To Pile On or Not To Pile On

Tonight I took a gander (not goose-related) at the HTF mailbag to see who's been naughty (those who never post comments or submit questions) and who's been nice (everyone else).  Here was one of the festive questions I found, appropriately titled "X-mas Excess":

HTF,

I'd like to gain your perspective on Christmas - and the pile of presents stacked around the house the day after.  Are the presents a distraction to what Christmas should be about, a way to show those around us how much we appreciate them (in a materialistic sense), or something else I'm completely missing?  The day after I find myself toggling between "all these presents are just way overboard" and "look at the kids faces and the memories a great Christmas has provided them".  Any wisdom you can shed is much appreciated.

BP

My friend, that's a marvelous question, and it's one that plagues millions of parents.  First let me say that you certainly don't need to buy me a huge pile of presents.  I'm good with a small mound.  But for perspective on this one we need to remember what Christmas used to be like before we got into this never-ending holiday-gift-giving-arms-war.  Way back when, by which I mean WAY BACK even before the internet, families would gather around a not-particularly-impressive potted plant on Christmas Eve.  (This, of course, evolved into our current tradition of chopping down entire forests of perfectly healthy trees and putting them in our living rooms the way nature intend.)  But in the old days the families would sit down, sing a few songs, and instead of exchanging presents, they'd simply give each other a series of verbal compliments.  However, as you might imagine doing this in your own family, these compliments could get just a little back-handed.  For example:

- Mom might say to the teenage boy, "Merry Christmas, Joey.  You are doing so well on learning to drive.  I like that our mailbox is now a hood ornament on your car."  OR

- Dad might say to Mom, "Merry Christmas, Honey.  I reviewed our insurance records and your cooking, with the resulting ER visits, helped us get to our out-of-pocket deductible much quicker this year."

At this point Mom reaches for the nearby lump of coal and flings it at Dad's jolly head.  Now you all know where the festive little "lump of coal" (good name for a rock band) tradition comes from.  So times were simpler then, and clearly better.  All the gifts we do now are a perfectly acceptable substitute for conversation and in some cases they do make for great memories, particularly the ones that you spend several weeks assembling and the ones that break before your Christmas Day nap.  (but those can be some pricey memories)  So as you toggle (great word choice by the way) this holiday season between the massive pile of happiness you will bequeath on the kids and the realization that you are, in fact, WAY overdoing it - try this - substitute a few of the gifts for some heartfelt words of love.  And after your kids have forgiven you, take them directly to the toy store. 

Thanks for the question!!

You too can get a "response" to your question like BP.  Send 'em in to henrythefrog@gmail.com.

HTF and HSM

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking the Mrs HTF and the four little tadpoles to a showing of the long-awaited, in our house at least, High School Musical 47. (I’m calling t HSM from here on out, cuz it takes up less space) You should know that my kids are extreme fans of the series including such vital memorabilia as HSM pajamas, underwear, and fruit snacks (I’m guessing on that last one, but it’s a darn good guess).

One Pope-Family-Tradition that you should all be lucky enough to observe from a safe distance at some point is our Dance-Parties. This is where I plug in the iPod to some speakers in the kitchen and the kids let loose doing moves that are a mix of break-dancing, aerobics, hip-hop (my girls can “shake in” if you know what I mean), and intense interpretive dancing, which often results in injury. In all seriousness, if I had 10 minutes left to live, the family Dance Party is how that time would be spent. Well, over the years, HSM music has been featured prominently on our wooden dance floor. I’m pretty sure our DVR defaults to HSM when you turn it on, regardless of where it was last set. Allison could say “Gabriella” before she could say “milk.”

