Maybe Hannah should go away more often

When I get home from work each night it's usually between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Lincoln and the kids have usually been home for an hour or two and are already full on in "relaxation mode". When I walk in the door after a long day at work and a long commute the first thing I want to do is unwind. I don't want to walk in the door and immediately start playing. Unfortunately by the time I've settled in it's time to sit down for dinner and then it's time for bed. Our children are used to a late schedule and it's not uncommon for us to eat at 8:00 or 8:30 and then the kids go to bed at 9:00. It doesn't leave a lot of time for me to play with them in the evenings and I'm the first to admit that I'm guilty of telling them "not tonight" or "maybe tomorrow".

This week has been different though. The past few nights when Hannah has asked me to play something I think to myself "you know what, this is one of my last opportunities to play this game with her before she leaves for three weeks." And I must admit the last few nights have been some of my favorite times with the kids lately. Last night Hannah wanted to play Duck Duck Goose (or Grey Duck) and the four of us made time to play it in the living room before the kids went to bed. We had a blast. Today I got out of work early and we got in the pool for an hour or so before the sun went behind the trees. Usually when we're in the pool the kids play and I float on my lounger and read a magazine while watching the kids. I sometimes stand in the water but very rarely do I go under (at least not until the water warms up a little more...it's still pretty chilly). But tonight I didn't do that. Tonight all four of us got in and splashed around. We shot each other with the water cannons and played basketball. We did dolphin dives and raced each other back and forth. Hannah swam under our legs and we pushed Jake back and forth on his inner tube as part of a game we made up on the spot. The whole thing was a blast and definitely something we don't do often enough because we think to ourselves that "we'll do that later....or next week.....or in August when it gets warmer."

Tonight we're going to take our dinner out to eat on the pool deck and then we're going to cook s'mores over the firepit. After that it's our monthly boy/girl night where Hannah and I have a slumber party in our bedroom and Jake and Lincoln hang out downstairs playing video games before crashing together in Jake's room. What a great night to kick off our last weekend at home with all four of us until the middle of August. After we leave this week Hannah won't be back until August 15th. The looming reality of her being gone for so long has definitely made life a whole lot sweeter the past few days and I for one am grateful for it. What great memories. Hopefully we can all keep this up when she gets back and not fall back into taking our lives together for granted.

I think every night parents should take the time to hug their kids a little bit closer, and a little bit longer, than the day before. Our time with them is so precious and it goes by so quickly.