Mommy's Nights: Full Circle

Many years ago, a little girl and I went shopping.  This shopping excursion was born out of a need for efficiency more than anything else:  I needed to get my new little kindergartener ready for school. And the thought of buying crayons and glue sticks and kleenex and a Friday folder, plus having her try on uniforms with two little boys underfoot just sounded like a recipe for disaster.  So I found a night when my husband was home, left the two precious but rambunctious boys home with him, and took my little gal to Meijer and Old Navy. 

And Mommy's Nights were born.

I can vividly recall being in the dressing room at Old Navy with my little girl while she tried on navy polos and khaki skirts.  She was so excited to get to wear a uniform like the big kids in our school.  Buying her back to school clothes and supplies was so fun that I stretched it out a bit and if memory serves, we got ice cream afterward.  And when I got home, I remember telling my husband that this is the way I wanted to shop for school supplies every year: one-on-one, in a special way, with dinner or a treat.  

And so that's what we've done.  For 16 years, I have taken each child out individually.  Some rough math shows me a guesstimate of 66 Mommy's Nights.  66 times I've taken my littles and not-so-littles out for dinner or ice cream, snapped a selfie, laughed til we've cried, and oh yes - shopped for school supplies.  Finding time for 5 nights (or mornings or afternoons sometimes - we're flexible!) every August isn't always easy, but somehow we've prioritized it every year and it's become a strong family tradition:  Mommy's Nights (which in later years are sometimes called Back To School Nights) are a staple after so many years.

And this year, that little girl who was over the moon about her Old Navy uniforms is going to go on her last Mommy's Night. She's starting her senior year of college and next year won't need dorm supplies or notebooks labeled for each class.  And her last Mommy's Night is going to look a little different - we're not only shopping for back to school items, but also for her wedding!  

How did it happen so fast? I don't know.  I just don't know.  But I do know that while she's not the gap-toothed little gal in the Old Navy dressing room anymore, she's still that same girl - happy to shop with her mom and laugh till we cry.  Excited about what's next (leave behind the uniforms - how about a wedding dress!) and happy to share the moments with her mom. 

Thankfully I have many more years yet with her younger siblings to carry on this tradition.  And also. . .my college senior is going to be a teacher after she graduates. . .so maybe she'd humor her mom for a back-to-school-as-the-teacher Mommy's Night next summer. :) 

A few other posts I've written about our Mommy's Night tradition can be found here  and here and here. :) 

Vacation By The Numbers, Part 2

We just returned from a two-week plus stint in the Wild Wild West (and we even heard the Will Smith song by the same name on the way home!).  It was a great trip, full of beauty, physical exertion, laughter and precious family time.  Here’s a quick numerical summary:

3 campgrounds 

8 states (IL, WI, MN, ND, MT, SD, WY, IA)

7 Thrivent shirts spotted, not including the ones we wore

4400 miles driven (almost 100% of which were driven by my husband, I drove 0 miles pulling the camper - I drove 0.1 mile to do laundry one day)

2 National Parks visited (Teddy Roosevelt and Glacier)

2 National Monuments visited (Little Big Horn and Devils Tower)

13 nights camping in our 20 year old pop-up, who is showing her age a bit, but still hanging in there for our adventures

1 night camping in our friends’ amazingly luxurious camper, causing all of us to dream a bit of getting a new camper someday

12 varieties of wildlife spotted (bighorn sheep, antelope, muskrats, bald eagles, mountain goats, free range cows, wild horses, bison, moose, grizzly bears, deer, prairie dogs)

2 free pizzas, given to us by a Glacier NP employee while we waited in long construction delays after a day in the park

40 miles hiked by 4 of us (12 of which were very strenuous), and 25+ by everyone else, who said no thanks to a hike with a 2600 foot elevation - you can make your guesses about who chose what)

2 (+5 of their kids) friends from college we ran into in our campground in Glacier as they were about to check out

1 Floreo (floor Oreo) nearly consumed by me.  On one of the last legs of the trip, my hilarious eldest two children planted an Oreo which had fallen on the floor, on the console between my husband and I.  After several hours of driving and being annoyed by its presence, I took a bite of it, which resulted in hysterical laughter from my precious children - they’re so funny!

2 back seat butt warmers, continually turned on by children to toast their unaware siblings’ booties

1 great family who hosted us on our trip back with gracious hospitality - it was great to catch up with them (and eat a wonderful meal and take showers without wearing flip fops!)

1 wild fire 5-7 miles from us on one of our hikes - we could see the smoke billowing up from it, and general haze the whole trip from all the other fires in the west

102 degrees on our hottest day, with lots of upper 90s days as well 

1 Corn Palace in South Dakota revisited and several pictures taken to be compared with great nostalgia to pix taken on 2014 on our Yellowstone trip

1.25 theme songs - The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as just the words “Lil’ Bit” from the song Lil Bit.  Theme songs have become a tradition each year for us.  You can see some of our other winners here and here and here  and here)

75ish hours in the suburban 

1 bald pop-up tire, noticed and changed by my husband preemptively in a Culver’s parking lot about 2.5 hours from home

And most importantly, hundreds of memories — of so much laughter, shared experiences, arguments and complaining (you do know my family, right?), beautiful mountains, lakes and glaciers, loud, whole-family car songs, and just general togetherness.  My eldest daughter got engaged a few weeks ago (we’re so excited about it - more on that to come!), and we all knew that this trip was the last of its kind, with all seven of us crammed in the pop-up and suburban.  These great camping adventures are not always easy - they’re full of as much hard work as having fun and relaxing.  But there is something to all that time pulling together as a family to keep everything afloat - it unites us in a unique way I think.  Every year as we return home from a family adventure, I am thankful.  Thankful for my husband who plans everything, for the ability to travel so many places, even on a tight budget, for the beauty which God has gifted our country, and for my precious family and our time together.