Sunday with the inlaws AND it didn't suck!

My mother-in-law is nuts. My husband would agree. Luckily she lives in Florida, today we found out from his father & step-mom that dear Mom is in NY visiting his sisters. This isn't the first time she's come north to visit the sisters--she never tells Gman about it. She's never been to visit us except that one time when we bought her a ticket and they put me on bed rest and it was about the only time I ever wished they'd make me GO to work! Anyway, enough about my mother-in-law, she wasn't involved in the show today.

We set off relatively early this morning with all four kids to visit my father-in-law in Western Maryland at the Happy Hills Family Campground. They sold their house a few years ago and bought a fifth wheel RV and this is its relatively permanent home. It was the perfect opportunity to play with his new toy, the kids could spend some time with their grandparents, we could relax in the great outdoors, what more could you want? The trip there was speedy, less than an hour and a half--thank goodness, the noise that four kids between 18 & 3 can make in a minivan is truly amazing. After about the 5th shriek from PDQ I thought I'd explode but I managed to keep my mouth shut and be happy that they were enjoying each others company.

From the minute we arrived at the campground the girls wanted to go swimming. We told them after lunch. The second we were done eating it was can we go now? We waited while Gman tried to help his stepmom use her Blackberry as a modem--which made me think I need to try that as well--and we waited and waited and he never quite made it happen. Finally we took the kids to the pool where we saw mullets, mohawks, and everyone over the age of 15 had a tattoo (or 3). While the little kids swam, grandpa took oldest SS off for a drive in the golf cart (cobalt blue no less). Apparently they had a little man to man time talking about what he was going to do with his life (he's 18 and hasn't graduated from HS yet much to our dismay). SMIL and I sat around and drank Arbor Mist (yeah, I know its just one step from Boone's Farm, but its tasty!) and chatted while Gman and his Dad had a beer. The kids played and other than the begging to go to the pool they were really good. God bless my SMIL who promised the girls that if they were good she'd let them sit on her lap and drive the golf cart a little later--serious bribery material right there! By the time we left the pleasant afternoon was fading and Boobah was in rare form. We weren't 5 minutes from the campground before she was comatose in her car seat and not much longer before all four were sound asleep. My only regret may be when neither girl will go to bed!

I must say it was a perfectly nice afternoon and I am feeling relaxed and happy. Not very often do we have a Sunday without incident--especially when all six of us have spent nearly 12 hours together in relatively close quarters. Maybe we are all growing up?