Well, the time has come….our mandatory American family trip to Disney starts tomorrow.
I’m really looking forward to it, in kinda the same way you look forward to having a baby. You can’t wait to hold your baby in your arms (ie get to Disney World) but you dread the labor (the 18 hour car ride) and you worry about the sleepless nights (spending 5 days in theme parks with 3 overly excited, exhausted kids).
Wish me luck.
It should be fun.
We’ve gone camping amongst the wild ponies and sika deer this week at Assateague Island. And when I say camping, I don’t mean like real camping with a tent or anything. We’ll be ‘roughing it’ in a 30 foot travel trailer that has air conditioning, a microwave, stove, fridge, etc.
In our defense, real camping is kinda tough with Brian in the wheelchair, that’s the excuse I use anyway. It really just has to do with snakes and such trying to snuggle into my sleeping bag with me.
We went to the Kutztown Folk Festival last week, and it was fun (once we whined enough and were able to drag mom out of the quilt barn).
There was a hay maze, and a sand box full of corn to play in instead of sand. I’m not sure if it sprouts corn when it rains, but there were lots of toys it in so it was cool.
There were lots of old tractors, and sitting on one wasn’t particularly exciting, but it seemed to make mom and dad happy so I went along with it for the photo shoot.
They also tried to get me on a pony, like brother and sister, but I would have none of that, and I was sure to let everyone know what they were trying to do to me. Now I love horses and feed the neighbor horses carrots and apples all the time, but lets see mom and dad get tossed up on an animal that is 3 times taller than them and see how they like it.
Luckily there were lots of cute baby animals to make up for the trauma of the whole pony experience.
The tractor ride I enjoyed. It was nice and safe sitting on mommy’s lap, and I got to wave at alot of people.
And there was a neat puppet show, and lots of music and this odd little building that was kinda fun to hang out in with brother and sister.
And most importantly, no outing would be fun unless there was lots of food. Funnel Cakes, ice cream, apple dumplings, dutch fries, mmmmmm.
Three things I learned while away at the Indy 500.
My almost two year old can now reach the locks in most public rest room stalls. (Trying to use the potty while the door opens 6-8 times is not easy.)
The stuff that you need to take to keep 3 kids content for a four night trip fills the back of a large pick up truck.
My three kids can actually talk and bicker and fight nonstop (and not sleep at all) on an 11 hour car ride.
…but we’ll still be going again next year,
I already ordered our tickets.
Some more photos
The twins rendition of climbing the fence like the winner did. Albeit this fence is for the Formula 1 track in the inside of the speedway and not the actual Indy 500 fence.
This years race winner Helio Castroneves (he won Dancing with the Stars a few years ago.) This was taken as he signed autographs the day before the race….as Jarod cried by my side because he wanted to wait in the insanely long line to get his autograph… and I being the mean mommy refused.
A long Saturday at the track. She fell asleep on a Firestone tire poster. The untold part of this photo was that we stopped to take it because an overly ’spirited’ college boy had been mooning some friends in the other direction and we needed to divert the twins attention this way.
I went to my first Indy 500 before I was two years old. (Thank you mom and dad)
I took my husband there on our honeymoon 14 years ago. (All the men in his family thought I was a really cool wife)
I went when I was 5 months pregnant with twins and took the twins to there first race when they were 7 months old. (My dad worried the loud noise so close to the track would harm the twins ears…..I think they’re ok)
Alex went to her first 500 at 11 months old last year. (I was not crazy enough to go when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with her…I love the 500, but I did not want to give birth at the infield care center)
It’s kind of an unexplainable passion for me.
When I was Makenna’s age, I was probably the only little girl who had my room decorated in posters of Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti instead of ponies and princesses.
Makenna’s favorite part of going to Indy is staying at a hotel with an indoor pool. (I don’t claim her as mine at this time of year)
I can name all the winners of the race since the late 60’s and without hesitation can rattle off the years Foyt, the Unsers, Rutherford, Johncock, Mears and Andretti won the race….
It’s not healthy really.
Nothing says Happy Anniversary like a family photo by a bunch of tires.
So we will head out tomorrow morning for the 12 hour trek to Indianapolis.
A 12 hour trip with 3 kids who only slept an hour of the trip last year……It’s not pretty.
