Events of Saturday, November 20, 2010 

          Happy Birthday Grandpa John! Today, he turned 72! But, when I finally got up, around 8:30, he was probably still asleep back in California. Everybody else woke up soon after I did and we started making up a royal breakfast. Well, Daddy did most of the work. While he cooked up scrambled eggs, omelets, and bacon, Mom stirred up hot chocolate and hot cider, and I made some oatmeal. It was quite a feast. When we were all groaning with our full bellies, we cleaned up and took nice warm showers and started a day of relaxation and lots of work.

          We started our rest day by going out to the RV and taking all of our dirty clothes and throwing them into the laundry bag. We started a load of laundry and for the moment, we could do whatever we wanted. As I said, that only lasted for a moment. We spent the next six hours working on blogs, editing photos, answering e-mails, writing postcards, and washing dishes. Well, we did get some reading time in, but the first two thirds of our rest day were pretty much all work. But, it did make me realize that every other day of this trip should be considered a rest day; because we are taking a break from going to school and for my parents, going to work. It’s weird, we’re on vacation, but it certainly doesn’t feel like vacation!

          After a light lunch, – we were all still pretty full from breakfast – at about two in the afternoon, we folded the now clean and dry laundry and continued working on the things I mentioned before. Ben helped Oma Janssen with her website for her upcoming trip to Argentina and Mom and Dad planned ahead a little for the next couple of days. Around five, Mom and Dad left for a date and the rest of us got “babysat” by Oma Janssen – actually we just hung out together. We watched Roxanne, which we all decided was under-rated. We stopped the movie for a quick pizza break and then resumed. The movie ended right before bedtime and we went to bed and piled on the blankets for a cold night in the low 30’s. You know, we shouldn’t call this kind of day a “rest day”, it should be called a catching-up-and-doing-what-needs-to-be-done day!