Need a Vacation

That's right. I need a vacation from my vacation. Having family visit is stressful enough, what with all of the cleaning and hoping the children will be on their best behavior. Of course, it's even more stressful when you have to try to make plans and coordinate schedules and your visitors don't make any effort to help out with making the plans. It's kind of hard to just be "on call" for whatever they decide they want to do that day when you have children. With the baby it's no big deal, but with the older girls who want to do things, it's hard to tell them, "No, you can't do that because Grandpa might decide to do something today." Then when you wait around half the day and Grandpa decides he's not doing anything with you that day, how do you explain to them that they stayed home and missed out on fun for no reason?

The only really good day I had was the 4th of July when we went to the beach. The weather on Anna Maria Island was beautiful all day long. We got over three inches of rain at home, but there was barely a cloud in the sky at the beach. The water was warm like bathwater, and Katie really enjoyed her first time in the Gulf. Sarah and Emily got a bit sunburned from staying in the sun all day, but not really bad. All they needed was a little aloe to take care of it.

Also, on Sunday I celebrated my 12th Mommiversary. That's right, my eldest baby turned 12 years old, marking the 12th anniversary since the day I became a mom. Oh yeah, and it was Sarah's birthday, too. We planned to take Sarah out to the restaurant of her choice for dinner Sunday night, but it ended up being a much bigger ordeal than a simple family dinner. I ended up inviting my father and his wife and son to join us because they will not be in town for the party we are having in a couple of weeks for Sarah & Emily. After finding out that we were all going out to dinner together, my aunt and uncle decided to come along as well so that they could see Sarah on her birthday. So, our small family dinner turned into a large party of 10. Then, of course, I had to explain to other family members why they had not been invited to Sarah's dinner.

Oh, and I would love to post some pics from our day at the beach, but unfortunately my camera lens has gone foggy for some reason and I could only take blurry pics at the beach. Hopefully, I can get it fixed soon without spending a ton of money.