Something clicked in my head as I pulled into the driveway and saw a portable potty chair. I didn’t realize the full meaning of what I was seeing until I walked into my parents’ house, greeted my sisters and was told that “we” were potty training Sanna this week. Welcome to the Sjursen family summer get together… This should really have come as no surprise to me. There is always chaos, adventure and fun to be had when even half of my family is in the same state. Why would I think it would be any different on this trip?

One week every summer my entire family converges on my parents’ house for a week of beach, lobster and boating. I grew up in a small coastal town in Connecticut, the kind of town whose population doubles in the summer months due to the influx of SPs (Summer People). This year, for the first time, we were pulled together from all over the country (IL, CO and MD), a last minute gathering at that.

There are certain traditions we maintain every year – going out on Dad’s boat, time at the beach and a lobster dinner. This year potty training Sanna, my Dad having surgery on both hands and a leaking A/C unit were thrown in for added fun! Seriously each one of these added events merits their own blog post but I’ll give you the highlights instead:

• Due to sleeping arrangements and the fact I was the last one to arrive I ended up sharing a room with Sanna. Every morning at 5:20 on the dot (I kid you not) I woke to Sanna yelling “Peeing! Peeing! Change! Change!” Yeah that was fun.

• Dad spent the entire week with hands straight up in the air in casts. He couldn’t tie his shoes, drive, etc… I walked downstairs one morning; he looked at me and said, “I think I have an eye infection…” I took him to the Dr’s for the umpteenth that week and sure enough he had an eye infection. The man was falling apart in front of our eyes!

• Now for the kicker. It was our last full day of being together. It was going to be a full day – visit Gram (Great Grandma) in the morning, beach in the afternoon with the kids (minus napping Sanna) and a lobster dinner in the rough to round the day out. The first two events of the day came off mostly without a hitch.

We knew we were pushing the limits of our stay at the beach. A major rainstorm was brewing just north and west but we decided to eek out every last second we could get. The skies opened as we were racing to the cars but the real fun began when we got back to the house. My sister Katie met us at the door with the news of a major leak in one of the bedrooms. You guessed it, mine and Sanna’s. I went racing upstairs to move anything (clothes, cameras, etc…) that might be in the way and encountered a running stream of water pouring out of the ceiling and just missing my bed.

Here’s roughly the timeline of what happened next: Dad in the attic trying to find the source; Mom calling the A/C guy who had been there just last week for the other A/C; Dad enticing Paulie (family friend) with beers to stay and be his muscle guy (remember Dad still has two casts on); kids running up and down the stairs shouting updates and wanting to check out the attic; numerous trips to the garage for the right tool(s); the boys ‘helping’; someone literally sucking on a pipe (sorry no images here!); people staged at various levels of the house playing telephone – “Turned it on!”, “It’s on!”, “On!”; finally being told they ‘think’ they fixed it but the true test would be if I woke up in a puddle of water or not – wonderful…

Needless to say, we didn’t make it out to the restaurant for dinner that night. We did the next best thing and ordered in 7 lobster dinners, 2 steamed clams and 1 order of mussels. Just as we were walking up to the pick up window, my sister Sara and I overheard a guy in the kitchen say, “I really hope this order comes to pickup. This is a lot of lobster…” Ye of little faith!! He obviously had no idea the depth of the Sjursen family obsession with lobster! Not even a damaged, flooded house would get in our way!!

And finally some images of the kids at the beach!

The main players – Dorrie, Kai and Cooper

Chill’n

Mmmm – sand….

Kai making friends.

Sign we may have stayed to long and the mad dash to the car!

Sanna cuddling with her mom just after her nap.

We have a winner!!! Thank-you to everyone who participated in the 2nd children’s book giveaway.  This month’s lucky number, as you can see below, is the number 8.

I’ve always had a special spot in my heart for the number 8.  You see, certain numbers, in my head, have a personality and well 8 has always been the forgotten middle child.  She’s stuck between wanna be just like nine 7 and bratty 9.  Today 8 gets to shine all on her own!

I’ve contacted the winner and soon will be sending Harold on his way.  I hope they enjoy it as much as I did!

So maybe, possibly, quite probably, starting a new monthly series the month before I moved 300 miles – Connecticut to Maryland – was not well planned out. Somehow, I pushed aside all of my previous moving experiences. I didn’t fully recall the chaos and the amount of time it takes to settle in. But oooh I have been reminded.  It’s only this week that I now finally have reliable phone service at the house! (Thank-you Mr Dixon for solving my communications “Black Hole” problem!!) Things seem to be 3/4′s of the way back on track now – whew! I’m ready to announce this month’s book giveaway AND a bonus extra to making up for my dropping the ball! Without further ado I give you: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.

One night Harold decides to take a walk in the moonlight with his purple crayon and oh the places his imagination takes him!  He takes you from a straight line, to the moon, to a boat to sail on and a pie to feed his hunger – all created with his purple crayon and imagination. Harold explores all the greatness and possibilities outside his front door in the end finding himself home again settled in his bed.

The Rules: For the sake of simplicity, all comments must take place on the blog attached to this post (doesn’t have to be fancy, even a hi will do!), comments on our Facebook fan page won’t be counted.  I’ll close all comments 9pm EST on the set date.  If 10+ people have commented I’ll put the total number of comments into a random number picker (your assigned number is based on the comment sequence – first comment = 1, second comment = 2, etc…) and the number that comes back is the winner!  I’ll announce and contact the winner two days after the closing date and arrange to send them a copy of the book!  So excited to share this with you!!  So here are the details for this month’s book.

July 2010 Book: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Comment Closing Date: August 3rd, 2010

Announcement of Winner: August 5th, 2010

Bonus!!: This month to make up for my dropping the ball I’m also giving away the dvd cartoon version of this book – it’s the same one I was shown in school many many times!

Now if you just can’t wait until August 5th here’s an Amazon direct link.