famcation (fam-kay-shun) n.: A vacation taken without one’s family.

Last month I got a chance to visit my good friend Ben for his wedding. I got to see Ed, Kirsti, Ben, Bryn and Dan — all good friends from college. After the wedding we went camping for a few days (except Ben, who wisely opted to spend his honeymoon with his bride instead of us). It really felt great to be with my good friends again, and very relaxing not having young kids to be responsible for.

Although the break from parenting was refreshing after almost a week it felt even better to be back home. There are lots of people I go weeks, months or years between seeing. Somehow just being gone a week was enough for me to see Sheryl and the kids with entirely fresh eyes, though.

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