Samantha's cheesy vacation

The first week of August Samantha got to go on her very own vacation. Her Uncle David and Aunt Jena invited her to stay with them for 4 days of fun. It was to be her first time away from home all on her own. She caught a ride down to their house with another Aunt and uncle who were traveling through the area. She got to stay for 4 days and 3 nights. An only child to be doted on & adored. She never gets that here.

As much as I do love and adore her, being #4 of 5 makes that individual attention thing hard to come by. It's the very reason I used to love spending the night at my grandma & grandpa Lowe's house when I was a kid. I used to sleep over all the time and I'd have my own bowl of cheesepuffs and my own can of soda. They always had 6-packs of store brand Lemon-lime and root beer in the cupboard. Grandpa would play go fish with me and I'd watch the movie of the week with them. I'd stay up late and when they'd tuck me in, Grandpa would sit on the bed and tell me sheepherding stories about bears and loneliness and beans from when he was a boy. I was #3 of 6 and I loved that feeling of being the only one. It was as hard to come by for me as I'm sure it is for Samantha. I loved & still love the chaos and camaraderie that comes with being #3 of 6 and I hope Samantha loves that about her place in our family too.

But that alone time is sweet. That being made to feel special by loved ones is so important. I'm so grateful she has people who love her like that. Like I did.

She arrived noonish on a Monday. I got an email at 2:14 pm with a picture and a sentence:

Uncle Dedo wrote;

"I asked Sam what she wanted for lunch and she said cheese. So I gave her, her very own block...much to her delight."

Samantha couldn't believe he was serious. She told me she asked for confirmation "like 20 times".

Besides her own block of cheese he made her a bacon and cheese sandwich because you know... "you can't just have a block of cheese for lunch"

Samantha reports the sandwich was was "crispy, parmesan-y and YUMMY".

She was very excited about the fact that they ate through 3 lbs of bacon in 3 days. Overall she was fed very, very well and talks often of the amount of bacon and cheese consumed.

Here's a few of her most memorable cheesy vacation meals:

BACON and CHEESE sandwich

Pioneer woman's Ranch style chicken (with BACON and CHEESE on top!)

Crepes w/ strawberries, whipped cream, different jams and jellies

Mongolian BBQ

BACON, eggs and toast breakfast

goldfish crackers

Some of her memorable Cheesy vacation moments are:

"I got to eat DOWNSTAIRS on a TV tray and watch so you think you can dance"

"I Played the Wii: Mario party, with Bethany, Gwenyth & Catherine."

"I got to take Bo and Luke on walks"

"I visited the cupcake shop where Auntie Jena worked and picked out a strawberry shortcake cupcake"

"On Wednesday Grandma came to see me and brought me a cupcake necklace and we just talked about what i've been doing in my life"

"Jena took me to get a manicure. It was really cool and made my fingers look nice. It was because of a deal we made a long time ago because I used to chew my fingernails and my skin on my fingers."

"I got to go night swimming. I never did that before. It was cool because there was a jacuzzi and there was foam in it. I put a beard on uncle David and a moustache. We did dives and cannonballs"

"I got to go swimming at the washington rec center. There was a giant bucket. It's really cool. There's a lazy river but it goes outside! Then there's this big huge slide. Huge. It twists and turns and swirls. IT's so fun"

They made it here on Thursday night just in time to sneak into Jacob's Arrow of light pack meeting. Jacob (and I) appreciated how hard they tried to get here in time. They braved freeway fires, torrential rain and having to drive sloooow. The best part was not that they drove Samantha all the way home (which I did like very much) but that we got to keep David and Jena here for 4 days.

They had several events in our neck of the woods, a best friend's birthday, a wedding, etc. They came and went and visited and it was wonderful. They were the first of our stream of guests in August.

Jena taught us how to make these cute poppy style flowers for our hair.

One thing I gotta say about my sister Jena...

She always looks so put-together, so fashionable, so cute!

Thanks for sharing some of your secrets with us.

We watched Jena's Les Miserables dream cast DVD (even Mark...) and on their last night here we got to surprise Jena with a little impromptu Birthday party since we wouldn't' be with her on her real Birthday on August 17th.

They had been gone to their wedding soiree all day and so we made chocolate cupcakes and put up streamers and baloons and made cards and wrapped a present.

Jena blew out our candles and we sang happy birthday. ( Very well, I might add! )

Rachel made RFP

(Rachel's famous popcorn)

They've heard it's fame. Now they've tasted. Now they know why it is RFP.

David took a turn at wrestling Mason.

Mason does not give up easily.

He does concede after watching the video that "uncle Dedo so won that time but wait til next time! "

I hope there is a next time for all of the above!