On our way

I did not intend for my previous post to be the only post last week, but that is what happened. The rest of the KOA went well enough. I got a lot of good questions about it and while I did answer many briefly on the post (I’m responding to comments this summer!), I will write another post with more about the logistics of planning and executing the trip. This is my fourth time going and I’ve definitely learned a lot, which is why I felt like I could take 4-5 boys up there for a week!

We got home early Friday afternoon and I was pretty wiped. I did the bare minimum unpacking (I will admit that a lot more needs to be unpacked) and then let myself rest. I asked my husband if our son could go to his parents’ house and while he worried that might back fire (our son can be “in a mood” when he gets back from that level of indulgence), I was adamant that we (::cough:: I) needed a break from each other. It ended up being a good plan, and I got a lot more downtime for it.

I spent several hours at the dojo on Saturday. After, my daughter and I walked down to a comic book shop in the Mission to pick up a graphic novel she wanted. I haven’t seen her much this summer (she got back from DC right before I left for the KOA) and we really appreciated the one-on-one time with each other (this was another reason I wanted our son to spend the night with his grandparents). We chatted for the one hour walk and then got home and watched Hit Man with my husband. It was nice to hang out with just her for an afternoon.

Sunday morning my daughter and I watched Jeanie Finlay’s new film “Your Fat Friend,” a documentary about Aubrey Gordon, one of the hosts of Maintenance Phase which is my daughter and my favorite podcast. The movie was amazing and I’m so glad we thought to watch it before we left for our trip.

All weekend I did laundry and eventually I started packing. Packing took longer than I expected but I still had time to workout. I slept poorly (I almost always do the night before I travel), but I’ll be fine because my kids are old enough to do what they need to do when we fly now, so I really only have to sit in the airport and then on the plane.

Southwest never changed our direct flight to St. Louis (as they have so many times in the past) so we don’t even have a layover today! There is a new TSA area in Terminal 1 at SFO that no one seems to no about (but that a kind employee suggested we use) and we didn’t have to wait for our boarding passes to be checked or our luggage to get on the belts. It’s been a seamless experience so far! I really couldn’t be happier.

Hopefully the plane comes and we board quickly and we pick up our car in St. Louis without any trouble. Last year we got stuck in Minneapolis for several hours and didn’t land in St. Louis until after midnight. The next morning it took over two hours to pick up our car. I really hope this year we have a more positive experience. So far we’re on the right track!

I can’t believe it’s July 1st! I think of our summer in two-week increments and we’re already through the first two weeks (camping + KOA) and now we’re starting the second two weeks (St. Louis + Chicago) and then it’s on to the third two weeks (camps for the kids at home) before the final two weeks (Hawaii + down time before school starts). The summer will be over before I know it.

I’ll write more about “the farm” (our annual July 4th family reunion) soon!

And now some photos of cats, because at this point I’m mostly worried about missing them, and them missing us.