Day 27- Stick A Fork In It

You know how you start to get sad when your vacation is coming to a close? I have a remedy to this- just stay on vacation until you get sick of vacation. I'm pretty much all vacationed out. Don't get me wrong, it was some good times. But enough is enough. It's like I ate too much chocolate, and now I have a tummy ache. Too much of a good thing is just that, too much. The boys are also all vacationed out. Hayden asked me if 'normal people go on vacation this long', and Peyton said 'vacation was fun, but it can be over now'. We are all on each other nerves. Except of course my mom, she said she'd be sad to see us leave. I don't know how we haven't driven her nuts yet.
The last two days my motivation to get out of the house and do much has been about zilch. But, it's super hot in the house, as you all know, it's hotter here than in FL minus the air conditioning. So, not awesome. I find myself fondly remembering home like it was the good old college days or something. I said to Peyton today 'remember when we had a pool across the street and air conditioning? Remember when we saw palm trees, and our puppies? Those were the good old days'.

In addition to my motivation, I've found a direct correlation between the time spent on vacation, and the organization of the luggage. As the percentage of vacation completed increases, the percentage of things that are organized decreases. I'm pretty sure I've hit rock bottom on the organization front. I have packed three bags to go home, and I just kind of threw stuff in all of them, it's a total mess. But a mess I won't have to worry about until I get home.

Lets talk Asacation for a moment. About two weeks before we left I emailed him a very reasonable list of things to get done on Asacation. He did comment if it didn't have eating or sleeping on the list, it wasn't a true Asacation project, however, he implied he would get them done (Do you see where this is going?) Yesterday was the first day I brought it up. I said 'hey, how's that list coming'. His response was 'what was the list again?' When he started going through it he liked to use the phrase 'it's pretty much done', meaning he had the intention of possibly getting it done before I got home, but had really done none of it. He would use bogus percentages, telling me 80 percent was done- then it was 'pretty much done'- then it was 'well, I'm going to do that'. So, anyone want to take bets on how much is actually done when I get home tomorrow?

On to todays events...

I got up early this morning because it was so hot, I just couldn't sleep in the heat anymore. Calib's dad dropped him off, because they had a funeral to go to and didn't want him to miss his last day of kids college. It was so nice and refreshing to have him around. He really eased the tension between Peyton and Hayden. He knows how to handle Hayden's whineyness. Peyton knows how to instigate it.

After I dropped them off at kids college, I decided I needed to go somewhere to be in the air conditioning, so Hayden and I headed out to the library. I had meant to go earlier in the week so we could check some stuff out, but it just didn't happen. We pulled out all the where's waldo books and sat on the floor hunting for Waldo for a good hour and a half. Hayden was much better at finding Waldo than I was, but that's probably because he studies the books we have at home and knew right where Waldo is in most of the pictures.

We went out to get lunch for Calib, Peyton, and my mom and met them in my mom's office for lunch. They had been eating there all week, and I had promised the last day I would bring them lunch. It was nice to get to visit with Calib for a little more. I tried really hard not to talk about going home tomorrow, I know he is homesick, and not so excited it's still two more weeks until he'll be home. But, he's also having a good time.

Calib and Peyton went back to their last class after lunch and I took Hayden out to White Star Park in Gibsonburg to swim. I hadn't been there in years and years. The water was cool, and it was free to get in today- but it was packed. There were people everywhere, so we didn't stay all that long, we just cooled off and then headed over to DQ for some cool down ice cream style. After that we picked up Peyton and went over to the Fremont Rec Center for some more swimming. Although Hayden was totally bummed he's too short for the waterslides there. It was also packed. It made me REALLY grateful for our subdivision pool. I know the pool is open to a lot more people than just the subdivision, plus a lot of the people in Oakstead already have their own pools. Plus the fact it's always that hot, so we don't all rush to the pool when the temperature climbs that high. Either way, I didn't really appreciate all the little kids running and being out of control with parents not watching their five year old belly flopping into 2 feet of water right next to me. But you know, you do what you have to for the kids to cool down.

After the pool we headed back to my moms, I had packing to do after all. We went out for pizza, because Hayden hasn't had enough pizza this trip. (Someone is going to be quite upset when he has to eat his vegetables with dinner.) Peyton spilled spaghetti all over the floor at one point. Things have just really gotten out of control. Listening is at a premium around here, whining is in abundance, and homesickness is turning to cranky-pants-ness. After dinner, we decided the boys should water the plants in their swimsuits and we could just cool them off with the water from the hose. I then decided I'd just wash their hair and give them some soap and call it a shower. Look, we're on Day 27 here, I will do just about anything to cut some corners at this point. Don't judge me, we've been going down a slippery slope here for the last few days and I'm starting to lose it. This single parent crap stinks.

They did get a little out of hand with the hose, drenching me and my mom to the point where my mom had to take out her hearing aids. They probably played with the water for an hour. I then decided I would just wash my hair out there too, and I'll shower in the morning after I get all the luggage out to the car- I'm going to need it. After that we caught some fire flies. I poked some holes in the top of a jar, but I got a little too excited taking my frustrations out on the top of the jar and the holes ended up big enough for the bugs to crawl out (there are currently 4 lightning bugs flying around the bed room- Hayden says they are his 'own personal night light slaves'). Then we changed into our PJs and did some sparklers. Afterward I packed- and I use that term loosely- the more accurate term would be, I threw some stuff in some suitcases. Peyton wanted to play another game of hotels, so we did. I used the same interesting math concepts from the other night, and Peyton won again. Funny how that happened again.

Now the boys are arguing with each other and complaining about the heat, even though we're trying out this room air conditioner thing my mom had. It does help a little, but it's still just out of control hot. The good news is we have four fans going, so I can barely hear the arguing over them. I'll be quite glad to be home in just about 24 hours. It's finally happening- I'm going home. Asa can stop sending me my daily Porkchop pictures- and I can actually see Porkchop!

But before I do that, lets reminisce on the epic vacation, and my highlights!

Leg 1: Tampa to Fairbanks- Wild Moose sighting narrowly edges out feeding/petting the Moose at the Reindeer Farm
Leg 2: Land Portion of the cruise tour- The glass domed train ride from Anchorage to Seward (in which I also saw a wild moose family from afar) narrowly edges out walking along the river in Denali National Park
Leg 3: The Cruise- The Whale Watching Cruise narrowly edges out cruising through the Hubbard Glacier (I was REALLY sea sick that day)
Leg 4: Seattle- Being on the top of the Space Needle at sunset narrowly edges out the tide pools (I was awfully worried about kids staying upright)
Leg 5: A couple of days in Ohio and Niagara Falls- Maid of the Mist easily edges out the Tram ride to the top of the hill (though that was still really fun)
Leg 6: Last Couple Days in Ohio- Watching Grandma ride the camel narrowly edges out going out on Bob's boat on the lake. (It was her lifelong dream, after all.

Tonights self taken picture: drenched from the garden hose, but smiling- come on, I go home tomorrow!

Homesick meter: 6- Again, we're going home tomorrow!

Up Next: Did I mention we're going home tomorrow? (Actually I'll believe it when I see it, it seems as though I'm never going home) But before that I get to go to the zoo, and swing by the igloo!