"Vacation" Day

Today I went to the Notre Dame vs. Navy game. I woke up at ten minutes till 7 this morning, so I could appropriately shower and get myself into presentable fashion, get my boys up and dressed, and get the baby fed and dressed also. After a sleepless night, this day was not starting off with the ambition I had planned on, but, nonetheless, I made this committment to go to this game. Lacking the time I originally planned for breakfast, the boys got a Quaker Oat Chewy tossed at them in the car and we were on our way to my mother's. She agreed to watch the baby, and my aunt agreed to keep the boys. Split em' up. Good idea. So by 9:30 a.m., we had already driven 45+ miles, but, hey, we were pretty excited to be kid free and headed off to a beautiful day of football watching. Or people watching, in my case, because that's pretty much what I do. Arrived at the tailgate drenched in the unseasonably warm November sunshine, ate a heaping plate of all things not good for me, drank a pink concoction that reminded me of some bar-hopping nights in Savannah, and then drank another one. Jello shots? Check. Had three of them, infact, like I just turned 21. Except without the awkwardness of having to look around at my peers and try, nonchalantly, to see how they got it out of the little cups before I attempted my own. Nope, I did it like a pro. The game was an awful go for the home team, but still an entertaining time for me, who, as aforementioned, doesn't really care so much about what's happening on the field, but was thoroughly amused by a long-haired man with nose piercing and his purple haired lover who had fingernails like Elvira. Note: Halloween was last weekend.
One thing was very consistent throughout the day, though, and staying true to my blog's purpose, I must tie in this very important point: I thought about my kids just about the entire time I was gone. I mean, when I wasn't wondering how bad it hurt to get your nose pierced like a bull. So, I'm not even ashamed to admit, I was more excited about the 45+ mile drive back to retrieve the kids than I was leaving them. I brought them home, bathed them without even caring that they were splashing me and getting water on the floor, and didn't fight them when they asked to come back downstairs with me for a while to watch TV. I even ordered a pizza, because they decided they were still hungry, and suddenly, so was I. No matter how long my day was, or how much every parent needs to be away from their kids every once in a while (you know, for that reminder of something called sanity), there's really no better vacation in life than the one I can take on my very own couch, surrounded by the squeaky clean faces of my very own little babies. And from the looks of it, they're pretty happy to be here too.