Well the movie didn’t disappoint at all. My expectations were low, but it was great. At one point my girls were literally dancing in the aisle next to our seats – this is the sign of an effective pre-teen movie. The characters are way too good to be true. (Although I got kinda concerned when on the way home Traci made us stop at the store so she could get her own life-size Zach Efron poster to hang in our room while I’m living in Seattle. Not sure how I feel about that . . . (j/k). At this high-school there are no drugs, drinking, cheating, sex, or violence – even the food in the lunch room looked pretty good. Imagine if we’d have all had a high school experience like these kids. They’re not overly selfish (Sharp-Hey excluded as the not-so-evil villain), and heck, the theme song is “We’re All In This Together.”

I see high school kids, and they may make fun of the HSM gang, but they should be jealous. Teenagers do SOO much to make those years way harder than they need to be. A little more singing and dancing would help. I say this as a former participant in high school musicals myself. Oh I wasn’t much of a performer, but if you were male and could walk a few steps without falling over and also lip synch effectively you could make the show. (I have some stories that I’ll share in future posts) But there was a real power to being part of something like that. I remember those feelings and the closing moments of the show brought some of ‘em back. I hope my kids can do shows at some point. They’re certainly working on the dancing part!

Anyway, I recommend the movie. And, if you’re too embarrassed to go see it, you can borrow several of my kids so you’ll look more like a compliant parent than a groupie. But it's a package deal - I get to go too.

Tribute to Gertrude

A few posts ago I kicked off a little contest. This was mostly to see if people were actually reading the blog. A few of you took the bait, and I was impressed with the responses, particularly Aubri's "uhhhh..." So, I tip my fedora to Becca, Alida, and Julianna for at least playing along and especially Becca for coming up with "dweeb". But the prize of a tribute post goes to Krista. (I just noticed that all the responders have names that end in the letter "a"... don't know if that's interesting or not.)I'm going to write about her even though the kids helped out so much. It's much easier to write about my sister-in-law than a group of nieces and nephews. Hopefully they will enjoy reading about their mommy though. By the time the rest of you read this, you're likely going to be pleased that you didn't win:

You see Krista is someone everyone should know. She was born Gertrude Caseopia Lahti, so you can see why they called her Krista. Life couldn't have been easy, what with having to live in an igloo in Anchorage eating mooseburgers and speaking eskimo. (English is her second language as you'll learn when you talk with her) At age 5 she was a successful kindergardner with pig tails, and one thing led to another and today she's a terrific mother of 5. Krista isn't like some mothers you know, she knows everything about her kids, including their names and birthdays, but this isn't the only thing that makes her a great mother. She's been known to spend hours playing games with them, but letting the little people win is out of the question. She compassionately teaches the kids to be good losers. Here are a few other great "facts" which may or may not be true about Krista:

- She is perhaps the most competitive non-male I know. (and I know "competitive" having played years of church basketball)
- Krista has lived in exotic places such as Guam, Idaho and of course, her current island paradise of St. Louis.
- She's always up to date on current events, but she doesn't have cable so the source of all of her knowledges comes from the always-accurate internet.
- She's an excellent blog author, but I can't link to her blog because she keeps it super-secret (invite-only) . . . yeah, it's that good!
- At this moment she's hosting my wife and our 4 kids at her house, so if you're doing the math, there are like 14 kids there now. She handles it amazingly well. (It's Uncle Mike you should feel for . . . I've been in those shoes . . .)

So I pay homage to my sister-in-law for all that she manages and is. Because not only does she do all that stuff I told you about, she takes time everyday to humor me by reading HTF.

Thanks for all that, Gertrude.

Deputy Downer

Warning - my unstated goal with 90+% of posts is to leave you chuckling and sending the blog post to all of your friends, family, neighbors, and even those people you don't know who are your "friends" on Facebook. Granted, I typically fail at my goal, but a guy can dream. This is not one of those funny posts.

