Exceptions to the Rule

If you know me you know I am all about following the rules. I have to know what the rules are and then I will follow them (most of the time). OK... all of the time. And I expect my kids to do the same. But as we all know many rules have exceptions and we need to be willing to extend those exceptions to ourselves and our kids. We just got back from a trip to the lake and one of our rules is no video games at the lake. You can play during the long car ride down and the long car ride back but not once we get there. Boy did we have a couple of exceptions. But I'll get to that later. We should have known that this lake trip was going to be different when on the ride down Sheriff said to Brett, "hey dad, where'd your boat go?" In a panic both Brett and I checked the side-view mirrors and discovered that the boat we were towing was ... just fine. So after a brief lecture from his father about not saying things like that because they are not a joke we continued without incident. Of course if he had said that to me the lecture would not have been brief. hahaha!!! My lectures are not known for their brevity.

Wednesday:

Driving and getting settled.

Thursday:

This day we had to go into town to buy some supplies from Walmart. Grandma and Grandpa arrived in the afternoon, only Grandma was sick with the flu having caught it from her parents. :(
Brett worked on naming our new boat.

While Brett and I unpacked the supplies the kids battled with Pokemon cards, and played pretend laser tag.

They couldn't pass up a chance to swim and Giggles found some accessories to become a water monster.

While running from a game that sounded like a bomb, Wannabe ran into some metal on the boat and cut his leg open requiring a long wait in the hospital and 14 stitches. According to his brother you could see his "meat". And yes, I have the photographic proof (taken later at the hospital of course during our 5 hour wait). I'll spare the squeamish from the "meat" shot however and just show you the stitches.

Swimming was out for the rest of the trip and in came the video game exception for child #1 as he rested his leg for the next couple of days.

He was a real trooper through the whole thing...very brave, patient and bounced back quickly.

Friday:

We found a place for the houseboat to stay and tied off.

The kids set off to add to their collection of rocks and shells. This day was also spent playing with blocks, watching movies, swimming and enjoying the new boat.

In the middle of the night Giggles christened the new boat with the taco dinner I made earlier in the evening. He threw up twice and I have proof positive that he really doesn't chew his food as his grapes from dinner are still whole. Seriously... whole. Try swallowing a grape whole without choking.

Saturday: Giggles spent most of the day laying down with a sick tummy and the video game exception kicked in for child #2 who was too sick to go out and play.

Wannabe ventured out however and caught a lizard. He even created a habitat for him.

Sunday: John kindly pumped up a tube for the kids but in the process the pump exploded and shards of plastic shoot out slicing his thumb and cutting his arm, even giving him a giant bruise on his arm. Frightening to say the least. Smiley was later convinced that he was standing next to grandpa when it happened and had to jump out of the way. Smiley was in the kitchen at the time and not even close but I guess he wants to feel a part of the action of the week. John was brave enough to pull out another pump after he was patched up and finished blowing up the tube.

Sheriff and Smiley went for a ride.

Twelve-year-olds are a little more daring than seven-year-olds but I don't think that Sheriff looks very comfortable.

We also had to play one of our favorite family games...Apples to Apples. Only this was the sour version of the game.

Denny's was on the menu for the evening and Giggles was brave enough to try to eat.

Monday: Nate and Lisa got a flat tire coming down and Roxy received a phone call from back home about a busted window at her home. But no one was seriously hurt this day. Yeah!!!

After telling my husband that I would never sleep inside our boat (I sleep up top on the benches that convert into a bed), I had to eat my words. As we got ready for bed, Giggles pointed to the arch of the boat and said, "is that a spider?". Yes and no. It was half the size of my hand. And it was waiting for me to go to bed. Can you call something that is half the size of your hand a spider. Spiders are supposed to be much smaller things that you can kill with your shoe ... not big enough that they could take drag your shoe away if they wanted to. So I kindly offered my bed up to Brett for the night. He didn't want it either.

Tuesday: Packed up and returned home. :(

We've never had a trip with so much illness and incident but despite all of it we still had a great time. Wannabe, even with his 14 stitches said, "this was the best lake trip ever."

A special thanks to John and Roxy who always go the extra mile to make things special and lots of fun!