Staycation

Staycation - a local vacation. A vacation where you don't go anywhere or anywhere far.

Our staycation has become a summer tradition. We go 10 miles down the road to stay at my childhood home while my Mom and Stepdad go out of town. Its a beautiful house with an oasis backyard. Grass, flowers in bloom everywhere you look and a crystal clear heated pool.

We spend most of our day unplugged from tv, computers, video games and cell phones. That in itself makes it a vacation in my opinion but add in lounging by the pool under the canopy of a huge misquete tree and I'm pretty relaxed. Plus, the kids swim so much they just pass out!

The other reason we stay at the house is to help take care of the yard and animals.

The big chickens:

The little chickens:

 The Dogs: (Bella with the cone of shame on and Carinna the little black bear)

 The turtle, Tuck

Plus we bring our dog Dasy and bunny, Mia. On top of the regular mommy dutys and house cleaning (I tried to convince Brad to hire a maid for our staycation but he pointed out that it kind of defeats the point of saving money) the dogs are fed weighted amounts twice a day, the big chickens get 'scratch' twice a day and their eggs need to be collected. The little chickens need their water bowls changed every few hours, their food bowls emptyed of stray wood chips and their roosting box tempature has to be maintained with in a range by turning on and off heat lamps, including over night. The turtle needs to be fed whenever she comes out. We have water the flowers; pick the tomatoes, apples, grapes, walnuts, peppers and watermelons. Ok, well, maybe not all at once but they're all in the yard and need to be tended to at some point. Plus, I have a total black thumb, hence the reason my back yard is dirt, so I have to pay special attention to not kill anything in their yard just by association. (This is a vacation?)

Aside from the lounging pool side and the exhausted happy kids, we look forward to our "parents are away" party where we pretend we're teenagers raiding our unsuspecting parents house. We party late into the night, raid the liquor cabinet and pantry. Except, our parents know and usually stock the house for us to host the party. Plus, this is Brad and me we're talking about, we have a handful of friends that aren't family anyways. Regardless, we always have a great time. It's usually an odd mix of friends, family and the occasional neighbor or new friend joining us. The kids usually have a friend or two over as well. We bbq, swim, drink, eat and watch an outdoor movie on the projector. A good time for all! Clean up the next morning and then packing up usually brings me right back to reality - mommy style! I was too busy having fun to take pictures so, sorry. That's the end. :)