Impromptu Summer of 2023

This summer has flown by, as they all tend to. I started with few plans and ended up with many. One of my kids graduated college, and another finished their first year-Hooray! They moved home for the summer, and we embraced our time together with a visit to a Renaissance Fair. I highly recommend you attend one if an opportunity presents itself. We furthered our capitalization of summer with an impromptu family vacation to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN. Dollywood has been on the family theme park bucket list, and I discovered a place called Anakeesta in Gatlinburg. They have an event every evening called Astra Lumina. It is like visiting another world and an amazing experience.

My family is into games. I mean INTO games. Card games, board games, D&D, dice games, computer games, Xbox, and Wii. Like seriously, we have a gaming addiction. When we go on vacation, we bring games to play in the evening in the hotel (or tent, cabin, what have you). My youngest son recently pulled the rest of us into a phone game called Pikmin Bloom. This game requires you to walk around and collect flower petals. So, we were the crazy people walking around in circles everywhere we went (and still do). This confuses Ravioli when we are walking in the same space for a while. She’s like, “Hey, I already sniffed everything interesting here. Let’s move on down the path.” And we’re like, “Yep, soon, we need to plant ‘X’ more petals here.” I’m pretty sure I’ve now seen my dog roll her eyes.

My oldest kid, yes, he’s a full-grown adult, but all my kids will always be ‘my kid’, so I repeat, my oldest kid received new orders and managed a visit while moving from one base to another (yes, he’s military). This prompted another impromptu vacation. Destination? Atlanta, GA! This allowed our family to accompany him part of the way to his new station and squeeze in a little adventure. The Atlanta aquarium and Fernbank Museum were a couple of places we visited while there. We also did a ghost tour, and it’s possible we had a spirit or two ride home with us.

There have been other day trips here and there in every effort to eek out as much summer fun and family togetherness as possible. As with every break from the regular routine in life, it has passed all too quickly. My military kid is at his new base, and my college sophomore has returned to their institution of higher learning. The recent college graduate will stay with us for a bit. Grad school considerations are under way. So even though we’ll be getting back to a routine soon, it’ll be a different routine with someone else living in the house.

How has your summer break been?

Taking a break from spell casting.