Is it just me, or is everyone, and I mean everyone, a little more down and/or on edge? Seriously, I get this sense that all the really-nasty economic stuff going on, coupled with an increasingly-annoying election is starting to drag us all down at least a bit. Seems like folks are thinking a lot more cup-half-empty about the future, and who can blame 'em? There's not much eminating from the news channels to life our spirits (but isn't that almost always the case). It really does feel like the end of life as we know it, for now at least. These guys running for president are doing nothing to make me feel better, in fact, I was gonna vote for JohnyMac, who I've never really been a fan of, and as of today I'm squarely on the fence. (I know that'll shock a lot of you since I've never voted for a donkey-party candidate - this may be the first time) The solutions to the financial problems coming from politicians involves throwing ungodly piles of money at things. We're over a TRILLION DOLLARS if you're keeping score at home. Imagine if we could've used that money to fundamentally reform education and/or make ourselves energy independent (or we could've built a road from Seattle to Hawaii so I'd have another place to visit on weekends).

I'm a bright-side guy usually. Big problems are typically somebody else's problems - if you know what I mean. And I have almost nothing to complain about. Yet here I sit in an apartment in Kirkland, WA - alone. My family, who I miss so badly that it hurts is 3,000 miles away and the only thing that's keeping us apart is that we need to sell our house - at the worse possible time in my lifetime to be selling a house. Our realtor let us know, in a kind way, that like nobody is crazy enough to buy houses right now unless they're gonna steal 'em from people. So yeah, I guess this financial crisis is suddenly feeling real, at least more real than the "on-paper" loses that I cringe at in the 401K and IRAs. We'll deal though and things will work out one way or another. We are incredibly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. Still I ask you, is my little view of how people are thinking/feeling just shaped by my family's own little trials or is it more pervasive than that? Let me know.

As for me, well, I need to laugh. It's just a lot harder to do that alone.

HTF (aka "Deputy Downer" .... sorry about that)

The Reinforcements Arrive Just In Time

Yesterday was the big day . . . I got on a plane and am now living in Seattle. Getting ready for the trip was less-than-pleasant, but could've been a lot worse. In the hours before we left for the airport our house started to feel like a tropical storm picking up steam. Chaos was building and the clock was ticking. You see I was fighting emotions and packing everything I thought I might possibly need to live alone for several months, while Traci was primping the house in case we had some possible home buyers stop by. Meanwhile the kids seemed to have organized against us, which is not atypical. Just when the storm was becoming a category 5 hurricane, the reinforcements arrived in the form of my parents, who live 0.9 miles from us. My mom jumped in and tackled a stack of dishes while my dad packed boxes for me, all the while they chastized the roving children, thus thwarting their plan. This however didn't perfectly calm things down - things were still kinda crazy, when my dad (who is often the source of playing/craziness at our house) suggested that I get a priesthood blessing. The timing and impact of it could not have been better. Everyone got together, calmed down dramatically, and I finally chilled out. The emotions of leaving the family behind are still working me over, but had it not been for the timely help of my parents the morning would've been much tougher.

Thanks for lots of interventions like that over the years, Mom & Dad. I love you and I'm so thankful that we were able to live near you guys for so long!

HTF

Name Games on Planet Palin

The response to me speaking for all Alaskans about Sarah Palin was strong. It included being busted by a "good friend" from Utah and a real-life-Alaskan, whom I've never met, for using the term "snowmobile" instead of "Snow Machine." I guess tomorrow I'll be driving my "AutoMachine" to work.

Here's a comment and a very helpful tool sent in to henrythefrog@gmail.com. You'll definitely need to make use of this!

After reading your blog this morning I realized one thing about Sarah Palin...I actually like her and she's got me excited about this election again (since, you know, my boy Mitt is out of the race now...cringe), but what is with her kids names?? Not like I think that the names that she gives her kids have any effect on what kind of leader she'll be (cause lets face it old John Mac won't really be around the whole time right?!...or will he?!) Anyhow, I started thinking, What if I were Sarah's Alaskan love child? What would she have named me?

And then I found this SARAH PALIN name generator:
http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

I would've been named:
Fork Decoy Palin

Just sayin'.....thought you might get a kick out of it.

