When Ben spoke about the trip to Spain, I reluctantly agreed to let them go. It wasn't my happy choice, but it was progressively joyful submission. I did put in an appeal to please make sure we took some time off. I felt it was much needed already and it would be even more so considering that we really hadn't had time off. Like really time "off" phones off, no business but our family's business of "being" all there, with each other. We were going to try to even go away for it, but circumstances made it complicated and we ended up opting for a "staycation". We planned every single day, just to make sure we wouldn't just putz away the time because we had nowhere to go. We did it. We started out and pushed through even when a tummy bug reared its ugly head and kept changing our plans on the go. We were very diligent to stay away from our phones. The downside to that is very few pictures, but here are a few.
We did "Family Olympics" (Ben's idea), which included all kinds of water balloon tossing (especially at parents), and somehow culminated in this epic madness where the kids covered our shower caps with shaving cream and "shot" cheese puffs at us. It was supposed to be a competition where whoever got the most cheese puffs to stick was the winner, but everyone was so thrilled at tossing them at our heads and seeing them stick that it ended up being a free for all!
Dinner was by the fire, hot dogs + s'mores. Adriana was already complaining of stomach pain by then. That night we camped in the backyard. Ben told us a made up story -- AND had to have broken a world record in doing so! He actually fell asleep while telling the story! I don't think the kids noticed! Haha! It was fun sleeping all together in the tent. Breakfast was also outside (full camping experience!). Then we went inside, showered and got dressed and took off for Ottawa. We were heading to the Museum of Nature!
It was so much fun. What little we could do of it. Adriana really began having serious stomach pain half way through our visit and we left early with the promise to soon return.
On Tuesday we went to Alexandria Bay and had a picnic. Adriana, Benny, and I were not feeling well, so our plans to visit Boldt Castle were dismissed. We drove to Watertown, to check in into our hotel room. We had found a hotel with a pool and figured the sick people could rest in the room while the healthy ones could enjoy the pool. This is how Benny spent the afternoon... my sweet boy. The greatest disappointment for both him and Adriana was to have to miss dinner at Panera.
Giselle had a blast from the past! She picked up the phone and asked "Is this how you use to do it, Mom?" Ben, Giselle and Elena went to buy dinner for those who could eat. We ate in our room. The next morning for breakfast, everyone was feeling pretty good, so we all headed down to enjoy the courtesy breakfast at the hotel. We had to take separate tables because the small dining room was so packed and tables were too tiny. But we managed --not without many puzzling stares-- to organize ourselves and enjoy a peaceful breakfast. As we were making kids plates and organizing the children, a young man approached me to ask whether I knew where he might find the butter. I told him and he said: "I figured if anyone would know, it had to be you... umm... you know... being a mom..." and with a smile left his sentence unfinished. I laughed. Cramped kitchen area, and this young man's bold move, and suddenly a couple senior ladies were more eager to ask where I was from, were all the children ours, you know... the usual questions. By the time we were wrapping up, most of the people in the room had left. One of the senior ladies came back in the room, gave us a $20 and said "I know this isn't much these days, but you have such a beautiful family, please buy the kids some ice cream!" We were so touched by her gesture.
We checked out and went looking for the Zoo. It was a bit sad, to be honest. We saw a lot of empty cages, for some reason, with no indication as to why. So the excitement of seeing the owl, the bald eagle, among other animals we had been anticipating quickly wore off, especially as symptoms of the nasty virus began to resurface.
Giselle and Victoria were the cutest, though! They walked most of the time together, just like this.
The bears did not disappoint, though! And Giselle enthusiastically asked if she could pull out my phone and take a picture of one. This is her picture. We wrapped up the day with a playground across the street from the zoo, until my stomach hurt so much that all I wanted was to curl up in the front seat. Well, I really would have preferred a bed, but at that point, the front seat was good enough.
We began the drive home. Considering how everybody was feeling, Friday we didn't go to Paul Smith's visitor Center as we had planned, and we just stayed home allowing for bodies to sleep and tummies to rest. Ben had to pack and get ready for his great Tough Mudder adventure the next day, so it wasn't going to be a bad thing to just stay put. We watched movies, played games, listened to audio books and took it as easy as we could.
We made the best of it and had a great time just enjoying each other as much as we could. Adriana and I napped together. Ben and Elena colored together. We bought a few new games and we all got chances to play at different times in different combinations of the whole of us. It definitely wasn't what we had planned, but it still was an opportunity to care for each other and the memories built are just as valuable and precious to us!