The Time Away

Our trip to Great Wolf was such a fun time with the kids.

But for me, it is always more than that. 

At home, I always feel like I have an agenda with my kids.  We have daily “to-do” lists, especially during the school year.  Our time is focused on getting our school work complete and making it through the day.

Which includes meal prep, meal clean-up, toy clean-up, school assignments, argument settling, and more.

Granted, we get little breaks to play board games, go do something fun, or play outside for awhile.  Little breaks are good to keep us going, but they aren’t the same as time away.

A longer break is a good thing.

Two days away at a water park was EXACTLY what I needed to refresh my heart.  I was able to have fun with the kids for 24 hours without ANY agenda.

I had such a fun time splashing with C in the water spouts.  It was a joy to watch D play in the shallow end of the wave pool.  T and I raced down the kid slides.  And it was great to hit the big kid slides with K.  She was so proud of herself for riding the Tornado.

And I loved having my amazing husband to share in the fun.

Moments like that help build our family bonds.  I am so thankful we were able to sneak off for a night.  It was an amazing blessing and I felt so fortunate the whole time.

And I have to admit, it is during vacation moments that I am glad I am “unplugged” from my iPhone.   More than once, I realized when I was getting a drink at our table that if I had had my iPhone, I would have probably disengaged for a few moments to check email or upload a photo to FB.

I was glad I couldn’t. 

My kids had me 100% and I had them 100%.  No agendas.  No distractions.

I am ready to go away again….