An empty household

On Monday morning we packed up our two kids and they headed off to two different camps in central Minnesota. They were nervous with excitement and wondering what the next week held in store for them. Hey, it's camp, it's a nice warm summer in Minnesota and they get to be surrounded by beautiful lakes what's not to like.

Meanwhile my wife and I were about to experience something that we hadn't since July of 1998. An empty household. Yes for the first time in 12 years we were going to be spending a week at our house with no children. What are we going to do?

We of course had grand plans for dining out every night at restaurants with white table cloths and evenings of summer leisure time. Oh the wonderful times that lay ahead.

So far we have experienced cooking a meal for a teenage safe house on Monday evening. And then we had to spend some time on the phone and on the Internet trying to rustle up some additional players for our daughter's soccer team for this fall since they were very short of players. So the first night of leisure time slipped away very quickly.

Last night we did sneak in a nice dinner at Kozy's in Edina. But then after that we had birthday shopping to do for Anders. Barnes & Noble, Old Navy and Target. My Foursquare account was hitting the jackpot with all these new places in Edina. We were then trapped in the Target given the torrential downpour that occurred last night. We eventually got home and had to deal with water seepage in one of our windows.

The grand plans really haven't taken the initial shape that we had. So after two evenings at home with no kids we haven't really relaxed. And tonight we need to do some major cleaning and prepping for an out of town wedding.

So our one week as "empty nesters" has really turned out to be quite busy and not so relaxing. And yes we miss the kids. They bring a level of excitement and energy to our house each and every day. We feel blessed to have them. Quiet peaceful nights at home can wait, at least for me.