Staycation

Remember when spring break used to mean weighing the pros and cons of Spain verses the French Riviera? When the biggest concern of the week was whether or not you would meet a hot guy or accidentally drink too much and fall off his yacht? No? Ok, me neither. Apparently I've been watching too many episodes of Gossip Girl.

But at least there was sun involved and I'm pretty sure I didn't have to convince the people around me to stop eating floss out of the garbage can.

Well those carefree days are over and I for one am not going down without a fight. I am not going to wallow in the fact that we have no money and more rain than the Amazon. We have/had 10 full days to enjoy some precious family time and fun will be had by all.

Let's start with Monday's agenda:

Sleep in

Make a pancake breakfast

Swimming at the aquatic center

long naps

Happy hour at Gustav's

Redbox the Tourist

It was a perfect day.

Tuesday we decided to take our traveling chaos downtown for a city adventure. We started with a ride on the tram which we've always wanted to do but never got around to.

It was pretty thrilling for Ava who declared, (to a full crowd) "this is the most fun thing you've ever taken me to in my whole entire life." I wasn't sure if I should be happy that she was so easily pleased or embarrassed that this whole group of people thought we were the lamest parents ever.

Then we cozied up in Starbucks with warm drinks and doughnuts before taking the train to our favorite toy store, Finnegans.

I thought we had probably pushed our no-naptime-luck with the kids but Ben insisted that we try this trendy hole in the wall sandwich shop. I took one look at the six crowded tables inside and the line out the door and declared to Ben that it was slightly delusional of us to think that we could make this work. I mean seriously. We're not in our twenties anymore. We don't just pop in and out of trendy sandwich shops like we don't have a care in the world. We have more baggage than a crowd of gypsies.

But Ben had faith and not only finagled us a table but a highchair and a place for the diaper bag. Sure it was crowded with a mix of hippies, business people and transvestites, Ava was singing, "Lord I lift you name on high" at the top of her lungs, and I had to shield her from vulger artwork in the bathroom. Nothing could bother me after I had my Mexican coke and pulled pork sandwich with apple slaw. I just looked at my handsome husband with awe for having faith that we could do something spontaneous and fun, even with two high maintenance little people who demand a steady diet of chicken nuggets and poop their pants at random. Ahh...it was pure magic.

And Wednesday I took four hours all to myself and managed to fit in a haircut, pedicure, Target run, trip to Nordstrom Rack (where I found two pairs of amazing shoes in the 75% off bin!), the Library, the farmers market, and a long walk.

All in all it has been a fabulous week and I have learned a few things. First, I need to keep my expectations low and enjoy the little things. Second, my kids are amazing and much more flexible than I give them credit for. Third, I need to stop watching trashy shows on the CW. And finally, sex in the afternoon is so much better than at ten at night. Am I right?! Maybe I can convince Ben's school district to give him noon to one off.

Only 2 more months until summer vacation. Whoo Whoo!