hot sauce

so we went on vacation this past week. a fun family filled week at a cute little cabin in the ozark hills. i will say this vacation was more fun than work. we are finally getting to that point, where outings are starting to have more fun moments than stressful, more smiles than tears.



my parents met us down there and stayed in a cabin next to ours. since my dad got sick last year, every moment with him is special to me. i truly swallow up the memories we are making together, and try to immerse myself in them. we made a bonfire together, me and my dad, and then he taught my kids how to roast a hot dog over the fire. ashton hugged him and kissed his face each night before bed. molly held onto his hand and thanked him for dinner. he watched carson learn how to swim across the pool. maggie learned to say pa paw. so simple but so treasured. im thankful each day that he still here on this earth, and grateful for every new memory my family can make together with him.



i will say that it wasn't all stress free. such as trying to go see a country western show after playing hardcore in silver dollar city for seven hours that day with four little ones. we haul all of our kids, the diaper bag, the souvenirs, the popcorn, sippy cups, drinks, ant farm (carson's - dont ask) down into this amphitheater and find a seat way down in front. this is about four flights of stairs down. we get settled, entertain the children for 10 minutes prior to the show starting, and get ready for a relaxing music filled evening. although when the music started, i was having a hard time hearing it over maggie yelling no, no, no, mine, mine, mine at ashton who had grabbed his sucker back out of her grubby little hands. so then she pinched him and he was hollering. and then carson was ancy and hopping around. and then molly spilled the popcorn, and then maggie started eating it off the ground, and then i looked at jeff and nodded. he started grabbing souvenirs, children, suckers, drinks, while i grabbed maggie and made a not very quiet exit. i think the singers and dancers were offended by out exit, and we tried to quickly move our parade up the four flights of stairs and outta there. i was dying laughing the whole time.
it was such wooster fashion.



another funny point was the ride home. almost 200 miles with really super duper tired kids, mom and dad. we made it all the way to springfield (30 miles) before having to stop. we were sort of cranky about this as we were setting the various mcdonalds breakfast items out in front of everyone. i got myself a breakfast burrito and carson wants half. fine, i tear it in half and jeff warns him it has hot sauce on it. carson out of the blue says "hot sauce is my middle name."
and proceeds to take a bite. just like that. we were rolling. kids are dang funny. that reminded us that the important thing is being together, not staying for the whole show.