“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” I think that sums up vacationing with kids pretty well. The highs and lows can be very stressful for us as parents, not to mention all the time and money spent planning the trip and then executing those plans!
We’re halfway through a week-long family vacation to our favorite beach town in Florida, and we’ve had a couple of rough patches so far. But one of the great things about kids is they forgive and forget pretty quickly. Our girls won’t remember that we got locked out of the condo and had to stand around in the sweltering heat for an hour and a half waiting to get in. Or that I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I got the screen of death (“you must reset your device to factory settings”) on my cell phone. Or that we tried to have a low-key dinner one evening and I BURNT the crap out of a frozen pizza (picture in comments). Or that the baby once got so hysterically upset that we had to drive her around town to get her to fall asleep and ended up sitting in the hospital parking lot for an hour watching her breathe, just in case. And if they do remember those things, it will most likely be with a laugh.
The baby is, obviously, too young to remember anything from this trip, but here’s what I hope my older daughter remembers:
– Jumping waves with her cousin – laughing and screaming, “The ocean chose me!” with every crash of salty goodness
– A double rainbow over a white sandy beach after a brief summer storm
– Watching her baby sister dig her toes in the sand for the first time
– Eating mint chocolate chip ice cream out of a freshly baked waffle cone while walking cobblestone streets
– Catching tiny fishies in the tide pools with her net and then letting them go
– Diving for rings at the bottom of the pool and doing handstands and backflips under water
– Seeing dolphins swim in the wild
– Staying up late watching tv and then sleeping snuggled up to her Mimi
Here are a few things I will remember:
– Our 6-year-old asking to play “grown up Monopoly.” After noticing that the box says 8+, she looked around the room furtively and then whispered conspiratorially, “They’ll never know.”
– Taking the battery in and out of my phone, which saved me from having to do the factory reset. Thank you, Jesus! (Take my advice and back up your photos NOW, mamas!)
– Receiving shells from our daughter and her saying, “Another one for you, my lady” as she handed me each one.
– Explaining that the condo pool doesn’t open until 9 am– to which our daughter responded, “The beach is always open. You know why? Because the ocean never stops!”
– Fighting to get both the big kid and the baby to sleep, then staring at their sun-kissed faces as they dreamt.
– Being tired and happy and grumpy and grateful all at the same time, because that’s what motherhood is like.
Here’s the thing, mamas. We can choose to focus on the hiccups or the highlights. Every day we get that choice. There will always be both; there will never be a perfect family vacation no matter how much we spend or prepare or plan. You can get hung up on burnt pizza or just be thankful that you’re eating it in paradise. As for me, I think I’ll have another slice…💕🍕💕🍕💕
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