her name it says "and unborn child".

The boulder marks the location of the crash site.

The boulder as seen through the gate at the end of the wall.

The wall follows the plane's final flight path - the crash site is beyond the wooden gate. The site itself is closed to the public - only family members of the victims are allowed to go out there.

Wildflowers growing behind the wall

I am so glad that we got the chance to stop here. We see so much on the news about the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but just not a whole lot about Flight 93. I learned quite a bit about it that I didn't know before, and although the kids didn't totally understand it, they will always remember being there.

Seeing the signs of renewal and reforestation on the landscape along with the symbols of hope left by visitors just reaffirmed in my mind that no matter how horrible a situation appears, something good can come out of it. It might not happen overnight, but it will eventually happen - if we are patient.

Daniel and The Dude - checking everything out together. Probably one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip.

The "Almost Annual" pilgrimage to Penn State (TMOART:12)

Of course, while we were back east we had to make the trip up to State College. I do it every time that I'm back there, and now it's gotten to be a tradition to put the kids on the Nittany Lion Shrine for their picture. I can't believe how much they've grown just in the past 3 years....

TMOART:09

TMOART:11

TMOART:12

They're just growing up entirely too fast.

This was The Dude's first trip to Penn State, and my first trip since the Sandusky scandal and Paterno's death. For me, it was a different experience as I thought about everything that has changed there in the past few months. We were there just a few days after the trial ended so luckily we didn't have to deal with the chaos, but it was still so surreal to walk around the campus and wonder what everyone else was thinking and feeling.

But anyway....we didn't get to spend a lot of time there because of everything else that we had to do while we were in that part of the state. So we took our photo ops at the Lion Shrine, JoePa's statue, and the wall, and then we bolted.