AB :)

So on Planet Palin here is my family:

Me: Flag Cobra Palin
Traci: Goalie Sanka Palin
Ethan: Rock Crane Palin
Braeden: Gripper Carom Palin
Sydney: Rot Pipeline Palin
Allison: Grill Igloo Palin

I'm certainly not one to make fun of how people name their kids, so I'm glad that website did it for me.

A New MMB and a Great Cause

Some of you are very familiar with the infamous "Mormon Mommy Bloggers (MMBs)." Well I stumbled across a new one that really made me laugh. And she's putting together a Blog Book for a great cause. So I wanted to give her and her cause some press here on HTF. Check out the site and buy the book when it's out!!

Tropical Storm Traci and My Wrinked-Up Toes

I've blogged repeatedly about the athletic prowess of the Mrs. HTF. Well she had her latest jaw-dropping performance over the weekend. On Saturday morning Traci competed in her very first triathlon, well, . . . sorta. Let me explain. Like many of you we've been building arks here in KC for the last few days. The rain just seems to keep coming. On Saturday morning we ventured out to the park where the event was to take place hoping that the rain would hold off. Well, as far as a dry morning, . . . not so much. Traci arrived at like 5 AM for the 7:45 AM start. I followed closely behind after dropping off the troops at our saintly friend's home and arrived at 7:10. Thank goodness there was a red umbrella in the minivan because it poured the entire time we were there, unless you count the 30 seconds before we got in the car to go home later that morning.

To our chagrin (a word I need to use more often) the bicycle portion of the triathlon was canceled due to the rain. I suggested they bring in stationary bikes, but I guess that was too much effort. So we were left with a swim and a run. The whole scene was pretty funny, unless you were, you know, in it. Husbands, boyfriends, parents, and supportive toddlers were huddled under overwhelmed umbrellas pretending they were glad to be there cheering-on their ladies. When in fact we all wished that the triathlon, turned biathlon (without the guns), would become a NO-athlon. But those are some tough ladies. By tough, I mean that half of them could've tossed me 30 feet into the lake and the other half would've had no trouble beating my Honda in a 3 mile race. As the race went on I made very communicative eye contact with some other supportive husbands. Some of the messages sent with raised eye-brows and headnods were:

- Can you believe we're standing here in the pouring rain in 6 inches of mud watching people swim in a lake, on purpose, when we could be home watching College Game Day on ESPN?!

or

- I'm wetter than my wife, and she's swimming in a lake!

But we all made it. Traci was amazing, no shocker at all. Leading up to it I was not allowed to tell people that she was "training for a triathlon." So instead I pointed out that she was swimming, biking, and running multiple times a week on the odd chance that she'd need to do these three things back to back to back at some point in the future. She's strong at downplaying expectations. After the race she made us hang around waiting for the results to be posted. She also got in line to get a massage. This left me to stoically hold my red umbrella and pretend I was happy to not be on my couch, dry. It was at this point that I experienced a quite lonely moment - as a muscle guy with long flowing hair gave the Mrs. HTF a thorough massage and I wasn't about to make small talk with any of the other folks in the area, 104% of which were women being watched closely by husbands/boyfriends, who like me, were unsure of how to function normally surrounded by that much estrogen. By my count the massage lasted just under two weeks and they finally had the awards ceremony. Traci took FIFTH PLACE in her age bracket (out of 42 women) and EIGHTEENTH overall (out of 253 women). So I continue to be in awe of this mother of four. I just hope next time I get to root her on in a tropical storm I get to watch from the comfort of my dry ark.

Toilets, Toddlers, and Time to Party!

Like you I mark my little passage through life with major milestones (graduations, getting married, the birth of our kids, remembering to get the trash out on the curb BEFORE I hear the truck, . . . etc.) We are approaching one of our grandest milestones as a couple - the last of our children to learn when and how to use indoor plumbing! Potty training is not for the weak spirited. There have been points, usually while I was wiping something off the floor that had no business being there, when it seemed perfectly logical to me to revert to diapers until the kids were in junior high or so.

