Lately I've been playing Scrabble with my seven year old and for our vacation I decided to grab the game and take it with us. It must be telling that at least for part of our vacation we spent the time spelling. (We were truly committed to cost effective fun.) T-r-i-d-e-n-t was my high point...a surprise for my husband and mother.
I can't remember laughing as much while playing at 2 a.m. with my mother who accused us of cheating, and my husband defending his vocabulary with a host of explicit adult phrases. Although his law school conversations were quite the point of interest while dating - he tells me this week, "I've never played Scrabble before." We had large doses of rip roaring fun with politically incorrect words and misspelled slang to establish supreme spelling rights.
We failed to have a dictionary on hand and that was the least of our rule issues. Challenges were handled a bit off the cuff and reworking letters happened often for folks who truly can't spell worth a dang. Spell check has made us pretty lazy. Riden anyone? Nutbag? I am so not kidding. And yes, I did indeed win three very competitive games.
Yet, I'm not posting about winning. Our vacation was based on the root word - vacate. As in - all I wanted to do was to make sure that I was able to vacate my home and traditional obligations. Our experiences were based on many a oxymoron. For some small period of time it didn't matter that I did laundry at the Holiday Inn - I didn't do it at home. It didn't matter that we had bad takeout - I ate in my grandmother's dinning room, as she watched on while 3 generations soaked up her cable, couch, hospitality and love. (Not to mention she had gone to the Senior Center that day - blog readers - the one I enrolled her in!)
My daughter drifted off to sleep in "Uncle Brook's room" a place that gets smaller and smaller every time I go home - but seemed larger than life when my mother placed him closest to her room and the bathroom when we first moved in 25 years ago.
We went to the pool, plenty. I'll post later about the swim lessons at the Country Club - they deserve more than a brief mention. Yet, my daughter only cared that for consecutive days she was immersed in sun and fun. The process of learning to swim coupled with French braids and the ability to go to the pool daily has made her very happy. The boys identified watching cable (Disney Channel unlimited) at Bigmama's as one of their favorite Summer experiences - just when I was ready to pay for another week of camp!
So, we spent a bit of time with family and friends. We played together, walked in 90 degree heat to visit zoo animals, climbed the rock wall on our Children's Museum membership (free bonus!) and I ate too much sugar. I just wanted to document cheap thrills before you endure a 3 page post about some future Disney trip that we can afford or the first time I take all the kidlets abroad. Right now my daughter is at a sleep over where a dear friend took 10 pre-teen girls to Benihana and jewelry making. (You go girl!) My sons are eating cereal for dinner (yes, I said it) and I'm blogging about the power of words.
Simple.
Happy.
Together.
Family.
Friends.
Summer.
and to top it off - I'm getting ready to learn how to swim. Funny. Vacation. This will have to replace my slacker camp or camp underachiever post. I think we done good.
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