On the Fourth of July

This year my parent's rented a cabin in Big Bear for the fourth of July weekend.  To say we were all excited to get away is an understatement.  I spent the entire week before hand on the phone with sisters and moms deciding who was bringing what, who was cooking what, and most importantly, who was bringing the beer and board games.  A couple days before we went I was telling Griffin about what we were going to do.  "Thursday, when Daddy gets home, we're all going to go up to the mountains and stay in a cabin with Gammie, and Papa, and Auntie Sarah, and Auntie Jessie and Uncle Chris!"  No response.  "It's going to be like camping, except we're staying in a house."  "We're camping at Gammie and Poppy's house?" he replied, mildly interested.  "Well, no we're staying somewhere else.  But Poppys bringing his canoe, and you can probably go fishing-"  "WE'RE GOING SISHING??!!  I HAF TO GET MY SPIDERMAN SISHING POLE!  WHEN ARE WE WEAVING?  ARE WE WEAVING AFTER THIS NAP?!  DID YOU GET MY SISHING POLE OUT OF THE SWOSET? (closet)" 

So he was a little excited after that. He even slept with his fishing pole up until we left.  We hit mild traffic on the way up, total travel time about three hours (not so bad for a holiday, I think).  The kids slept most of the way, but both were awake while we climbed up the mountain, and thats when things got interesting.  Ever since I was pregnant with the kids I now get car sick.  I get car sick when Josh drives to the grocery store.  I get car sick when he pulls into our parking spot.  So I came fully prepared and was utilizing my deep breaths, concentrating on the road and slowly drinking my water.  About half way up the mountain, when I started congratulating myself on not feeling even a little woozy is when Parker started crying.  Screaming.  Thinking it was the pressure on her ears we both frantically tried to calm her down, telling her to suck on her binky thinking that would help her ears.  And then the hot pink projectile vomit started.  Maybe slurpees weren't the best on the road treat.  So we cleaned her up and the car best we could and made it the rest of the way without incident.  The rest of the weekend was spent lounging by the lake, lounging in the cabin, and eating anything and everything under the sun.  We played lots of board games and discovered that Chris, while in general very mild mannered plays board games like a Nazi general, he has no mercy for anyone, even his adorable wife.  We also laughed hysterically as the later we played Scattergories, the more insane Mom's answers were.  "Oh an insect that starts with a 'B'?  I got earthworm, aren't we doing E?  We're not?!  Oh well, no one else got it, so can I get the point?"  Um no Mom.   On our last day there we met up with Josh's family (who also rented a cabin for the weekend) at the Big Bear Alpine Sled.  If you've never been there (and I hadn't) they have this gigantic toboggan run you "sled" down on a little, well, sled on wheels.  You have to go up the chair lift to get to the top, thats how long the run is.  Griffin just about died, he loved that thing so.  And I will say that we all loved that thing so.  The sled has a hand brake so you can go as slow or as fast as you want, and its just pure fun.  Fin went down with every single one of us at least once (Parker was denied because she wasn't two yet, but Nanny made it up to her with strawberry ice cream).  They also had a water slide, and when we were on the chair lift Fin said he wanted to go on it.  I thought, there's absolutely no way you would ever go down that.  So I told him, oh well, you have to have a bathing suit.  But he kept persisting, and when I said, well, actually your suit is in the car, he flipped.  He kept telling everyone, "Oh!  I fought (thought) I didn't have a swimming suit, but I did!  Yeah."  with his little hands raised in a mock, "aren't I just so silly!" expression.  And he did it!  Josh had to throw him down it (and here's the major distinction between moms and dads, the second he balked I would have been all, okay, we don't have to do it! and dads just go, oh you'll be fine and toss em down).  And when he hit the bottom he looked like a little doggy trying desperately to keep his head above the water.  He shot out so fast, none of knew he was coming.  But we were all so ecstatic that he did it, we were clapping and shouting like he'd won a medal.  Even Parker got into it, exclaiming over and over "Yeah Pippin!! You did it! You did it Pippin!"  It was all very sweet.  We all can't wait till next year.  

Oh, and since I promised a mention, thanks for all the pictures Jessie, Sarah and Kim!  You all got some really great ones!