Derek got invited to do the devotionals for Arete Academy again this summer, and instead of me staying alone with the kids all week while he stayed at a resort in Phoenix, the kids and I crammed in all of Annie’s therapies at the beginning of last week and then drove over to Keith and Bethany’s mid-week for a mini-vacation! I met up with Derek for the closing banquet and got one night with him at the Four Seasons (while K&B gamely had all nine Muller and Miller kids overnight on their own), then we came back to the Millers’ and hung out, ate well (of course), played games (of course), and talked books, books, and more books (of course). Homeschooling, law, and politics might have been mentioned, as well!
It was the perfect vacation. Everyone slept well, the girls played happily and lived in the pool, the boys played happily with legos, robots, and Terraforming Mars, and every night, Bethany and I would reshelve dozens of books that all of us had pulled out throughout the day. We enjoyed family worship with Keith and K2 on guitar and Evangeline on violin, Bethany and I took the big girls out for coffee and used book shopping, we played board games (I had to take photographic evidence that I beat both our husbands at Ticket to Ride: Europe!), and we came home refreshed and (almost) ready to take on a new school year!
