my summer vacation

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At breakfast, Eli wasn't sure he wanted to go back to school. We had left on vacation about two weeks before, and it was his first day back at school (and my first day back at work.) I reminded him that he woudl see all his friends, and could tell them about our adventures. As he worked on his bowl of Cheerios, I said, imitating Eli, "What I did on summer vacation, by Eli Derkits..." Then I started thinking about all that he would be able to report from this one!

He received two (2) sets of wings from his first two plane rides to get us from Corpus to Houston to Greenville. We managed to ride the "choo-choo train" around the airport to make the two-hour-layover experience that much better. Our time in the mountains with my family included a lot of creek-play time: throwing rocks, stepping into the icy water, and hunting for salamanders.  We took hikes, urging Eli  to walk as long as he could before we loaded him into the backpack. Each night we played a little baseball in the driveway while Papa cooked out. He raised and lowered the flag each day, part of the daily practice at our family cabin.We baked a cake for Honey's (my mom's) birthday, and enjoyed the view of the blue, Smokey Mountains from the porch.

Then we returned to the coast just in time for Family Camp at Mustang Island Conference Center. There Eli got a lot of time on a surfboard, and met a few new friends. He and his new friend Lucy were inseparable; they both cried when it was time to leave.

Back to school; back to work. Those days of discovery, exploring; days of too-late naps, and missing bed time because we were having so much fun are still with us, as memories; carried in our hearts or even deeper, down in our bellies. Where the deepest spiritual memories reside.

My hope is to hang on to that sense of exploration and discovery (even while we get back on a regular nap and bedtime schedule.) One person at the Family Camp said of her time there, "My reset button has been pushed." The practice of taking vacation has it's biggest impact once we're back in the midst of our everyday lives. Writing the "What I did on summer vacation" report, the telling of the story, if only across the breakfast table, keeps the experience fresh and alive.

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