10 Questions About…

OK I should have been better about writing up our vacation during our vacation. A week has gone by and the details elude me.

Wednesday morning Aine had a swimming lesson and the other girls and I worked at being the super vacationers. What is a super vacationer? Well, Fair Hills has a list of about 60 activities around the resort. The super vacationers are the ones who do the most activities – and not to kill the suspense but in the end the girls were ranked number 2 for their age group.

Wednesday afternoon the kids went on the Pelican Cruise – where you take a big boat out for the afternoon with the rest of the kids and have a picnic lunch on a sand bar. The ship was attacked by pirates! Luckily they didn’t get much. While the kids were boating the parents enjoyed a cocktail hour on the deck and a dinner without kids. It was nice and quiet!

I think we took it easy on Wednesday night, which was nice.

Tuesday night is the night of the big show at Fair Hills. The staff put on a really fun show. The kids love it. In fact the dining room and show are open to non-resort guests as well. We did well by scoring front row seats.

Some of the songs everyone knows, some you learn in your first year here, and some are new. My favorite this year was the First Year Spanish Spanish Love Song. Aine loved the song where the boys wore dresses, which was also really good!

I have posted one video here but you can see more (like the boys in dresses) on the Fair Hills blog. (I picked this video because the star (Emma) is the kindest swim instructor in the world. She was booked out but managed to fit in swim lessons for Kate and Lily during her free time. With her help we will be diving by Saturday!)

Before breakfast, lunch, dinner and any activities at Fair Hills there is a bell. By day two we’re all walking around like Pavlov’s dogs. But one fun thing is that kids can sign up to ring the bell. I have 2 videos (below) of Kate and Lily ringing the bell.

Tuesday morning we swam and we swam and we swam. Lily has got down her flip turn, though it could use some finesse. Kate is working on her dive. Mostly it’s a jump right now but by the end of the week, I’m sure she’ll be a diver.

Tuesday afternoon we went on the water slide. I have some video of that too. The resort sets up a huge sheet of plastic on the golf course and aims the hoses on it. It is one of the muddiest things I have ever done. You slide down but generally o 15 feet or more beyond the tarp on the grass – the muddy wet grass. The mud shoots right up your swim suit. I will be plucking grass from my belly button for days! (I thought about making a rhyme there but decided not to do it.)

It rained. We did get our 3 mile walk in at 7 am – but the sprinkles started just as we pulled into dock. Then it rained until later in the evening when it poured.

But you know what you can do when it rains – go swimming. So we spent some time in the pool before lunch. Monday afternoon we played family games. Larry and the crew set up a bunch of fun events; they got moved indoors but they happened. The highlight was the minnow race – which you can see from the picture with the troughs. The kids put minnows into the troughs to see who wins.

There are a lot of little kids up this week. So there are plenty of playmates for Aine, who has no trouble walking up to meet people. There aren’t as many kids for the big girls but that’s OK. There’s plenty to do regardless.

Monday night was international night – something they only do once a year here. All of the international students working at the resort give a presentation on their home countries and cook traditional food to share. It’s really interesting. There were presentations from Poland, Ecuador, Moldova, Turkey, Italy, and Switzerland. I have a couple a videos from their presentations.

I think I’ve mentioned that we eat like pigs here. We get breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room. Each family has one server for the whole week. Our server is Agata, from Poland. She is very thoughtful. Of course we especially enjoyed hearing her presentation – also after living in Dublin with such a huge Polish population it was fun to learn more.

Also in the video are Italian gestures and belly dancing from Zehra, from Turkey. I had a chance to talk to Zehra too as she cleans our cabin. She was also so friendly and nice. I have her email address in case he ever get to Cypress, where she now lives. (Who knows, naybe we will go next time we’re staying in Dublin.)

We arrived at Fair Hills Resort last night. (Fair Hills is just like the resort from Dirty Dancing. There’s a dining cabin and tons of events for kids – and adults.) Grandpa drove us up here. We thought that Grandpa would spend the night – but he had to go back for work. So lucky Grandpa made the 4 hours drive up, had dinner, and made the 4 hours drive home. We were really glad that he came with us though. Patrick will be meeting us on Monday. He didn’t realize that we were our vacation plans during the Irish Fair. Although I asked him several times to check his calendar. (Aargh!)

Anyways, we had a relaxing first night. We had dinner and went swimming. We enjoyed the big pool, kiddie pool, and hot tub. You can guess which one I liked best.

Sunday I woke up and did the Fair Hills walk. We walk about 3 miles around the lake and get picked up by the boat in time to get us back to the resort for breakfast. The girls had pancakes shaped as a frog, a pony, and a rhinoceros. After breakfast Kate and Lily played capture the flag with the big kids, while Aine rode a pony and went on the happy bus ride (double golf cart).

We got in a little swimming before lunch. Then Aine went fishing – she got the award for catching the slimiest fish. Kate and Lily went to play water games with the big kids. After the afternoon activities we took it easy until dinner. After dinner we went to the ice cream social and now I’m waiting for Aine to fall asleep. (There are no TVs at Fair Hills – well none in the cabins – which means we go to bed a little earlier.)