How many times have you looked forward to a vacation so you can kick back and relax with no worries about work or the daily grind, only to find that by the time your vacation is over you need some more days off to recover? Well, I think this is the first vacation I've ever taken where that didn't happen. We spent 7 days in Gearhart, OR on the coast with most of the kids and spouses and it was a lot of fun. We missed Ashley and Drew because Ashley is "with child" and the time is approaching that she should soon deliver.
We rented a house with enough rooms for everybody and cooked and ate in most every night. Each couple was responsible for a different dinner and I must say I'm more confident that my older kids aren't going to starve to death. Their dinners were all excellent. We were able to drive up and down the coast a little and see the sights. The boys went crabbing one day while the girls shopped. We didn't catch enough to feed us so we bought some more crab to supplement what we caught (which if I do the math, lets see I think it adds up to, wait, let me check, carry the one,oh yeah, NONE.) Expensive lunch but muy deliciouso.
We also hit the beach a few times and had fun in the sun and surf. The last night we went to the beach at night so we could experience the visually stunning pyrotechnic display of burning steel wool. Cameron had done it before so we were all sure it was a safe way to amaze and astound. The only problem turned out to be that the wire I bought to secure it and swing it around in the dark which was too thick so it was difficult to fasten it. Turns out that was an important detail because during the last display of the evening the burning chunk of steel wool came loose from the wire Cameron was swinging and flew straight into McKenna's hair and caught it on fire. I had my back turned and missed the whole thing but I didn't hear anybody yell "stop, drop, and roll." It was out in just a second so no harm done. I thought her hair looked just fine afterwards. I guess it could have been worse if she had used a lot of flammable hair styling products. She's such a good sport to let us catch her on fire her first vacation with our family and not hold any grudges.
All in all I think we all had a great time. We were able to spend a week together without any punches being thrown or verbal assaults launched; or at least that I'm aware of. Now that everyone has left for school and our house is unusually quiet again I realized that I kind of enjoy the chaos. It's makes things interesting. I hope that we can do it again one day, with everybody, and without the flaming finale.
