Our Vacation By Numbers - Part 1

Whew!  I'm back!

And slowly, slowly our house is beginning to settle back into our normal routine ... whatever that is.  On Tuesday we sailed into the drive way, the van threw up in our living room and we darted back out the door to celebrate a buddy's birthday.  On Wednesday, I re-distributed our belongings back to where they actually belong, found the floor, vacuumed it, enjoyed some extended family time and fell into a tired little heap.  Today has been much more like a typical day in the neighborhood ... much more low-key and dry than the previous two weeks.

To give you a little glimpse into our wonderful whirl-wind week away, here is our trip ... by number.

2 vans loaded up and headed out ... we loved traveling with Gramps & Grammy.

2.5 days of driving east ... felt like more.

2 hotel pools on the trip out ... getting acclimated to chlorine water and getting the "we drove all day" wiggles out.

2 surprise mini-DVD players ... thanks, Daddy!

8 episodes of Phineas & Ferb watched ad infinitum.

I-80 highway through the flatlands ... emphasis on flat.

6 episodes of Car Talk ... hundreds of calories burned laughing.

1 Wendy's restaurant, squeaking in with our order just before the bus of 130 unloaded.

7125 - our room number at Glacier Canyon Lodge - our home for the following five days.

8 suitcases to load and unload ... and load again.

19 family members all eating and laughing together.

60 zipliners zooming past our balcony every day (at $45 a pop, that's a good business!)

80 degrees, the average high temperature for the week (aaaahhhhh).

60 years of Tommy Bartlett ... a circus on water skis ... 90 minutes of fun!

3 unscripted, near-death experiences by one performer ... a little less fun.

5 water parks in 4 days.

2 water parks in 1 day ... oops ... not our best family togetherness time.

9:30 pm - the average bedtime for our kids (that's 90 minutes of overtime).

4 utterly exhausted and driven to tears children (and nearly 2 adults).

4 dinners altogether in one condo.

4 Perplexus balls in constant motion.

9.4 seconds for Brett to knock over the water bottles with the pantyhose-pendulum hanging from his head during our "Minute to Win It" night.

2 trips down the Scorpion Tail at Noah's Ark Water Park ...

2 thorough sinus rinses into the bargain!

$10 worth of emergency french fries to keep the little people going.

7 tiny loads of laundry in the tiny washer and dryer.

1,000 gallons of water dumped over the kid's splash area every 3 minutes.

1 ding-a-ling bell to warn of said deluge that Lydia quickly learned to listen for.

2 Wal-Mart runs.  Enough said.

6:36 am - rude awakening of one small child trapped at the foot of her bed, leading to

1 long Wednesday.

4 post cards we never mailed.

1 afternoon with zombie kids, drying out and watching Tron.

And we're only half-way through ....