"Vacation"

"I don't vacation, I travel with my kids"- our pediatrician's pediatrician

I thought I had realistic expectations for our vacation the first week of June. I wasn't expecting a REAL vacation. More like DH, LO and I would all be home together every day only home was going to be a rental house in a resort. I...was...wrong. I have taken a while to write this post for a couple of reasons. The biggest of which is probably because I wanted to write a positive post. Nobody wants to hear that you didn't really have fun on vacation. I have since written in LO's baby books and talked about "vacation" enough that I can focus on the silver lining. Still, I want this blog to be as authentic as reasonably possible. So this post will be about the nitty gritty which, I hope, may one day be funny and remembered fondly. I will add some additional posts in the coming days that show the parts that don't require rose-colored glasses.

The day we left for vacation was so rough we almost didn't go on vacation. The week leading up to our vacation I had bought a number of things online. Some, like rashguard and diapers for LO were for vacation, others, like the Mac Leopard OS for our hand-me-down laptop were not. We watched closely that week to see what would make it before we left and what would be in limbo while we were gone. We were to leave immediately after LO's afternoon nap on Saturday. To our delight, the OS was scheduled to be delivered that day. DH was thrilled at the prospect of maybe having a functional laptop for vacation. So, LO went down for his nap and 30 min later our FABULOUS FedEx person knocked on the door, rang the doorbell, and dropped the package with the OS on our doorstep. LO responded by waking up and screaming for the next 2 hours. Ugghh!! What to do now? LO had not slept in the car on our trip to Papa's in May, so we didn't expect him to this trip either. As we gave LO a chance to settle down and take his nap, DH excitedly tried to install the OS on our laptop. We had been advised by the good folks at Apple that this would be the update we needed. Unfortunately, it wasn't compatible. Apple was wrong. Uggh! SO LO had been woken up for us to have delivered a package that was't even what we needed. We were a little frustrated, and LO continued to cry. DH and I had a pow-wow. We had a 4 hour drive ahead. At what point would it not make sense to go? Should we tank a day of vacation and start over tomorrow? I'm such a type-A planner, that seemed like a poor option. I followed DH's lead on that decision, as I have too often regretted trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Finally we just decided to go for it. We left about 4 pm. We were thrilled when LO slept for an hour in the car and more thrilled when our trip took only 3 hours. We arrived at our rental place just in time to feed LO and put him to bed. We had not eaten dinner and we needed groceries and to unpack. We had no food for breakfast, so I thought a trip to the grocery that night was a good plan. It took 20 minutes to wind my way out of the resort and find the grocery. I got there at 9:10 pm, they closed at 9. Uggh!

We started the next morning without breakfast, and I ran out to try the groceries again after I got LO down for his morning nap. It was Sunday and they were open, but I couldn't buy everything I wanted on a Sunday. I returned to the rental to find that LO had only slept 35 minutes and was crying. That started a week where nearly every nap for LO was 35 minutes long. It was a very small place to be with a crying LO, and it was a very long week.

We also found that our rental was not what we expected. One of several places in the resort in our price range, we had chosen this place for its gas grill and screened porch. We thought the porch would be fun as a family and also a place of refuge while LO slept. The grill would be a treat since we don't own one. We found that the grill was in pieces, barely functional, possibly unsafe. The screened porch had a torn screen and the windows and doors had no screens, so there was no way to enjoy the fresh mountain air. In addition there was almost no soap in the bathrooms, only one partial roll of toilet paper and barely any paper towels. Were we expected to bring these? Back I went to the grocery (20 min each way) on Monday to buy soap and paper products. We chose a place that we could enjoy because we didn't expect to be able to leave the house much. Suddenly we were stuck in a house that was a bit of a disappointment.

Friday of that week was our anniversary and I had hoped that we could have dinner out to celebrate. On Monday, I called Aunt Cat and BEGGED her to come see us Tues night (she planned to come Wed anyway) so DH and I could go out. We needed a break. (She did come early...THANK YOU!) DH and I had another pow-wow. We needed attitude adjustments pronto as things were going south fast!

I am pleased to say that after a very rough start, DH and I managed to salvage our week. LO continued to be very cranky and nap even less than usual for him. It was rough, but we handled it. DH did the hard job of staying in several mornings and let me go for hikes to get a break. One afternoon I kicked him out to go swimming. While it wasn't what we planned, we made the best of it. Fortunately DH had thought to suggest we bring something with which to corral LO. I came up with what we affectionately call his "jail" or "cage."

It was a little costly, but has been worth every penny. Without it we would likely have spent the whole week holding LO since he began to commando crawl while we were there. We did have dinner out and really enjoyed those 2 hours for our anniversary. We took way too long to enjoy the soaking tub in the master bath (the jets were broken), and I caught up on Food Network shows I haven't seen in ages. Halfway through the week we realized LO was teething. Look for that post later this month as the way we realized that was a highlight. LO also went in the pool the first time (the second time was more of a hit), tried a swingset, and we went for a hike as a family.

It was the first vacation that I couldn't wait to leave. We were ready to get home to our own beds and maybe LO's old routine. We left right after LO's morning nap and lunch. LO slept a bit in the car. YEAH! We timed our departure so we would get home right in time for LO's dinner. We didn't consider the possibility of traffic on a Sunday. We should have. As we hit the on ramp to a major interstate traffic was completely stopped. It took about 30 minutes to get to the next exit. We exited but didn't know exactly where we were. I called Grams and Gramps in Utah and they looked at our options from their table at Red Lobster. They guided us around the accident and back to the interstate. We had about on hour's delay, but much less than it could have been (THANKS guys!).

LO did great given all that he had been through that week. I was in the front seat and he started to get antsy about 30 minutes away from home which was also 30 minutes after he was supposed to eat. We didn't want to stop for 45 minutes if we could get him home and to bed. I finger fed him banana from the front seat. Five minutes down, 25 to go. I held his hand, sang, made faces, grabbed toys, acted like a fool. 15 minutes down 15 to go. DH and I started singing. We got to Frere Jacques (Daddy remix) and suddenly DH and I felt like we were a lost scene from National Lampoon's Vacation. We made it home, and all felt a little better. The next day we started remodeling our half bathroom. Uggh!