Finally... a real vacation

The kids and I packed *many* bags of stuff and loaded the mini-van with said bags, movies for the DVD player, snacks, assorted Build-a-Bears and other stuffed animals, the iPod, left the cats in the trusted and good care of our wonderful neighbors, and escaped to the Berkshires for the weekend.  Despite the fact I have lived in Eastern Massachusetts my entire life, I had never spent any real time in the Berkshires and I now know I was missing a lot.

Despite the challenges autism can present, my Boy ended up having a fantastic time and the Girls each had a friend to themselves for 3 days straight.  They were in Heaven.  I so enjoyed spending time with my friend. (Her husband mixed some great adult-drinks after the kids went to sleep every night. He also is an avid outdoorsy-person and tired the kids out playing in the snow). My girlfriend and I hung out, we talked, we outlet-shopped in Lee (loving my new pink Coach bag and keychain, which cost nothing after using my Christmas Visa gift card and my Verizon Fios Visa gift card), ate Mexican food in a hole in the wall place, and admired the signs for the Canyon Ranch and Tanglewood. We also saw breath-takingly gorgeous scenery. Specifically, on the drive home, we elected to take the "long" way, a bunch of country roads to Route 2. Well, when you are that far out West, Route 2 is a country road for a long ways, too :-)

Driving through these quaint small New England towns, seeing ice-covered rocks and currents in the winding rivers which followed the roads, admiring the snow-covered mountains,  the icicles which hung off the sides of the roads, the farms and the animals, going over the bridges, glimpsing at all the cute houses... it was lovely.  It felt like we were  in the middle of Colorado or the Northern White Mountains in NH-- very much in the "middle of nowhere".  I loved every second of it.  Had some weird flashbacks on Route 2 past 91, driving through towns which were eerily familiar, BUT the kids were actually enjoying the scenery.  I produced kids who can like long car trips. Wow.

We don't have the money to go on real vacations. Storyland for a day, or two, have been the biggest treats for my munchkins since 2005.  Besides gas and some groceries, I didn't really *have* to spend money on anything since we were staying with friends.  Their family vacation home was amazing, and had a hot tub to boot. The kids loved that, although you couldn't have paid me $1 million to put a swimsuit on and go in. Sometimes, it's just more relaxing than anything to hang out with friends.  Friendships between the kids were formed and solidified, my friend and mine's girl-bonding time was fun, and we even had a very sweet dog to keep us all company.

Relaxing and getting away from it *all* is a good thing. The only downside is that I couldn't bring my skis since my new Craigslist-procured Thule rack has no way to get attached to my new mini-van without the help of one or two tall adults with experience with this sort of thing.  There is a small place to go skiing there , which would have been fun to ski with at least two of the kids.  It is small, but has quite a few trails, and is relatively inexpensive.

Back to the daily grind... three team meetings with clients this week to prepare for and lots of loads of laundry to do. But, I have great memories from this vacation week (including being put in a VIP suite at Disney on Ice at the Boston Garden, which is about the only perk of autism I have found; a very brief glimpse into how the "other half" live). The most important memory is all the precious time with my family.  I am truly blessed.

Hope your week was as lovely as ours!