Family Vacation 2014—Deviceless!

In case you don't remember what we look like*
Our family vacation took us back to Central Oregon where the weather is usually warmer.  Although adjacent to Sunriver, the area where we stayed is newer, quieter, and the bike paths aren't heavily trafficked.  That's important when you have four young children, some being bike-riding novices, and an ataxic grandmother. 
Daily bike ride
This year, the parents imposed a "No idevice" rule.  How do you (gulp) keep four children under eleven, entertained for five days?  Short answer: Keep them moving.  More important answer:  Leave them to (uh) their own devices.

The children made frequent use of the pool table, the hot tub and swimming pool, bikes, books, and various drawing implements.  The eight year old created the adults' portraits (see above) and "finger–knitted" a Rapunzel lock (see below).  The ten year old read to the younger ones.  The lone boy taught everyone how to shoot pool.  The youngest (nearly six) was cute and charming and smart enough to know that was enough.  Being close cousins at this stage, their favorite activity was being together. We experienced no more than the usual amount of fighting and tears.  There will come a time when they aren't great companions.  If they can just avoid doing serious damage to one another, they'll be close again.
The cousins

Rapunzel, Rapunzel...










One characteristic of this newer area is the size of the houses.  When you need to house six adults, four children and reasonable bathrooms, have some handicapped access, the search can become involved.  We learned last year that doors can be an issue.  Who knew?**  When  a luxury house is large, it's a fair bet that at least one of the bathrooms will be cavernous.  We guiltily observed that the master bath could have housed three developing world families.  Parents could easily have hosed down four children at once, had "girl parts" and "boy parts" not become an issue.  Earl and I weren't paying attention— physical maturation happens.

The kids wanted the usual outdoor adventures.  Even working around the uncharacteristically wet weather, they managed to get in fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, and a trip into the Central Oregon lava caves.  Rainy weather never interferes with my naps and there were plenty of dry spells to facilitate scooting.

*Everyone, regardless of gender or hair, gets a bow.

**Previous post: Family vacation 2013–the "door" house

The lesson:  There was civilization before smartphones and tablets

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have contact

Image
Skeeter alerted me to an eyesight problem when I realized there were times when I had to navigate precisely while scooting.  I found myself dealing with my deliberate mono–vision by closing one eye in order to gauge available distance.  How much space was between Earl's car and my car, and between the telephone pole and the edge of the sidewalk?  How much asphalt before the road dropped off into dirt?  It was like my old "contact lens" days when one lens isn't in–blurry around the edge (not exactly double vision) .  Hmm, cataracts (at that time in life) , diminishing acuity (OK,  predictable... ) , Ataxia (a typical symptom for some people) ? Around 1993, I had radial keratotomy (RK) after years of wearing contact lenses or coke bottle glasses for being legally blind.  The surgeons gave me one eye for reading and one for distance (mono–vision) .  It was a good solution for someone in the 40s.  But, as I aged, the difference between the eyes was too significant.
Read more

Resume and Update

Image
It's been almost a year since I last blogged. I'd like to think that I was busy, but in fact, I was just too lazy and got overwhelmed at the thought of writing. The other issue is that not a whole lot new has happened and when friends would say, "You haven't blogged in a while," I just nodded my head and stared blankly. I thought maybe it was time to retire the blog and move on.  I mean-- geez! I started this in 2011. There are nearly 200 posts, two thirds of them after publishing my book.  How much blabbing can a person do?  However, the prospect of not being able to blab was just too much to deal with. So, I decided to dig in and update some old posts-- like, "Whatever happened to...?" or "w hatever happened after...?". Going through old posts was rewarding. I discovered that being honest has paid off in that most of my old observations were still valid.  I was relieved to know that there were few instances of "I wish I hadn't said t
Read more

East Coast Roadtrip

Image
East Coast Fall foliage It had been more than two years since we had ventured on our first roadtrip*.  It was time to move from using a walker to a wheelchair.  That was a particularly difficult humiliation bullet to bite.  I thought I had accepted the inevitability of progression, but I found myself whining, "No-o-o-o!"  Was this the end of the road before absolute immobility? Were my traveling days over?  More importantly, would I strain Earl's back and were my scooting days over? 😱 As with previous transitions, logic and practicality won out.  I was so freakin' slow with a walker. I didn't appreciate how frightening my precarious balance was to others.  Finally, I knew an injury was the bigger personal threat and was to be avoided at all costs.  Thelma and Louise ** became a permanent part of my next chapter.  Wheelchair use gave me greater mobility and freedom than I had expected.  It didn't impact my travel, scooting, and I didn't "
Read more