I’m sitting here at the computer thinking about what to write when I start to smell something quite horrible, something akin to a skunk. When I stand up and start sniffing around the hotel room, my nose leads me to Tim who is sitting on my side of the bed looking at his phone. I go up to him and sniff him (because that’s what you do when you’ve been married for nearly nine years and need to confirm whether or not your spouse smells.) The smell is so overpowering I tell him that he needs to move from my side of the bed, because obviously he came into close proximity to a skunk today. He looked at me like I had lost my mind and proceeded to defend himself against my accusations. About thirty seconds into his reply I pinpointed the exact second he noticed the smell too! He went from being confused, to indignant that I would think that he would smell that bad!!

Within moments our hotel room was flooded with the skunk smell. Tim started coughing and my eyes were watering!! I couldn’t stop laughing. Tim went outside and said that our side of the hotel smells bad, while the other side smells fine. I’m pretty convinced that skunk sprayed right under our window! Ha!!

But long before the skunk attack, we had our family reunion. We told the kids when we left the hotel this morning that they were not allowed to go inside today, but had to spend the entire day outside. They were mortified at first, but I was worried they would get sucked into watching tv, so it was a firm plan. And they really did stay out ALL day. And they played hard!

The Ohio cousins were especially kind to my dear sweet Big E. Big E often lives in the shadow of his big sister, so to see the boys taking him in, letting him run with them, and including him in all of their games really made me happy for him. He would disappear for 30-45 minutes at a time and would only return when he needed a drink of water. And my heart melted when the boys crowned him King Big E and made him a castle and guarded him and let him make up orders. I’ve never seen that boy smile so big. He needed that burst of encouragement to come from an outside source.

C had been begging to swim in the lake all week, so we got in our bathing suits and headed in. But unfortunately, it was a bit overwhelming for her, so she ended up not staying in very long at all. It’s ok. I don’t want her traumatized by the water, so we will try again next year!

Baby E had some high moments today, but he really seemed to enjoy wandering around in the dark during the campfire. I found him dancing and singing in the grass. He gobbled down hotdogs and melons all day and even found someone to slip him some lemonade. Poor kid was worn out, though, so he definitely had some rough patches. That’s ok, though.

We went on a a few nice gator rides, Tim drove his cousin’s ATV, and when it got dark we had a bonfire with s’mores.

Tomorrow we head home and that makes me sad. It’s been a wonderful week and I don’t think any of us (except maybe Baby E) are ready to go back to reality! That’s the hard part about vacation, the going home! Pray for safe and easy travels! Until next time, Ohio!!