North Carolina Life of Leisure

I had a REAL vacation day yesterday for the first time in what feels like the history of my life.  Sure, I have gone to Disneyland with my kids and loved it, I have gone on trips away from my kids for work, and I have gone shopping for groceries alone, but this was a genuine vacation day.  I think I responded to a grand total of two emails and other than taking a few pictures, my phone just lay limp and useless most of the day while I enjoyed my children.

So what did I do with said day?

• A 4th of July Praid.  Wait, we left Utah, sorry, parade.  It was really not much fun of a parade for adults, very hot, lots of political campaigning, and no horses.  BUT, the kids absolutely loved it because unlike the west coast, throwing out hard pieces of HFCS is very much alive and kicking out here so it was like a constant outpouring of sugared children's pleasure, over, and over, and over again.  Fortunately some people are very smart and brought a bag for all our kids to collect in a socialist approach so instead of eating candy, the kids were madly hunting it to put in the bag.  Amazingly, no one has even asked about that candy so it served the wonderful purpose of hours of entertainment.  One firetruck even threw out some gourmet otter pop types (mango, papaya, etc.) followed by another who handed out ice cold water.
• Spent about 3 hours at the swimming pool down at the clubhouse.  It is so close to this magical house that we were able to take the golf cart and another truckload of kids (in the truckbed no less!) all in swimsuits and towels.  We had so many kids with us that everyone else in attendance almost immediately left so it was like a private pool party.
• Kayak on the lake
• Bonfire complete with s'mores
• Watch the first half of a Marx Brothers Classic (fell asleep partway into it)
• Played pool and was soundly beat by three children under the age of 13

Add to this spending time with lots of really great kids and their wonderful parents and you have one of the best days of my vacationing life.

For the upcoming days in which I am working and not vacationing, it still beats my normal day-to-day because of the following factors:

• Handcrafted mattresses.  I might have blogged about this before but it is noteworthy that the mattresses here were built locally and they are absolutely divine.  It is like sleeping on a cloud.
• Homemade rolls and bread everyday (there is not a purchased bread package in sight!)
• Kids galore (the count right now is only 7 but yesterday and Friday on we are at 12)
• The sunlight coming up in the morning filling this very windowed house with light 
• Greenery as far as the eye can see disrupted only by the view of the lake.
• Distraction from the Great Erb Migration of 2010
• Gigantic house with lots and lots of space to be comfy, read a book, play with endless toys, get lost in the lego room, go down the indoor house slide (freshly waxed with Turtle Wax!) and recline in the automated theater chairs (I know there was a lot there but I posted about it a while back so this is just a refresher
• The feeling of being with family, having my own set of parents that love me and my kids as their own, and knowing that I am welcome here as one of the kids--I have been abundantly blessed to have a second family whose only distinguishing factor reminds me that they are not my own is a much better set of genetics in the area of Body Mass Index and looks.  Too bad that part couldn't be nurture too so I could be as beautiful as those Craig girls.

A pic of the house (in another season so missing the greenery, more pics to come):

Here is a pic of past shenanigans by the chillins around these parts and the view of the backyard:

As a side note, I highly recommend North Carolina.