Spring Break, The End

It’s sad how quickly Thursday arrived.  While I was preoccupied with eating root beer floats and popcorn every night, the days of the week sneakily ticked themselves off the calendar.  I can be distracted from anything with food.  Do I smell a ham steak?  Just a sec…

By Thursday we decided that it would be alright to take it easy for a day and do nothing exciting.  The kids played Super Mario Bros, Tetris, and Dr. Mario on our old school Super Nintendo while I made a chocolate love cake for Michael.  My brother and sister-in-law sent me some heart shaped cake pans a couple of years ago for Valentine’s Day.  Eva cleverly calls them love cakes. It seemed like a love cake kind of day.  

Here’s the best part of baking:

I overbaked the cakes because I was busy whipping butts at Dr. Mario but the supremely scrumptious peanut butter frosting made up for my foul.  The frosting was so delicious, it’s possible that we ate the leftovers with pretzels and on crepes.  Possibly.

After the love cakes we trekked to the outlet stores for shoes.  My nieces were successful in that errand and I picked up a couple of new workout clothes.  Eva climbed around in the tree house toy and then we were on our way.  It had been such a tiresome day, what with all the video game playing and cake baking that we drove through Burger King for nourishment.   The nourishment came in the form of ice cream cones and french fries.  Yummy.  We rounded out the evening with popcorn and a movie.

Friday found us excited to hit the waterpark.  I had never been to this particular park but had been told by numerous people that it would be fun.  Michael was going to join us but was unfortunately held up at work and wouldn’t be able to make it.  I was sorely disappointed but forged on.  I’m glad I did because it turned out to be a good time indeed.  I went down a couple of water slides and was instantly dizzy so I stuck with Eva for most of the day in the kiddie area.  I found the small kiddie slides to be optimal for an old geezer like myself.  The only downside was that Eva was particularly fond of the yellow slide and my butt was particularly fond of getting stuck on the yellow slide.  The water pressure wasn’t sufficient for such a plump rider but it didn’t stop me from going down the slide 804 times. On my 805th meander down, I heard someone calling my name.  Thinking I was about to be reprimanded for exceeding the weight limit of the kiddie slide, I looked up to find it was Michael calling my name.  He had found a way to get out of work.  Yay!

It really was the perfect day after that.  We had a picnic lunch on the lawn in the sun and then spent the rest of the day climbing stairs and getting dizzy. 

On Saturday we were good and religious and spent the day watching General Conference.  The Elders came over to join us and what a lovely day it was.  Cam made insane sweet pork nachos and then rib roast for dinner.  (I really shouldn’t be surprised that I got stuck on the yellow water slide.)

Jackson was the hero of the day when he fetched the sling shot chicken toy that had been stuck in the window all week.  It was amusing to watch him with the 100 foot pole trying to nudge the chicken from the shelf. 

I kept waiting for him to pull an Ernest and knock someone into the lake with the massive stick but it didn’t happen.  (Only because I don’t have a lake.)

And just like that, Spring Break was over.  I said my good-byes before I went to bed because I can’t bear to watch my loved ones drive away from my house.  I woke up Sunday morning to a painfully quiet house and wished I could rewind the week.  It was sincerely one of the most pleasant visits I’ve ever enjoyed.  Ever.

Eva loved having her cousins around to play with.  Britta patiently played with her on the hammock and got her dressed most days.  Spencer laid out Lincoln Log towns for her.  Kate and Jackson let her babble at them and lovingly responded to her questions.  Everyone treated her like a princess and it warmed my heart to see the natural bond of family. 

I was sad to go the Y alone on Monday to work out.  I was sad that no one was cracking jokes at breakfast.  I was sad that the acrid smell of teenagers was absent from Eva’s bedroom.  I was sad to wash the towels and put away the Super Nintendo. 

But I was happy as well.  Happy to have a sister who is my best friend; happy to have nieces and nephews that I’ve bossed from their infancy; happy for a brother-in-law who makes me laugh and only occasionally reminds me that I mooned him on the front porch of my parent’s house when I was a teenager; happy to share a week of my life with a remarkable group of people.

Happy Spring Break!