Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Chess

My brother was an excellent teacher and taught me how to play chess & checkers well when we were younger.

But it's been a very long time since I've really played chess intently. It was still really exciting on vacation to enter the lodge's great room and see a life-size chess board.


We messed around with the board a couple of times. But on Saturday morning after Tim & Jeremi {bro & sis-in-law} left quickly to get Joshua {6 mth old nephew} to the ER {where they found out he had croup}, Jerry {stepdad} & Tim {hubster} decided to give the girls a lesson on playing chess. It was a really neat way for them to learn how to play and the girls really enjoyed moving the pieces wherever they were told.



But, as can be expected, Jerry & Tim took the game seriously.



After a half an hour or so of play, and Tim & Olivia having gotten about 5 of Jerry & Cayley's pieces off the board, Cayley was begging to be able to move one of their pieces off. She didn't care about the game at this point, she just wanted an excuse to get rid of one of T & O's pieces!! Jerry was so intent and did not want to be beat, but finally about two rounds later Cayley got her wish and she was SO happy!


and they were not.


About 40 minutes into it the girls were fading fast, so I took pictures of them sitting around. Waiting.



They were not understanding all this strategy stuff.


And getting a bit loopey.



50 minutes in and mom & I were ready for it to be over too. Finally an hour later Tim directed Olivia on one more move and saying the words "check mate". We all sighed a huge sigh of relief.


It was enjoyable and a cool lesson for the girls, but one hour of the game was maybe a little over the top. But we're still glad we did it, and it was a nice end to the trip! After that it was time to pack up and leave.

The winners:

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Surrounded by Beauty on Vacation

Last weekend we joined my family and went to a gorgeous state park & stayed in their beautiful lodge. We were surrounded by beauty on all sides and it was wonderful to just be able to soak it all in. 


the drive there...



the front entry circle at the lodge...


the view from our window...

from behind the lodge's great room, overlooking the Illinois River...



from the hike in the state park... {taken by hubster}



driving to dinner after riding a ferry to the other side of the IL River...

a beautiful walk early Saturday morning by myself on the lodge grounds...


driving away...


*sigh* I miss it already!!


Thursday, November 3, 2011

Morning vs. Night People and All that Timing Stuff

Tim is a morning person, I'm a night person.

He talks too much too early in the morning, I talk too much too late at night.

But we are both minimalists when it comes to our morning routine, and neither of us get up early enough to eat breakfast before leaving home. And really, Tim just isn't big on breakfast. He likes the food, but isn't into eating first thing in the morning. I am just in too much of a rush because I get up at the last possible minute so I eat breakfast at my desk while I work.

Because, if you know me at all, you know mornings are not my thing... I'm really not functional until after 10 a.m. I can stay up late easily, but mornings... blech. {And yes I felt this way even prior to Fibro and all the morning stiffness/fogginess stuff that's come along with that.}

I love the concept, don't get me wrong. I love the sunrise, I love the peace & quiet, I love the stillness of it on vacation {yes I got up on vacation and even took walks by myself in the beautiful surroundings before we all met up for breakfast!!}, and I love to do what I can that early in the morning with no big distractions. But it doesn't work for me in real, every day life.

Lunch of course is in the middle of the day, whatever we have planned, no big deal. I have a tough time figuring out lunches on the weekends since I want to try to go beyond the regular sandwich so I mix it up and experiment whenever I can.

Tim has an hour-plus commute each way, doesn't have a paid lunch hour, and gets home later in the evening {let's just put it this way, he's gone 11 hours every day}. So we eat dinner around 7 p.m. {yes, I usually have a snack!}. When we have guests, it tends to be the same because I'm so used to it that I don't really think beyond that. Thankfully I have gracious guests who sometimes kindly remind me that they are in fact starving.

One of the predicaments of family vacation, traveling, holidays, etc, is agreeing on the time we eat. We try to just go with the flow but it's not always easy.

When we were about an hour from our recent vacation, I texted my brother to let him know when we'd get there. He texted back and said "drive fast, we're hungry, we wanna eat".

It was 4 p.m.

I laughed.

He was serious.

Not surprising. 

Thankfully my brother and I are alike in the non-morning person category. Praise God! We can sit together and stare at nothing for an hour and would be okay with not talking the whole time, especially before caffeine... but we could talk each other's ear off at midnight. My mom lovesssss mornings and falls over if she's up past 10.

My mom & stepdad usually eat breakfast by 7:30 a.m. So I get up when we're with them to make sure I eat with them. My brother & his family get up later if they can, especially with the baby being sick on vacation. Breakfast was around 8/8:30... ahhhh. :)

And dinner on vacation was about 5:30. On the second night there as we were laying in bed watching TV in our lodge room {because you can do that sort of thing on vacation} about 9:30 p.m. and Tim piped up "wanna order a pizza??"

I about fell off the bed, it was so funny! And timely. We'd eaten so early compared to our usual schedules that we were really hungry right before bed!! {But no, it was really a joke, we did not order a pizza.}

How do you handle your schedules with family on vacations? How different are you and your loved ones on the morning vs. night thing? Which one are you?