I had been gone for over 5 weeks and coming back to reality has been a big blow. I don't like a lot of what I have to deal with on a day to day basis (bills, toilets that were installed in 70's and act like they used too many drugs in the 80's, cleaning, debating whether or not to wear my new shoes and be ridiculed at church... you know, the usual). 5 weeks of vacation that cover a wedding, emotional break down, beach, Disneyland, Shakespeare festival, family reunion, and the awesomeness that is
Waterton produce way way too many photos to condense in a single post. I feel like I am going through stress relief withdrawals (so...stress overdose? Falling of the "stress free wagon"?) so to ease myself back into life I will post the one random picture from the 326 photos that I have from the 5 weeks.
Background:
Waterton is the most amazingly beautiful place on Earth and the ONLY place on Earth I feel
no anxiety. The only down side is that everything is 114 x more expensive than in the real world.
The kids and I had gone for a walk and
Livi was thirsty. We purposefully went to the most reasonably priced place in the village (meaning they only charge you an arm, but let you keep the leg) to get her a drink. She wanted orange juice. Ella decided she wanted an orange juice. I asked them to share, less I have to dip into their college funds. She was okay with that until Ethan decided he wanted an orange juice too. I asked him to share with the girls, and that didn't go over very well. Even though his face was screwed up and tears were falling I have been told very forcefully that he was
NOT crying. Thinking about it I couldn't really blame him since I have seen the inside of the girls cups and I wouldn't want to share with them.
Ella decided that if Ethan didn't have to share, then she didn't want to share either. More tears were shed and I ended up spending $45 for all three kids to get their own orange juices (just an
approximate price. I forgot the real total but I feel it was close to that).
We continued walking and made it to the playground where all three kids promptly ran off to slide down the slides and throw rocks in my general direction. When I looked at the table top where our stuff was sitting this is what I saw:
Ethan, who caused all the problems and cost me somewhere around $85 didn't even open up the much debated juice. Ella, who needed her own, took 1 sip.
Livi, the only person I really thought needed a drink, proved me right (once again) and drank almost a third. We could have easily only gotten one. I'm thinking of sending them each a bill depending on how much juice was left.
The kids were so excited to be at the beach. We hadn't been since Ethan and Ella were little. I received many incredulous looks when I told them to play in the "dirt" but once they figured it out they went with full gusto. 
It was such a beautiful day, perfect weather and we had a blast. It made me really miss living in California... until we had to go. Cleaning off sand is the WORST (especially if you have managed to roll around it until every inch of you is completely covered).
We all had sand in so many places that sand likes to go, but drives you crazy when it is there. Back at the hotel it took 3 shampoos each and there was still sand in their hair. Our tub looked like we had managed to bring back half the beach with us. Looking back it was totally worth it, but at the time I remembered exactly why I didn't miss the beach all that much.
