Weekend Away

The kids and I went to Fox River Resort for the weekend to relax and spend some family time together. We did spend time together and we did relax but I left feeling that it was too short and I just had too many good books to read.

What did we do?
Saturday morning I got up and out of the condo early (for a getaway weekend) leaving at 6am. Why on earth would I do that you are most likely wondering? Well, I had a Missions Meeting in Gurnee at 8:00 and was driving up and back. Well, I made it as far as Morris, IL when I realized that the windshield wiper needed more than a good cleaning as the rubber tore off the arm when I tried to wipe it off. The salt from the road was totally blocking my vision and I could not get the wipers to work so I stopped to clean them off and ended up with no wipers at all on the driver’s side. It was a bit after 6am and nothing was open yet besides the gas station which conveniently didn’t have anything that would fit my car. The nice gentleman recommended I go to the auto parts store or Wal-Mart when they opened up around 8 or 9 he thought. Well, it was crazy enough to drive an hour and forty-five minutes one way for an hour meeting but I wasn’t going to risk life and limb for it! I definitely wasn’t going to sit there at the gas station for a few hours either. So like any smart person would, I cleaned my windshield really good, stocked up on wet paper towels on the passenger seat and drove back to the condo. I called the leader of the meeting explaining my absence and then… went back to sleep. NOT! I felt so bad about missing the meeting that I stayed up did my devotions and prayers and studied the maps and diagrams for Bible class until the kids woke up. Finally around 11:00 we left the resort and made our usual stop at the Super Wal-Mart. There we stocked up on grocery items for the three days. Groceries out of the way, we then found some bargains on the clearance racks. $1.00 blouses and tops for our Uganda container! I picked up 15 of the $1.00 tops, 3 backpacks at 75% off, and some sweats for the kids that were clearanced. All in all I was quite pleased. We opted not to eat out and went back to the condo for a late lunch early supper. We then decided to go to the pool.

Well, the kids went swimming and enjoyed the pool while I read a few books. I really wanted to swim but forgot the necessary attire. : ) Actually, I will not take all the blame. Jennifer and Jordan forgot to pack Mom’s swimsuit when they packed the swim bag. We have a lot of ‘routines’ that we use when we take a getaway and one of them is “The Swim Bag”. This is a distinctive blue bag that holds EVERYTHING we use or could use at the pool: Sun block, flip-flops, goggles, pool toys, inflatable’s, extra swimsuits for each of us, towels, etc… Get the picture here? Saturday, as we prepared to go to the pool, the kids were rushing to get into their suits and I looked in the bag for mine with the sinking realization that I didn’t check it before we left the house the day before. Sure ‘nuff. No swim suit for good old Mom! Ah, but it is a good thing I had a couple of extra books (9 to be exact!) to keep me from getting too restless in the steamy hot pool house.

After the kids were worn out in the pool, we went back to chill in the condo kids watching T.V. while I talked with Mom on the phone. After eating dinner, Jordan talked me into teaching him how to play Skip-Bo which he promptly beat me at. Jordan has a knack for games.

Sunday we really relaxed. We didn’t drive anywhere except the pool house. Jordan and I built a snow woman and hiked through the woods and looked at cool game trails trying to figure out which type of animals traveled on them. We came up with interesting scenarios of what we would do if…?? We had no electricity or gas but had to stay in our house without it. How would we keep warm? Where would we get water? It was fun until Jordan started asking me questions that became difficult to explain such as “What is the cold war?”, “What is Cuba?”, “Who would our enemies be?” I suppose I got carried away with my survival theories. (Sigh.. those who really know me will understand)

They swam some more after we got back and then it was a night of vegetating, playing Skip-Bo, reading, and building forts. Really, it was a relaxing weekend other than the lack of sleep I had. See, I can’t resist spending time with my kids -- playing cards, playing outside, or just talking. I also can’t put down a good book. So when I should have been sleeping I was reading. I will pay the price this week as it catches up with me. I don’t mind though because I found another great Christian author of suspense!