It ain't the beach.

You wouldn't know it, though, from the sand that ended up in our rear ends.  On Memorial Day weekend, we took the kids camping.  Soon after arriving at Bruneau Sand Dunes, I had to sit the kids down and tell them, "I hope you like the clothes you're wearing, because you'll be wearing them to bed and then back home tomorrow."  Well, at least we hadn't forgotten the bug spray.  The mosquitoes were out in full force.
We spent a couple of hours sliding(sledding) down what is the tallest single-structured sand dune in North America with a peak rising 470 feet above the surrounding desert floor (yes, I stole that from the website).  The girls had a blast.  We gazed at stars at the observatory and caught a pretty close shot of Jupiter before settling down for the night.  Our tent (pretty much the only one there - what is up with RV's these days, doesn't anyone remember what real camping is?) almost blew over just before bedtime and we slept to 20-30 mph winds the whole night through.  I might have clocked 4 hours of sleep, myself, though everyone else magically slept through it all.  Typical mom.  Three cheers for camping - it's always a good time.  With or without a change of clothes...

Just when I thought life might get a little easier...

For my birthday, Tim and I agreed to purchase a central vacuum unit.  It had been postponed when the money we'd saved to buy it for Christmas ended up paying for new carpet at our rental property.  I'm still balking at the fact that we spend more money on upkeep at the rental than we do on our own humble abode.  And it gets more humble with every stinking' dollar we sink into a house we'll never live in...

Back to central vacs though.  When our house was built almost nine years ago, it was pre plumbed for a central vacuum system.  In other words, all the piping necessary for a central vacuum were installed early on, giving us the option of installing the unit (pretty much just a canister in the garage to collect all the junk).  Our upright vacuum (which was given to us when we were married almost 13 years ago) had been on the fritz so we opted to seal the deal and upgrade to the central vacuum.  

It was installed the week of my birthday.  I envisioned vacuuming every day that week, just for the sheer joy of it.  Trouble was, for each room I vacuumed, suction reduced dramatically.  With such a hefty price tag, why on earth were my dreams of magnificent suction so abruptly halted?

As it turns out, for the past nine years, my kids have been stuffing various toys, hair clips, trash, and other household goods in the outlets, only to be lost in the labyrinth of what should now be a fully-functioning central vacuum system.  At first I chuckled.  Kids will be kids, right?  Expecting them to ignore a perfectly curious hole in the wall at precisely the right height would be too much to ask, wouldn't it?  (Here's what it looks like):

But after several attempts to extract all the little "presents"with a ShopVac, we had to call in the big guns.  The repair guy who came to our house found all sorts of little(and big) surprises - some so big one wonders how they ever squeezed it through the hole in the first place.  And now he's my new hero.  Just in time for novelty of having a central vacuum system to wear off.  So much for having a cleaner house...

Jillybean.

My kids have the best aunt ever.  Any time we visit her neck of the woods (where most of my side of the family lives) she is the main attraction (sorry Grandma and Grandpa).  She is really that good.  I often wonder what will happen when she gets married and has children of her own.  Will my kids will feel replaced?  Gosh, I might even have to start paying attention to them on vacation again.

Jill came up for a visit on Mother's Day weekend.  We spent Saturday at Celebration Park hunting for petroglyphs and the rest of the time just hanging out.  My kids were in heaven.  So much so that they forgot to make Mother's Day miserable for me.

I love being a mother - it just gets better and better.