When we planned this trip, we hoped to structure in some free time along the way. That's an odd statement. But, in our lives it seems that we have to schedule down time. That is something we have been talking a lot about on this trip. Today was one of the "unscheduled" days.
We headed into nearby Harrisburg to finally see Toy Story 3 (which we all loved) and then did some shopping and dinner.
Afterwards, we found a nearby baseball diamond to play a family game of wiffle ball. -- Another game that we used to play a lot growing up but was new to the kids. We had a fun time though and got nice and dirty.
Wrapped up the night with a 5 minute trip to Borders which turned into an hour. It has been apparent during the trip of our kids love for books. Their Mom gets the credit for nurturing that.
As we drove back to our lodging, Janell and I reflected on how great it was to have a down day and how determined we are to put more of those on our calendar. There have been certain instances on this trip when the kids are busy on their own and we take a breathe and say, "Wow, it's not going to be like this forever." The kids are quickly growing into unique little people with unique personalities, talents and traits. When we get home in the rush of life we sometimes get so busy that we lose that perspective -- or influence. This trip has allowed us to visit a lot of great places, but even greater has been our ability to withdraw our kids from our everyday life and it's many activities, stimuli and influences and see who they are on their own. It's a uniquely unvarnished perspective. So much about them/us is great. Some things we need to work on. But the overall products are something special and of which we are very proud.
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