One of the oddest parts of the process, if you're an outsider, is the fake, and sometimes very real, joy that parents have to show when there has been a successful encounter with the toilet. Today my 2-year-old called me at work to let me know that she was in fact at that moment seated on the toilet taking care of business. (I sincerely encourage you to call your parents next time when you have similar news to share) As Allison described what was happening I gave her multiple positive verbal responses. I was sitting in my cubicle (a word that should be changed) and anyone walking by would have had to stop in their tracks as I loudly said phrases like:

"Yay!"
"Did you do it in the potty?!"
"So your Dora underwear is dry?!"
"You're such a big girl!"
(you get the idea)

It was real, pure, unadulterated joy. So now we sit (or rather Allison sits) on the cusp of life's next great milestone. We won't have to buy diapers again until the Mrs. HTF and I are A LOT older. After 9 years of Huggie Happiness (a good name for a rock band) we will soon see our disposable (pun intended) income increase by thousands of dollars a year. So please cheer us on, and for any of you brave parents still fighting the good fight of teaching this bit of self-sufficiency - it is absolutely worth it, and it'll make their junior high experience just that much better.

Breaking News from HTF . . .

When the junior Senator from Illinois decided to announce his VP pick via text message that kinda opened up a whole new world for announcing stuff. I don't want to be left behind on using "newer" technology to make my own, even more important, announcements. So here goes:

The whole HTF family will be moving soon from KC to Seattle and I'll be working for Microsoft.

I'm not gonna go into much more depth, cuz this is a blog that anyone has access to (but only 3 or 4 people actually look at). We are totally excited, but also sad about the people we'll be leaving behind here in O-Town, not the least of which are Nana and Grandpa Frog. I've lived here within a several block radius since I was 4-years-old (excluding college and my missionary time in Venezuela), so it feels like an adventure to leave. But now we're off to Seattle where I'm told it's 80 degrees and sunny year round . . . at least that's what the recruiter said while winking. The Mrs. HTF has family in Anchorage, so we can grab our passports, hop on a plane, and go visit the in-laws in their igloos a bit easier. (Traci loves it when I make my funny funny jokes about Alaska)

So there it is, I too made a big announcement using "new" technology. I did try to leak it to CNN several hours ago like Obama did, but for some reason they weren't interested . . . it must be a HUGE news day!

The Parade and the Potty Talk

We took the kiddos to the annual "Old Settler's Day" Parade. We celebrate that here in Olathe to honor our "settlers who were old." I'm not sure why the younger ones did't merit a parade. Here were a few observations/comments:

- I had fun helping my son try to figure out why some of the horses in the parade had a large burlap sack attached to their backsides
- I'm not sure who decided that it was a great idea to hand out tons (and I mean that term literally) of teeth-rotting candy to the kids watching the parade, but my wife and I insincerely thank the organizers. It was a Halloween-like haul for my crew.
- Pretty sure that some of the schools have more kids in the marching band than actually attend the school.
- Worst "float" was a tow truck. That's all it was. Didn't have music, lights, and it wasn't even towing anything. I kinda think it was just a guy who took a wrong turn.
- One of the local mega-churches had its entire congregation walking along handing out water bottles as marketing. I heard one of them call it "holy water." Seriously . . .?!
- There were a couple karate groups out there. One of them featured two girls "fighting" as they walked the parade route. I hope they were still friends after the thing was over.
- I think one of the requirements for being a local politician is to have a lot of kids. Because most of the politicians featured numerous young kids handing out flyers and/or frisbees to the crowd.
- The most memorable "float" was a giant toilet sponsored by a local plumbing company. It made loud flushing sounds and shot out tootsie rolls (yes, I said tootsie rolls) to the crowd. On the side of the truck were these profound words:

"Everyday is a holiday when you have a working toilet"

After reading that life somehow felt a little sweeter. Thank goodness for those old settlers!