But wanted to give a heads up that I won’t be posting while we’re gone.
Hava a fun Memorial Day and God bless all those who have served our country so bravely.
Postcards are a necessity in our family since the kids love writing everyone about their trip, and the grandparents enjoy hearing from them while we’re away. The problem always is that it takes us a few days to remember to buy the postcards, and then they all look the same. Very pretty, but generic pictures of the beach, boardwalk, birds or the sunset.
We solved that problem this year…and saved some money too. Our budding artists, the twins, started drawing pictures of the beach the first day we were here and that gave me the idea to have them draw their own postcards. So I went to the drugstore and picked up a pack of 4 X 6 index cards (just $1.50 for 50 of them, so they’ll last a few trips). The twins drew and colored pictures of their view of their trip on the blank side of the card. The ocean with fish, wild ponies with castles in the background (even though there are no castles on Assateugue Island, but they’re into castles right now.) On the lined side of the index card we drew a vertical line down the middle and they wrote their message on the left side and put the address and stamp on the right side…just like a ‘real’ postcard.
They turned out great. The kids are so proud and I’m sure eveyone will enjoy getting a hand drawn card of what the kids did much more than a stock beach photo.
Sample PostcardSample Postcard
Sample Postcard
Postcard Back
This is not quite how I remember previous vacations to the beach. Of course….that was before we had kids. I don’t think there is such a thing as a vacation with the kids. It is simply a trip. The surroundings have changed, but all the laundry, cooking, refereeing and lack of sleep due to a teething baby continues.
Vacation is defined as ‘a period or suspension of work, study or other activity, usually used for rest.’ This is definitely not what I am on this week. But, I love it anyway, and if the kids weren’t along, I’d been wishing they were to experience everything through their eyes. So vacations might have been more restful prior to having kids, but our trips are more exciting now. There’s nothing cuter than watching our 15 month old squeal when she saw the ocean for the first time, or more fun than building a sandcastle with the twins. So I might be more tired when we get home then when we left, but it will be worth it.
We left Saturday for our vacation to Ocean City, Maryland. We chose there because we can handle the short three and a half hours in a car with the kids without too much stress. You have the initial 30 minutes of them being good because of the excitement of the trip and looking at maps and such, and at the end is another 30 minutes of us ‘almost being there’ where they are relatively good. So it left us with basically two hours to fill with games to avoid the general bickering and unrest that goes along with strapping three children into a seat and expecting them to sit still and be quiet for several hours.
One of our favorite games is carride bingo because not only is it fun but we do not have to remember to bring any special game things to play it. All we need is a piece of paper and pen. We draw a grid with 5 blocks across and down then fill in different things for the kids to find. Police car, cow, 55 mph sign, Florida license plate, etc. They have two chances to win. First, whoever gets bingo across, down or diagonal, and then the second winner is whoever crosses out the whole card first. Generally they have similar things to find with only 5 or 6 that are totally different in case some things are harder to find than others (that can turn into an issue…trust me). Granted it is not a perfect game in that they still do some talking and fighting; “that wasn’t a blue truck, it was teal”, but it keeps them relatively quiet and occupied for about an hour. The other hour of our car ride we just gave them food….and that always keeps them quiet. All in all it was an uneventful car ride and a good start to our trip.
Here's one of our Car Ride Bingo cards.
Am I the only person who says they want to get away on a vacation, yet when the time comes you begin to have your doubts? We leave this Saturday for a week, and I’m thinking, I don’t have time, we shouldn’t have spent the money, what are we going to do for a week, how are we going to fit all the stuff in the truck. Yes, we have a truck that we need to take, and we got a cap for on it when we went to Indianapolis in May because we couldn’t fit all the stuff in the car. Somehow with the twins we could fit in a car, add one baby, and we need a whole truck bed to fit stuff.
Then there’s the “mommy, how soon are we going? How many hours till we go? What are we going to do? How long are we staying? Etc. etc. that’s enough to make you need the vacation. I’ve decided children should be separated from their parents for a few days prior to leaving on a trip. It would make getting ready a lot easier and quieter.
So, I’ll be spending today making lists of what we have to take and then doing all those little things that we feel have to be done before we go away, even though they probably don’t need to be done, but they make things more stressful. And isn’t that what going on a vacation is all about?
