Vacations

My family got home last night from a weekend in Illinois with family. I've always thought, especially since having kids, I need to plan at least one day to recover from "vacation." This is why:

Take 4 kids, 2 adults and put them in a car for 9 hours (not the longest road trip we've taken, but still significant).

Add movies, toys, food, potty breaks, singing, yelling, stinky diapers, crying, laughing, sleeping, and every other thing that goes in to that 9 hours on the road and you will be exhausted.

That is what we call "Day 1" of our vacation.

Then we get to try to get kids to sleep in a place that is not their house in things that are not their beds. (Even if it is Grandma and Grandpa's house, sleeping it hard when you aren't home).

Then "Day 2" begins.

At least with this day you don't have to been crammed in the car the entire time. But you do have to get in to go see the sights, go out to eat, see other family, etc... Fortunately, the kids find "left overs" crushed in the car seat and cup holder from the day before (at least, you hope that is when they were left) so they are happily chewing for the first few minutes of the ride. Then they realize they are strapped down once again. Chaos ensues, until they fall asleep that is. Sleep usually happens about 5 minutes before the next destination is reached.

After being out and about for a while, the kids are tired and so are you. So, back to "home base," also known as The Grandparents' House.

15 kids run around having the time of their lives.

Water plus dirt equals mud, in case you didn't know.

Bug bites.

Scrapes and bruises, or "fun marks" as we call them.

Frizzy hair.

Black socks (Note to self: Don't buy Z any more white socks; they don't stay that color for long).

Yelling.

Crying.

Laughing.

Allergies.

Playing.

Fighting.

Hugging.

Eating (every good vacation has pleanty of good food too)!

Messes.

Laundry.

Games.

Bugs.

Memories made.

Minimal sleep.

Start all over.

Repeat until vacation is over.

Time to drive home.

This time, on top of the fun 9 hours ahead, you add exhausted kids, and parents, who haven't slept well in days.

Put this all together and what do you get? A vacation! And the reason why I need a day to recover from my vacation.

So why do we do this to ourselves? Because it is so much fun!!! Despite S's legs being covered in welts from bug bites, Z's socks being black from playing outside without shoes, W's soaked clothes from playing in the pool without a swim suit, and Baby B's diaper rash from eating new foods and not getting changed right away, we really did have a blast!

Cousins are some of the best friends our kids will ever have. Siblings are best friends that we will have longer than any other friend. Parents and grandparents are the people we have loved since birth. So there may be a lot of crying over silly things like fireworks and dogs (yes, both S and Z were terrified of both), but there is also a lot of laughing over memories made and recalled. There may be yelling over who gets to pick the next movie during the drives (W and Z will get over the fact that their big sister didn't want to watch Strawberry Shortcake with them), but the destination is well worth the ringing ear drums. So, we will keep calling this chaotic event a vacation. And we will keep repeating it. Hopefully, when we are old and have grandchildren of our own, they will take vacations just like ours! And the chaos will just keep repeating itself.