Another Trip!

We just came home from our last trip – this time to visit the in-laws. Like before, we all were particularly careful with quarantining before the trip, and all got tested before the trip also. (The Prof and I were the only ones who actually received RESULTS before the trip – South Carolina is absolutely ridiculous. One of the family members didn’t get results until TWENTY DAYS after taking the test. Unacceptable.) While together, we didn’t go to restaurants and wore masks as necessary. It was one of the best trips we’ve ever had – for lots of reasons, but I’m sure partly because we were all so hungry for company. As always, when we first arrived, we shepherded the children directly into the giant water-filled playpen, which is where they spent most of the week.

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Last year on the first day of our trip, the Prof grabbed a pool noodle and blew through it to create bubbles at the other end. A bunch of water came out – and so did a STREAM of roaches. The children screamed and scampered up the ladder to the pool deck, and he had to spend several minutes fishing all of the wriggling, drowning roaches out before the children would return to the water. Immediately after this happened, I went on amazon and purchased a bag of small 4-5 inch cut sections of pool noodle (for use in crafting) and a bag of plastic roaches, intending to super glue a roach inside each pool noodle and leave one in each person’s stocking at Christmas. It just didn’t happen in time for Christmas, so I knew I had to do something with it all before this year’s trip or it would be too late to do anything fun with them and I’d be stuck with a giant bag of pool noodle chunks. I noodled over it for a while (ha!) and ultimately decided to fashion flowers out of them for a wreath. I wrapped a foam core wreath in wide purple canvas ribbon, tied a brown silk ribbon at the bottom, and then used florist’s wire to wire on the “flowers” and make long strings of green “vines.” This was my inspiration. I sat down one Saturday evening with a G&T and The Repair Shop on Netflix (HIGHLY recommend, it’s so soothing), and got it done. Liam helped me make the little bees. This isn’t quite the finished product – I filled it in with some more green and wired on some of the plastic roaches to complete the joke – but this is mostly done. This wouldn’t impress Martha Stewart but I had fun with it, and now it hangs out at their pool, rain or shine.

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We drove up on Friday, and spent the weekend at the pool. On Monday, I billed 10 hours – I tried to put all of my meetings and responsibilities onto Monday, so that I could take Tuesday off. Because on Tuesday, my in-laws rented a boat for a day, and I was gonna go out with the family and not try to desperately whisper into conference calls all day.

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I promise that I had my phone put away for most of this day, but when it was out, I was all about portraits of the kids. Below, my 7 year old niece is pleased with herself because she shimmied her pool cover-up over top of her lifejacket. She got a kick out of being “big.”

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It was a bluebird day – a total stunner. The boat had a shade in the back, and we took turns hiding from the sun back there. My kids wore rash guards and my nieces were frequently lathered up with sunscreen, but everyone still got a little sunburn under the eyes.

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The kids climbed up the ladder and dove off the side into 40 foot deep water for HOURS on end (always in life jackets, even though all of them are strong swimmers), and the adults floated alongside and drank Sweetwater seltzer. At one point, we had to swim to escape a barge that was carrying a bright yellow Caterpillar digger, heading towards the construction site of a fancy house on a promontory. I sacrificed a Sweetwater to drag our poor blind Liam out of the way. He obvi can’t wear his glasses in the water, and when we pointed to the fast-approaching barge, he squinted at the yellow arch of the digger’s arm and said “is it a moving McDonald’s?” I grabbed him by the back of the lifejacket and dragged him out of the way (this was not at all a dramatic rescue, we likely would have been yards clear of it, but when it’s bearing down on your baby you go GET HIM, eventually giving up on holding your 75% full can of alcoholic seltzer above the waves and just paddling).

Craig, of course, told us as soon as we were all back on the boat (and very far from the marina) that he had to go Number Two. After weighing our limited options, the Prof swam him to that tiny island you see in the background of the bottom right pic above, clambered over the rocky shoreline, and found a spot in the center to pop a squat. Luckily for all, I was formerly a Girl Scout and had remembered to bring a roll of tp, carefully tucked into a gallon Ziplock bag. Everyone else sat and ate fruit snacks and Pringles while we waited for our illustrious Potty Posse to return to the boat.

We motored on from Poop Island and Fancy Rich Person Construction Zone (which was actually quite loud), and after several minutes of puttering along, we pulled up onto a sandy beach and spread out a blanket for a picnic of turkey and swiss sandwiches, Pringles, and Capri Suns. The children were torn between being ravenous and being desperate to go in the water, but we forced them to sit long enough to eat a decent amount. After lunch, they floated in the shallows a bit, while we adults listened to classic rock and relaxed.