Perfect children, yelling parents, and accidents that may or may not happen

I remember as kid thinking that my parents were all powerful (if not all-knowing). They told me to do something, and I think I pretty much did it. (My mom probably will laugh when she reads that last line as it may not be very, you know, true.) When we started having the kiddos I just sorta assumed that my superior size and intelligence would have the little people doing whatever I asked. As those of you with kids (who are now rolling your eyes at my naivety) know, it's easier to tell clouds where to go than to get perfect obedience from kids. I know that now . . . or maybe it's just my kids. Occasionally the Mrs HTF and I will find ourselves actually yelling. We're not yellers. And experience has taught us that yelling is only effective if the kids are a few hundred yards away from your mouth. But for some reason we still do it as we get increasingly frustrated at the lump under the bed spread who needs to leave for school in the next 30 seconds.
Oh I know that we should just have clear, consistent consequences (the Utopian Cs!), which will let the kids make the decisions without us getting so riled up. Does that work perfectly in your house? We have a 9-year-old who seems to love to push our buttons. Lately when he does something wrong, he always does it "accidentally." (i.e. "Dad, I accidentally stole my brother's Pokemon cards and tore them up into ant-sized pieces.") Not sure why he thinks this works, but he keeps using it. There's some odd idea in there that if we "accidentally" do something there won't be consequences. Ironically I hear adults use the similar "oops-logic" sometimes. (insert the name of your favorite scandalized celebrity/politician/sports-star here)
This parenting thing . . . harder than it looks when you're a kid.
Sorry Mom & Dad, for all the stuff I did wrong . . . it was all an accident for sure!

My Mad Shopping Skillz

I've never been a shopper. Just isn't something that I can tolerate well for more than 2 minutes. I'm extremely lucky that the Mrs. HTF does 102% of all the shopping and my spending is mostly limited to work lunches and iTunes. I also have this "disability" (for lack of a better word) that makes me ALWAYS screw up the shopping when I do end up buying stuff. A few of my more common shopping errors:

- Buying the wrong size or quantity of whatever
- Searching for one item in a store for several hours before asking for help, at which point I'm informed that they don't have eggs at the sporting goods store
- Listening to shopping advice from the four-year-old I brought with me
- Failure to use coupons the right way or to swipe the "loyalty card" so I get a better price
- Buying the wrong brand or flavor of whatever
- Having a well-written shopping list, but mysteriously being oblivious to several of the items listed. This always ends with me saying, "How did I miss that?!" when I get home.
- Buying what I will generically refer to as "treats" when they weren't on the list - often at the urging of the lucky (and persuasive) child I brought with me

I could go on, but I'm well aware that most of you readers are married women so you know exactly what I'm talking about. And for the guys out there, I'm pretty sure you get what I'm saying too. There's no real cure for my shopping problems - and in this case practice most definitely will never make perfect. And it could get pricey over time. I could be accused of screwing up on purpose so that I don't get asked to do it. While I could give college courses on that particular strategy, I guarantee that I don't need to TRY to screw up the shopping thing. So on behalf of most guys out there I ask for continued patience. And if you ladies are asking yourselves, "is he this clueless at work" - (to which the correct answer is "he fakes it better there") rest assured that the stupidity only sets in when there's a large, rolling, metal cart at his fingertips.

Becoming One With Nature and using Tweezers to fix it

"All they do is dig into your skin and bury their heads."

This is actually something that I said to one of my children today. At the time it seemed completely logical and actually reassuring. Looking back on it, well . . . let me explain.

Today the Mrs. HTF and I took the troops on a "hike." (I'm using the air quotes because most of it was on a flat paved trail not unlike the track at your high school) We decided that the kids needed some distance from day to day fun at our house, so we found a park with a trail and off we went. The paved track end abruptly at the edge of a pretty dense forest. Then it turned into a much-less well defined trail. In the back of our minds was the goal of "toughening our kids up." (still not sure what that means, but it made sense at the time) So I glanced at the map and we decided to dive into to the woods. I'll spare you the details, but let just say this was one of the stupider decisions we've made in, well, . . . today.

