Same Bedlam, Prettier Surroundings

The Candy Cane family leaves for vacation tomorrow.  I'm a little bit in denial.  There is still laundry to be done, lists to be made, mail to stop, swim lessons to cancel, blah, blah, blah.  I have never been a good packer, and now I have to pack for three other people.  However, this is the first vacation we've taken where no one in the family requires diapers of any kind.   Hooray for underwear!

We've rented a lake house with my sister and her family.  It's the same house we rented last summer and we had a blast.  We'll be spending our week jumping off the dock into the lake, deciding between the ice cream shop or shaved ice stand for an afternoon snack, renting bikes and having a picnic in Yosemite, taking moonlight boat rides with a pitcher of margaritas, water skiing, and barbecuing.  You know, lake vacation stuff.    

The very first vacation Mr. Mint and I took after becoming parents was when Lolly and Frostine were 11 months old.  We flew to Kauai for a week.  The plane ride was every parent's nightmare.  There was spilled Diet Coke, diaper blow-outs, walking up and down the aisles and lots and lots of tears.  Mostly my tears.  I was wiped out by the time we got off the plane in Kauai and that was just the beginning.  The girls were on the verge of learning to walk and did not want to sit in the stroller.   They couldn't quite walk on their own so we ended up carrying them everywhere we went.  They hated the ocean and would cry the moment we stepped onto the beach.  The crying didn't stop on the beach though.  Apparently my good sleepers at home did not translate to good sleepers on vacation.  They were up all. night. long.  Naps were a struggle.  If you've ever taken two 11 month olds to a restaurant, you can only imagine what two sleep deprived 11 months olds and their cranky sleep deprived parents are like in a restaurant.  The plane ride home was worse than the one there.  

The next week I was complaining to another mom in my mom's group.  This mom had twins the same age as mine, except they were her third/fourth kids.  She also happened to be a pediatrician and one of the most relaxed mom's I had ever met.  I'm sure she got a kick out of all of us first time mom's in that group who peppered her with questions and asked for advice.  She told me I needed to look at vacations from a different perspective.  Her words were something along the lines of when you go on vacation with young children, it's the same chaos of your usual life, just with better scenery.  

Since that first trip I've gotten smarter about vacations with the kids.   It's about creating memories for our kids and having their hard working dad around for more than a couple hours a day.   My mother-in-law will be joining us as well.   This is a woman who told Mr. Mint not to marry me because I was just going to take all his money and divorce him.  But we're past all that now and I couldn't be more thrilled to have her coming on vacation with us.  

But never fear, I haven't forgotten about my readers (all 5 of you!).  I have some stellar guests posts in store that you won't want to miss.  So check back and give my guest writers lots of love.  They deserve it.