Hi Friends! How are you? How was your week? How was your 4th of July celebration? We are home from vacation and I have so much to share with you this week! I want to start with a vacation recap today.

As everyone says, life totally changes when you have kids. And that even applies to vacations. Prior to becoming a mom, vacations were all about sunbathing, reading magazines and enjoying cocktails and nice food for a week in a very pleasant location. However, I recently realized that none of that matters once you have kids. Vacations take on a whole new meaning. During the nearly 9 hour drive home on Friday, I had a reoccurring thought about redefining the meaning of vacation. And I think I figured it out. Now vacations are all about doing things together that we don’t normally get to do at home. That’s it. It’s that simple.

Here are all the things that made last week a vacation for me…

• We did a lot of “first’s” with Gabby: including a boat ride, a swim in the lake and watching a parade!
• At a lovely party (for adults and kids), Gabby and I sat on the front porch and crunched ice cubes out of red solo cups. She loved it!
• Gabby spent afternoons feeding the doggies goldfish crackers. We all giggled!
• I spent hours in the backseat of our car watching Baby Einstein videos from start to finish. Usually, I am too busy multi-tasking to watch!
• In six days, I received one phone call. Dreamy!

I still did laundry (two loads), made the bed each morning, cleaned up a high chair after each meal, changed diapers and gave baths. But it was different. I was on vacation.

{photo credit: Alli Parlin}