Life With The Shirleys: vacation?

Can it still be called a vacation when you have children? Vacation, to me, means relaxing, kicking back, taking a load off. Traveling with kids is none of those things. You are doing all of your normal day-to-day things just in a different location. And, at least for my children, they are worse when they are out of their element. They are such creature of habits and l-o-v-e their own beds, that everyone and everything is just a hair off when we travel.

We left Atlanta on Thursday after The Mayor got out of school. And we weren't 5 minutes into Florida when I smelled vomit. I looked over Love Bug's carseat and she was covered. We pulled over on I-75 and D had our daughter sitting on the side of the highway cleaning her off while I shoveled vomit out of her carseat. A quick 30 second conversation trying to determine why she threw up and we decided maybe it was car sickness? So we turned her carseat forward facing, prayed to Jesus that we wouldn't get into a car accident (she is 1 and just over the 20 pound but they are now recommending they are rear facing until 2!) and went on our way. 2 miles later, I smelled a blow-out. We pulled into a truck stop, changed the nastiest diaper from Love Bug, prayed that whatever was bothering her was finally out of her system and continued on our way. We made it Orlando with no more accidents.

Friday, we piddled around town and that night we went to a local Mexican restaurant. We were there for about 10 minutes and The Mayor threw up all over himself at the table. D and our friend Rich took The Mayor into the men's room, cleaned him up and I stood outside the restroom praying that this was the end of Vomit Fest 2011. Once The Mayor was done, he was fine. He actually wanted to eat. So we put him and Love Bug on the BRATT diet for the rest of the weekend. Better safe than sorry...

In other news...not related to vomit...the reason of our trip to Orlando, besides seeing our dear friends, was to go to a Braves spring training game. D was so eager to take his son to a baseball game. And The Mayor liked being there for about 5 minutes. Both kids just weren't feeling 100% and it was HOT this weekend. And the game was at 1:00 which is Love Bug's nap time and to be honest, The Mayor could have really stood to have been napping as well. We made it to the 2nd inning before I decided I was no longer interested in torturing the kids and I took them back to our friend's house. D stayed with our friends (he did offer to come home with me but I said someone from our family should be enjoying this game!) and me and the kids were off. Love Bug was asleep before I even got out of the parking lot and 15 minutes later when we were back home, both kids were sound asleep. They slept for 2 1/2 hours and were totally like new kids when they woke up.

The rest of the weekend has been up and down. Both kids are super tired and a little overwhelmed from being out of their element, but regardless of how much a roller coaster this weekend was, it was awesome. Being able to bring the kids to see our friends and to fun experiences like the Braves game (even though they only lasted 2 innings) was fantastic. D and I love making memories with our kids. And we can always try again next year.

And who needs a vacation that is relaxing? D and I had years where it was just us and we wouldn't have it any other way now. These days are going to fly by and before I know it, The Mayor and Love Bug will be creating memories with their own families. That's when I will kick back, relax and take a load off. Until then...bring on the chaos.