A Family Vacation

Our family has reached the Golden Age, that magical time when enough children are old enough that family time isn't just a cat-wresting session that one does mainly because it's Good For You, but not too old that they don't want anything to do with you or - even worse - have left you altogether.  A few months ago we all went out on a Saturday and finished the afternoon with gelato.  As everyone sat around the table enjoying their ice cream without spilling, fighting, wandering around, or complaining - instead enjoying ice cream and an interesting conversation, I was struck by how enjoyable it was to spend time with my children.  It was very surprising.
I have always been loathe to spend money on family vacations because I can stay home and stick pins into my eyeballs for free.  And at home the children have toys to amuse them and I have a room to lock myself into.  Lots of friends in the FS take their children to amazing places, but their Facebook pictures only make me tired, not envious.  The thought of hauling children from historical site to historical site in Rome sounds like punishment, not fun.  Honestly, hauling just myself from site to site to site also sounds like punishment.  I don't think I'm a very good tourist.
However, I have come around to the idea of taking the children on a vacation, which is defined as something you do to relax.  Our first vacation to Dubai was a resounding success, so we've occasionally spent the money to go and relax somewhere other than home and it has been (mostly) fun.  One can't expect anything to be entirely fun when there are eight people involved - especially when one of those is a temperamental two-year-old
This past weekend we went back to Chatkal Mountains Resort.  Brandon wasn't able to come the last time we went in May, so we decided to go back in June.  I had given it such glowing reviews that Brandon felt he had to make sure that I was actually telling the truth.  This time we decided to go with friends (who have five boys, so they're completely okay with chaos).
We headed up earlier than our friend because Brandon could take more leave, so we had Thursday and Friday morning to ourselves, and our friends joined us Friday afternoon until Saturday morning.  I've never actually vacationed with friends before.  It's hard to find that perfect mix of 1. children who work well together, 2. adults who work well together, and 3. both parties want to spend prolonged time together.  In our case, there's also the extra complication of finding a family that is not afraid of spending time with such a large family as ours.  We're kind of intimidating; after all, we could make a basketball team with a coach and a cheerleader.
Our time alone was delightful; the children played around the pool and occasionally in the pool (it was cold) while Brandon and I sat on the lounge chairs and read books.  I love having enough children that they play well together.  The big children play with the little children or with each other while the little ones play around the fringes.  Having six children doesn't seem a lazy thing to do, but in some aspects, I'm able to be quite lazy because I have so many children.  
By the time the children got bored of playing with each other (although I wasn't yet bored of my book; it was a pretty good one), our friends showed up and everyone was thoroughly entertained again.  There were games in the pool, rock breaking near the pool, games on the yard, and a continual crowd of children ranging throughout the resort.  It's a good thing Uzbeks are highly child tolerant.  
After dinner the children ran off to play various night games together while the adults talked through passing thunderstorms.  When the thunderstorms got too bad, the children retreated to play games inside, and the adults wrapped up in blankets so we could keep talking comfortably outside.  After the clouds cleared out, we all went away from the lights to look at the stars.  We were far enough away from everything to see the Milky Way clearly, along with thousands of other stars.  
Finally everyone stumbled into bed, quite late.  Sophia kept asking me through the night why we weren't sending the children to bed.  I shrugged and told her that this was the fun of being on vacation with friends - everyone got to stay out late and play.  The babies were in bed - and various other small children dropped off along the way - so why not let everyone enjoy a lovely summer night together?  It's fun to break the routine every now and then.
I'm enjoying this part of life, when taking the children on vacation isn't an exercise of patience and forbearance.  It's wonderful to be able to pick up and take a short trip without days' preparation and stress and have enough helpful children to lighten the load.  I love that spending time together is more enjoyable than not, and it's great to think that this is the new normal.  I'm already looking forward to our next vacation together.