VACATION TIME

Here we are again.

Our second family vacation. Wisconsin Dells

It's vacation time.

When I was a girl we didn't go on vacation.

We couldn't afford it and it seems we really didn't even think about going.

Vacation for us was going to Ohio to Kings Island.

Mark's family went on one  every year.

When we were first married we went a few places but not many and then it all changed.

Mark decided he wanted to start going on vacation.

Me...not so much.

I was seven months pregnant with Liv when we went on our first trip.

So I packed for Mark, myself and three kids.

We couldn't afford to eat out, so I packed my electric skillet, groceries, towels, dish soap and plenty of laundry detergent because I was going to need to find a laundromat.

That was to be the vacation routine for several years.
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Now days you find all that in a condo, no need for an electric skillet but we couldn't afford a condo and I was doing all this in a motel room.

We like most, had a limited amount of time, so we got up early and drove late.

We would leave the house about four in the morning and drive until just dark.

The kids were amazing.  They didn't fight or carry on at all until we got to the hotel, then they would get irritable waiting in the car for Mark to get the room.

As soon as he came out with the key to the room they were okay again, I think they were restless and ready to get out.

Now Mark and I.... we were another story.

We did argue, I can't read a map, I missed telling him about roads and exits and just little stuff like that and for whatever reason that would irritate Mark.

I remember the first vacation we went on, the one when I was pregnant, I called my mom right before we left and I was crying.

I didn't want to go, I don't know why, I didn't, but I didn't.

Nonetheless,  I had to, I had to act glad but I wasn't.

Later on I realized  Mark always wanted to go on vacation because it was the only way he could stop working.

As long as he is here he is going to work.

I also realized why I wasn't so big on vacation, for me it was all my work magnified.

I still had all my kids to care for but it was harder now and we are talking back in the day when dads didn't help with kids like they do now.

Anyway, every year we went and  we have lots of memories and lots of pictures.

Sometimes vacations seem even more fun once they are over, the memories get sweeter.

Now I look forward to vacation as much as Mark.

I no longer pack an electric skillet and a weeks worth of groceries.

I don't read a map because the kids put the address of where we are going in the gps for us before we leave.

I don't have all four of my little ones piled in a motel bed with me.

I don't have to carry two babies while holding  on to two little ones.

I don't have to keep a constant eye on them being afraid one will get away from me or get hurt.

I don't have to hand sandwiches back over the seat anymore.

I don't have to go through their suitcases and get their clothes and dress them and undress them.

I don't have to help them get their food at the continental breakfast.

You know what?

I don't know what I was thinking.

That's when vacations was the best.