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After lunch, everyone was a lil’ sleepy. Craiggy fell asleep in the sun, so I hoisted him up (lifejacket and towel and all – he was very awkward) and laid him down under the shade. He snoozed for maybe 10 minutes, until we found a new place to pull the boat over and swim, and then all of a sudden he must’ve heard the kids splashing so he leapt up and jumped right over the side, mostly (but not fully) awake. It was so funny to see him go from zero to sixty like that.

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After our last swim, everyone was wiped. So we gathered up our snoozy children and bundled them back on the boat, and headed for the marina and home and hot showers and dinner.

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Wednesday was more swimming and for me, more working, while the kids did a little hike and decorated some cupcakes. Jack made me take 100 pictures of his dang cupcakes, he was rull conflicted about eating them.

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Wednesday evening we borrowed a projector and screen from a neighbor and held a “Dive In Movie.” It didn’t get dark until pretty late, and Craig did not make it to the end of The Princess Bride, but everyone else did. It was fun! I got in the water with the kids, mostly as a way to escape the mosquitoes but also because, come on, it’s a dive in movie. The kids were great – they climbed up onto floaties and paid really good attention for the most part. It was a lot of fun.

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We put the kiddos to bed pretty late Wednesday night, and they slept in quite a while on Thursday. Then they all went to see my SIL’s house, about an hour away, while I stayed behind. My excuse was that I “had to work” (and I did spend a lot of this day working), but my FIL, BIL, husband and I had all contrived to throw a little poolside party for my MIL and SIL, both of whom had big birthdays in 2020, the actual WORST year for it. My SIL turned 40 back in February, and we had all planned to take a trip to Charleston to celebrate in March. This got bumped and eventually canceled due to the ‘rona, and she still has never had any major celebration. My MIL turns 70 at the end of August. We put together a big photo book for her, and we decided to throw a little celebration while everyone was together and give her the book then, and also celebrate my SIL at the same time. We had boxed lunches ordered, made custom masks, and invited family plus one set of neighbors who wore masks the whole time. My FIL and I did all the decorating while everyone else was away.

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I think the girls were surprised – they walked up from the house to see the paper lanterns and bunting, and I handed each of them a chilled drink and a mask. We had delicious street tacos and a cake that repeated the theme from our masks, and it was a lovely evening.

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When I bought the decorations, I also bought some purple waterproof fake candles – designed for placing into some sort of floating decoration, but we used them as diving toys for the kids. They cost maybe 15 cents apiece and were one of my best investments of the summer!

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On Friday, I was back to working again, and my MIL, FIL, and spouse went to load a truck with some inherited furniture that was being distributed to various family members. I took a long lunch break with my SIL to take the kids – in cute matching shirts! – to the botanical gardens. Jack was so super tweeny I was ready to chuck him in the lake, but he eventually worked through it and we had a nice, if somewhat hot and humid, afternoon.

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That night we had nachos for dinner and packed up – for the week had come to an end and on Saturday, we would all drive home.

It was an excellent week, and coming home was a hard landing. We got some of the inherited furniture including this new coffee table and the green chairs.

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I have already banged up my knees something fierce on those corners, but it’s a great statement piece. I just need to remember it is BIGGER than our former coffee table. Bigger and pointier.

Now we are home. This past week, the boys started virtual school. It was kind of a shit-show and I don’t feel it necessary to memorialize, except that I hope once we get into a routine, it will be easier for all (mostly me).

As an update to this post, wherein I was lamenting having been stuck in the house for three weeks (it has now been five months) – look at my filler greenery now! These leaves and stalks are from a bouquet I bought in March of this year, before quarantine started. They have now grown a pretty impressive root system, and my word is that metaphor a bit too on the nose. I’m going to plant them in the next few days. These things are thriving in this old bottle, but I feel like it’s time to put them in soil.

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I will close, as has apparently become my custom, with some recipes. I haven’t planned next week’s meals yet but here is what we had last week – it was GOOD stuff. Have a lovely week! And if school is starting for you, I hope it goes well/better than ours did! We got this. (She sighs, trying to fake it til we make it.)

Onion, spinach, and cheddar flaky pastries and copycat Panera broccoli cheese soup. The pastries were AMAZING. Such good stuff. The soup is great too, but I’ve made it before, whereas these pastries were a first try and MAN am I gonna make them again. A lot.

Balsamic Chicken. This was very good – I served it over boiled potatoes, and with asparagus on the side.

Whole fish – this time I made trout. The snapper was better – I think I might have cooked the trout a bit too long – but it was still good stuff. We had leftover takeout fried rice and more asparagus on the side. I’m currently VERY INTO cooking whole fish.

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Ground turkey enchiladas. I mixed leftover white rice, rinsed canned black beans, cooked turkey, and shredded Mexi cheese and wrapped it in tortillas, then smothered in green chile.