Six days, and 1300 miles, we've gone full circle. Pulling into our driveway tonight, we emptied out the spewage that occurs when you put five people in a vehicle and travel together. Food and pillows and fishing poles and toys and movies and empty Starbuck cups and dirty beach towels and a knitting bag and the most recent People magazine and maps and a GPS named Sue and Go Diego Go toys and sippy cups and diapers and licorice and grit and mud and grime and smelly shoes - the stuff of a great family vacation.

This one was notable because it's the first we've ever taken with any of our married children and their families. We came, we went, we conquered, and we arrived back home still enjoying each other's company, but happy to head to our own homes. And that feels really good. We'll do it again - there's talk already of future trips to Washington D.C. or the Outerbanks or maybe an Alaskan Cruise - together, all of us, even hopefully another little one someday to fill in that backseat and give Landon someone to kick and pinch and breath on and bug for hundreds of miles, like siblings do.

So here - the highlights of our fun, funny trip:

Sitting around a campfire several nights, and seeing more stars than I ever have, in my whole life, and seeing 2 1/2 shooting stars. I only caught the second half of the first one. It's amazing how many stars you can see when there are no city lights.

Sending Leslie and Jeremy out in the boat for a fishing date, and she came back with a photo of a very nice northern pike she caught. Impressed her husband to pieces.

Watching Napoleon Dynamite on the computer together, finally. I was the only one who didn't get all the family jokes, repeating famous lines. I'll be right there with them now.

Seeing Jeremy see Niagara Falls for the first time. Everybody should get to see Niagara Falls at least once. Amazing, truly.

Having the resort owners tell us to look quick, and there in the middle of the lawn was a big, bushy-tailed red fox. I swear it looked like Little Red Riding Hood should have been somewhere nearby. He just laid there awhile then dashed off into the woods.

Having lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a deserted beach in Killbear Park, and spotting bear tracks in the sand. We multiplied one seagull into twenty with one slice of bread tossed in the air. Landon thought that was fabulous, running around feeding them all.

The very next day we had lunch on rocks in the parking lot of Bass Pro (Canada) enjoying the looks of the other shoppers. We didn't notice the vacant picnic table around the corner. Landon thought it was fabulous to eat on a big rock in a parking lot and it was certainly memorable.

Enjoying a week of meals where the two year old said every prayer. Very specific prayers, "Dear Jesus, thank you for milk and spaghetti and apples and Papa and Grammy and and and..." I have to bet God loves hearing them even more than we did.

Watching a two year old little boy catch his first fish, even if it was two inches long. He won't remember it, but his parents and grandparents will.

Singing the Wonder Pets song inside the car til we all thought we'd go looney toones. It was appropriate for our trip however: "What's gonna work? Teamwork!"

Meeting a Canadian family around the campfire, roasting marshmallows and talking to them about their life, their politics, their insurance, the cost of living there, etc. Lovely people. They'd been coming to the place we were staying since the wife was 10 and she was now 37. How blessed their children are to live with that tradition.

Playing ping pong in the rec center, all four of us while the two year old ran around retrieving the ping pong balls and serving them for us - hysterical fun when you don't follow any rules except keep the ball going at all costs.

Trying to order meat from the deli, realizing I had no understanding of metrics AT ALL, and it was surprising to see how expensive everything was. Made me realize I need to quit complaining about how much anything costs here in the US, it's more there. Their money is much prettier I think.

Driving back across the border, and having the border guard ask us why we went to Canada, and why were we returning to PA. Was she blind? Did she not see the smelly shoes, the dirty beach towels, the movies, the Starbuck cups, the Go Diego Go toys, Sue the GPS system, the pillows and fishing poles and knitting bag and People magazine?

We went on family vacation, it was wonderful, then we were all quite ready to go back each to our own Home Sweet Home.

Labels: Family Affair