Wednesday, July 5, 2023

4th of July Highlights

I’m back from our 4th of July adventure! We went to my parents Saturday through Tuesday. Phil couldn’t come with us as the first 4 business days of the month are his busiest days at work and the days following a quarter end are extra busy. So he basically cannot ever enjoy the 4th of July holiday. My dad’s family has a big gathering which we haven’t attended since 2019. But when I saw the boys didn’t have school on Monday and Tuesday, I knew we had to get out of town. 

- We had a great time at the big family party on Saturday! I made it to the semi-final round of the huge bean bag tourney we have every year and I was only able to play bags because of the help of my parents, SIL and niece who entertained the boys! 

With his favorite person, Papa. He asked for him when he was up in the middle of the night. 


My cheering section!!

- Paul went tubing with his cousins on Sunday morning. He has always been a tentative child but has really come out of his shell the last year or so! I went tubing with him on Monday, too! 


- Will is at a stage where he is so happy to play in the sand! 


- The family time in general was so great. 

Feeding the fish with aunt Julie!

Eating m&m’s with Nana

Watching fireworks with cousin Evelyn. Yes he’s wearing his iPad headphones. He would push them against his ears to dampen the noise from fireworks.

- Paul’s glasses arrived while we were gone so now we can work on getting him used to wearing them over the summer! I went with inexpensive ones from Zenni and will likely upgrade to more indestructible/more expensive ones when he’s on my insurance next year. And we will likely order some back up pairs of the inexpensive Zenni ones. 

Of course it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Sleep was a bit brutal as I shared a room with both boys. The first night was the worst but things improved from there. 

So. Many. Wake-ups. Time in bed is high since I went up around 8:30 to read. 

I was very glad to come home to Phil yesterday. Solo parenting is so very challenging!! I’d much rather have him by my side but the change in scenery and time around family was very good for all of us! 

How was your weekend? 

12 comments:

Nicole MacPherson said...

Oh my goodness, your sleep/ time in bed! Yikes, Lisa.
Other than that it looks like a great weekend! My kids love tubing - I do too.

Life of a Doctor's Wife said...

Oh gosh Lisa what a dreadful night of sleep! It is so hard to sleep in the same room as the kiddos! Glad you and the boys had such a fun time with your parents. It's such a joy to see kids building relationships with their grandparents.

Elisabeth said...

I have SO many memories of nights like this staying at my parents when the kids were little. I would sleep like a rigid board because I was nervous any movement or noise would wake the kids. I've been there!!! It is rough. Again, I can promise this too shall pass, but it's hard and exhausting.

Sleep aside, it sounds like a wonderful visit. It's fun to be outside and always nice to have a change of pace/extra hands to play with and entertain/enjoy your kids. I'm so glad you made it work and I can also appreciate feeling relieved to be home and back into a routine/having Phil around.

Hope you have a great rest of the week. Paul looks so sweet in those glasses.

NGS said...

What a lovely way to spend time with your family. It's lovely that they have traditions like this and hopefully as the boys get older, this trip will be more and more fun for all of you! I know that my husband's siblings did NOT enjoy family gatherings for a while (messed up schedules, poor sleep, poor nutrition, etc.), but now that the kids are older/do not need constant supervision, it's so much fun for everyone!

Jeanie said...

Just delighted that you had a great time at the lake, and I love that the boys can get to know their cousins. It sounds like a fabulous time, apart from the sleeping!

Jenny said...

Oh yes- solo parenting is hard! Luckily you had family there to help during the day- but they won't be there when the boys wake up in the middle of the night. Still, it's so good you got away. I change of scenery is so nice, and the boys got to see their cousins!

Grateful Kae said...

Aww, cute in the glasses!!! :-)

Glad you had a nice weekend! The whole sleep thing is always challenging when traveling with younger kids, or really any time multiple family members have to share a room. We currently have my sister;s family, my parents, and the 4 of us all staying in our 4 bedroom house... We have my parents staying in Asher's room, Asher crashing on the floor in Ethan's room, us in our room, my sister and BIL in the guest room (in the finished basement), and then her 3 kids in sleeping bags in our basement rec room floor! NOT ideal as they are not in a bedroom with a closed door and they're all together, but we just don't have any other bedrooms!! They've been doing okay though for the most part. But I know it's just so complicated whenever multiple families are staying together... but unless someone has a ginormous house with tons of rooms, there's usually no good way to avoid the whole room sharing thing sometimes!

Mom of Children said...

Yay for solo travel with the kiddos! Ugh, I have shared the room with both kids in Iceland and omg the first night was brutal. The second night I gave them children's melatonin, I just couldn't do it. Fell asleep no problem. It looks so wonderful to be surrounded by family and celebrating our country. We didn't do much. A friend came over to see the kids, we barbecued, and that's pretty much it. Fireworks were at 8PM and that is wayyyyyy past our bedtime. Especially mine ;) So we showed them the footage of Macy's fireworks from last year.

San said...

How wonderful that you were able to spend a long weekend with your family. It's so precious to see the kids all play and get along! :)

I am sorry about the not-so-ideal sleep pattern. I'd do horribly on bad sleep.

Stephany said...

Paul in his glasses! My heart!

I'm glad you had a fun getaway with the boys, even if sleep was horrible and solo parenting was exhausting. But it sounds like such a fun, memory-making weekend with your family! Also, Will looks SO GROWN in that photo of him on the sand. AHH!

Anne said...

There is nothing cuter than a little kid in glasses... but oh, that sleep, Lisa. What a horrible night. I can't even imagine how you could function the next day (and almost win at bean bags, too? when you're sleep deprived? impressive!). Sounds like it was a wonderful time with family.

Anonymous said...

Oh sounds like such a fun lake weekend!!! I was so thankful for the long holiday weekend!!!
Lori