Play Hard

I got married way too young.

One of the benefits of getting married young is not having preconceived notions and ideas for marriage, family, and life.  Who thinks much about such things as a teenager?  So as each decision or issue has presented itself in our marriage, family, and life, Mr. Man and I have had to work together to figure things out.  It's not easy.  And we don't always make the best choices (I don't think there is always a "right" choice).  To be certain, we don't always agree.  And heaven knows we occasionally make separate choices.  But one decision we have made together, early on, is to go on a family vacation every year.  With.just.our.little.family.

Even as students we squirreled away small amounts of money for our planned-in-advance vacation.  We still have yet to do Disney (I have zero desire to EVER to Disney) or the most trendy or extravagant destinations, but I do love when our little family is on vacation.

Day-to-day in our family is pretty regimented for the most part.  We have budgets, schedules, and charts. We work hard.  Each and every one of us.  However, part of the benefit of working hard is having the chance (and, in Mr. Man's case - the time and the money) to play hard.

I think we're quite good at it.

This year we traveled back up to beautiful Flathead Lake with our camper and spent a week at a camping resort.  Seriously.  We were just meters away from the swimming pool, hot tub, playground, showers, laundry... delightful.  We booked our "spot" way in advance.  And it was perfect.

We were one of the only pop-up trailer campers there... surrounded by mostly elderly people from hot places like Arizona or Florida who were spending their summers camped out in humongous RVs (our site also provided cable and internet connections for those who had TVs, and our kiddos were happy for some ipad/ipod time here and there).  I can't count the number of retirees (walking their dogs) who stopped by to chat and reminisce about back when they had pop-ups and kids to take camping.  Either that, or they were curious with all the bikes and stuff just how many kids we had with us.  I always answered: "just four."

Typical camping site (neat, sleek, nothing outside)

OUR camping site:

Doesn't it look like fun?!
We're the party site!











The nights were warm.  We're very used to mountainous chilly evenings, and it was an unexpected change not to have to turn on our heater!  Unlike our "neighbors" we didn't have an air conditioning unit, but we did have the fresh night air and clothes and covers to kick off.

After the first couple of days we buckled down and made a small flexible schedule so that we would fit in the activities we most wanted to do.  We had some unexpected medical issues to deal with, the kids made some local friends, we discovered some new and exciting stores, parks, and boat rental locations, and even learned how to play pickle ball together!

I love me some family vacation!

After dessert every night and no chores or bedtimes, I have a feeling this week is going to be a little rough around here.  Play hard!