Kazapalooza 2014

I am going to try and post all of the notes I have been taking over the last (more than) year so this might not be Pulitzer Prize winning writing.  Not that it ever was.  But I am going to get it all down because I don't want to forget a thing.  And the photos too.  These boys just grow so fast and I love having this record to look back at.  So all of our memories will be frozen in time here.  And really, perfection is not my thing and it shouldn't be yours either.  Life's too short for perfection.  

XOXO, -m  

Hi all,

Really, I want to just post the 400 photos I took over the course of our long weekend in the Finger Lakes area of NY since these really tell the story of Kazapalooza 2014.  But- as a person who loves to write- I really can’t help myself.  Must. Write. Words.  So here are some thoughts about the weekend that means so much to us as a family.   

The buildup to the weekend started way before the weekend.  There were a ton of posts on Facebook about people starting their trip to come here with their RV’s packed and cars full of kids as they drove and drove and drove stopping along the way at interesting places or to meet up with other KP peeps. Reading them made me so excited to get going. They were coming from FL, from TN, and from lots of other places that are nowhere even remotely near New York. 

 But best was that someone posted about a boy who was there at the resort with his family for a sporting event and someone asked if he was from Kaz.  Well, that really doesn’t happen to much and so he asked why they asked him that and they said they assumed he was here for Kazapalooza.  The kid had never even heard of it.  But of course after that he had to stay the weekend and he was sort of a guest of honor the whole time.  This kid who was 18 years old was all of a sudden, very unexpectedly surrounded by hundreds of kids just like him.  I mean, truly, what are the odds?  Astronomical I’m sure.

I keep confusing other kids with mine. Usually my kids are the only ones in any given area who actually look like my kids. But here, all the kids look the same.  There are a million Rinats and Aibeks running around and I have to stop myself from calling them by my kids’ names. I love it.  And I know that something in them loves it too.  They are not the odd ones out (although they won’t ever really be as long as we live in DC) but the parents are are the ones who are the oddballs.  It’s a nice little change of pace.  And I just love that my youngest (as well as Rin) makes new friends in a millisecond.  He was constantly asking, "Where my friend?"  And that I can let him just wander off with our Kaz friends and not worry for a second.  

Aizhan, the woman who wrote that article about us, is here to write about KP.  The photographer that came with her admitted that when she came out and saw the huge tent and all of Kaz kids running around, she had to excuse herself for a minute because she started crying and I totally get that.  It is an amazing feeling.  It is overwhelming the amount of love that is here.  The children and parents who found each other and continue to support each other as these kids grow older just fills your soul and it like no other experience I've ever had.  It is amazing and incredible and a million other adjectives that all mean that.  There really is no way to describe how I feel when I am here except that I am full.  Full of contentment and love and acceptance and just all around happiness for my family and all of the others.     

The kids all hunkered down to watch the movie and they start to play the slideshow of families.  It’s just one big long line of love, one family after another just like ours.  They started to play "Happy" by Pharrel and the kids all started dancing.  Adorable.  The sun is setting behind the mountains, the air has a chill in it and everyone grabs their warm jackets.  It is heaven.  

The water park was a big hit.  Of course.  But I think that catching frogs was the biggest hit for the kids and kept them busy for an entire day.

Rinat is a good soccer player.  Why knew?  I discovered it while he played with a bunch of teenagers who couldn't be any nicer for including him and making him feel a part of the group. Bek was off hanging with a big group of boys and Rinat was playing soccer with another group. Movie was playing, parents were bonding. It was just flat out amazing. The friendships that we are all making at these get-togethers are ones we would not have otherwise. We were all talking about how it will be when the kids are all teenagers and are trying to sneak out of hotel rooms to meet up with their friends. I so look forward to that. I would love this to continue for as long as possible. And with as many of our friends as possible.  But I also meet new families every time and that is fun as well.  I love to welcome them into our fold and hope they feel the love just as much as the rest of us. 

We went to bed at 11 every night and slept until 8 which is very unlike my children.  But then again, they were busy.  Like, the whole time.

And then it was time to say goodbye.  But the thing is- this year we're not leaving.  We get to stay another whole day.  Two actually.  So while it is very sad to say bye to most of our good friends, we still get to hang out with some of them and don't have to return to the real world quite yet.  When the majority left it just seemed so empty. The people at the resort were just regular old people and it was just us left. But it was good. We got to relax and hang out and wind down since our house was being torn up and bathrooms redone.

Met 30 people out for dinner and it was great.  We basically took over the entire restaurant in this tiny town.  The kids just went wild.  I love the spunk of these kids.  

We stayed with our good friends Diane and the kids get along amazingly. The entire time we were in NY there were no issues at all. They just played and played like 4 little peas in a pod. The last day, they spent the entire day together with each other and they got along so well. At the end of the day we got ice cream and hung out outside as the sun set. There was one group of kids playing catch and the other ones cooking up whatever kind of fun they could and just generally enjoying being together. And the adults got to sit back and watch it all.   It fills a mom’s heart right up to the top.   

Happy KP to all and we’ll see you in 2015! 

xo, -m