I've been thinking about how well our family vacations went this summer, and I think I've figured out "the golden ticket." I think the reason things went smoothly is honestly because we took everything in stride. In fact, things didn't go smoothly at all, but we didn't expect them to go smoothly from the get-go.
That might initially sound bad - the whole lower-your-expectations-bit. But it's somewhat true. Vacationing with little kids is very different than vacationing without kids, and if you accept that and understand that hiccups will happen, it seems easier to handle them when they inevitably do.
There were plenty of hiccups between our two excursions, and I'm not even going to lie and say I can't remember them because we had so much fun. Because I do remember them. But I also remember that Brad and I would just look at each other and laugh and make jokes about how "perfectly" events were going... A "Yep, that sounds about right..." attitude!
Some of our hiccups, just for laughs (because you know you want to know...):
- Hannah threw up 40 minutes into our drive to the airport. And again 10 minutes after we got her all cleaned up and back in the car. And again right before we got to the airport.
- While watching the Fountains at Bellagio, Hannah dropped her binky over the wall. It was out of sight and not within reach ~ she wasn't happy. Thankfully, Grandma brought an extra in her purse!
- While in Vegas, we looked for Jack's sunglasses, but decided they must have been left behind in the car at the airport. We never found them on the trip. I did find them when I unpacked his backpack of toys - which we'd had with us the entire time.
- Our kids fell out of bed in the middle of the night a total of four times...twice in Vegas, once at the Grand Canyon, and once at Great Wolf Lodge. Despite blockades and pillow walls. Causing my eye to re-injure itself only once!
- We didn't bring the strollers on the day we had to take the longest walk of the entire trip - through the MGM Grand to get to The Rainforest Cafe.
- On the way to the Children's Museum, we happened to see Elmo on the side of the street. Hannah wouldn't stop asking to "see Elmo!" so we had to go down a few blocks, turn around, pull over to the curb, and wave money out the window so we could get a picture of Elmo. She then spent the rest of the trip asking to see Elmo's picture - it was seriously her highlight of the trip!
- We survived a total of 183 (I'm exaggerating!) temper tantrums/meltdowns, from Jack and Hannah combined.
- It rained every day we were at the beach.
- On the night we decided to get dressed up and go to a nice dinner at the beach, the following occurred:
- our original destination had an hour and a half wait
- it started raining as we walked to a restaurant nearby
- Jack randomly threw up moments before we were heading to the dessert table (we didn't stay for dessert!)
- After driving to the Golden Corral, Hannah asked for her binky and lovey. We realized they were still in the hotel room. She cried. And cried. And cried. We went back to the hotel, and then drove (for the second time) to dinner.
*****
On our beach vacation, we realized that when it sounds like Hannah is saying, "Cash money," she's actually saying, "That's Mommy!" It took awhile for us to figure it out, and it became so funny, and sounds so similar that we really just got a major kick out of it. We all say it now, in Hannah's little voice, and it makes us smile.
This is maybe not quite as funny, but she also asks, "What's that?" a lot. Except it sounds like she's saying, "Oh, s*!%!" Brad's still not convinced she's not actually saying that, but I'm pretty sure. We don't walk around saying that, and it also coincides with when a "What's that?" would make sense. But still... When I'm in public, I make a big production saying, "Oh, that's a ____..." to clear up any confusion!
She makes us laugh!
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