As we emerged from the woods at the other end of the trail we were covered in ticks of all shapes and sizes. Well, I guess they're mostly the same shape, but the sizes were different. Everyone freaked out nicely. (It probably didn't help when I told the true story of how my mom was almost killed by a disease from a tick. I gotta remember to keep my helpful stories to myself.) We tried in vain to brush them off. A couple hours later we found ourselves in the bathroom with multiple not-clothed-at-all children plucking insects off of their bodies with tweezers. I lost count. Even tonight when we laid down in bed, Traci glanced at my arm and found another little blood sucker. Ugh. What were we thinking?! I totally should've known better. Now everyone in the family is constantly looking over every inch of their bodies, and everyone else's for the opportunity to tweeze. I've tried to pluck off the same little mole on my leg now multiple times because I swore I saw it moving. So much for our fun, family wilderness adventure. Next Saturday we're playing XBox and walking around WalMart like we're supposed to.

The Invasion of Lake Texoma

Monday was my first day back at the office in like 10 days. So I got to answer the "how was your vacation" questions a dozen times or so. That's a good thing, because we had a great time. Wow, was it hard getting back into work mode (I say that like it's a thing that's already happened, but it hasn't really...) So here are a few highlights:

• First and foremost- didn't see a single snake. But we did see a bunch of very non-scary armadillos. I don't recall seeing these up close before. They looked like a cross between my parent's wiener dogs and a rolly-polly.
• On Thursday I saw that we were under a "Severe Wind Advisory." Part of the notice said that anyone on a lake should "use extreme caution." So naturally we decided boating needed to be part of our day. A few of us spent some kinda scary moments on a pontoon boat rolling around "waves" that were strong enough to ensure that we were thoroughly soaked. At one point we took on so much water that the front end of the boat (remember this is one of those pontoon boats that are kinda like a raft welded to a couple of massive 2-liters) was actually submerged so the water was above my knees while I was seated. It was like our very own "3-hour tour." In hindsight, not a huge deal, but I was glad we didn't have any kiddos with us.
• The adults were out-numbered 15 to 12, so that always makes for good entertainment. One of my kid's greatest discoveries was, well, mud. They called it "clay" and "sculpted" odd shapes with it. My first statement to them, said with some foresight, was "you're not bringing that home." Their answer, "ok, daddy."...................... The mud is now on our front porch greeting all who come to our house if you'd like to see it. But the kids were amazingly self-entertaining and just kinda became roving mobs that went in small, but feisty, groups from place to place doing important things like gathering rocks, dumping cups of water on each other, riding inflatable dolphins, and looking for bugs. I'm glad they never realized that if they'd have combined their might they may have overthrown the adults.
• In another embarrassing sign of, well, lots of things . . . I pulled a muscle in my chest just as I was getting up on the water skiis and that was the end of that. Maybe if I wait another 14 years until I ski again I'll be better at it.
• Not too long after we arrived I started hearing the phrase "talent show." To which I snickered a bit, and assumed this was just talk and would never happen. Well, it did happen and it was marvelous. Here were some of the acts on display:
• Traci and I threw water balloons at each other
• An elephant named "Nuts" relieved himself on some unsuspecting kids
• Braeden tore up an entire field dancing emphatically to High School Musical . . . by himself
• Jake (a cousin) did a river-dance thing that was mind boggling. If I moved my feet that fast, I'm certain they'd fly off or at least I'd not be walking for a while.
• The older boys poured water on the daddies
• The older boys poured water on the girls
• The older girls poured water on the boys
  
• And who can forget this, which was pretty much the cultural highlight of the trip for my boys:
• We all sang a song led by Grandma & Grandpa Morrow - a good warm, fuzzy moment.

Anyway, this post is far too long already, so I'll close with this. I usually set low expectations for things, especially when there are multiple kids involved, but to answer the question in my first paragraph, this was an awesome vacation. Everyone got along so well, and we deeply appreciated being invited along. Anything that keeps the kids smiling and me reasonably safe is a good thing by me! Thanks, Mike & Kathy!!