Vacation

I love vacations, I really do.  And some of my favorite ones are trips to Florida.  I love the sun, the beach, the palm trees, and even all the crazy crowded amusement parks.  Plus, I have family down there that we don't see often, so it usually makes for lots of fun trips.  Most of the "big" vacations I've ever had were to Florida over the summer. So..this year Kyle and I decided we'd go there with the girls for vacation.  I was super excited about seeing lots of family, but I was also dreaming of laying in the sun by the pool at the hotel, laying on the beach listening to the crashing of the waves and reading a book,  and even suffering through the heat to ride rides at Disney and SeaWorld.

And then we got there.  With 2 kids.  And for the first time in the 4 years that I've had children I realized something.  Vacations aren't really just for me anymore!  Because all that fun stuff that I was dreaming about...didn't happen quite like I'd imagined.  I had to lay in the shade at the pool because Kayla didn't need to be in the sun. At the beach, I was too busy with both girls to be able to lay down at all, much less in peace and quite and read a book! And the parks were fun, but again not the same as I remembered when you are with 2 young kids!  So be warned, the rest of the post is about how our vacation really went (and how I expect the next several years to go as well).  All in all we did have a great time, so I"m not complaining,  I just had another "Ah ha" moment while we were there.  All a part of parenting I suppose.

First of all, we picked the 4th of July week to head to FL because we knew in advance that several of our family members would all be there that same week. In total we had my grandparents (on my dad's side), 2 of their children, 5 of their grandchildren, and 7 of their great grandchildren present at the same time.  That's not the whole clan, but its certainly more than we've had all together at the same time in quite a while.

That being said, we had planned to just spend as much time as we could with my cousins and their kids.  We had such a full week. We started off at Disney, which is one of my favorite places to go, and this year Ryleigh did much better than in years past.  She wasn't scared of the characters and rode pretty  much everything she was tall enough to get on!  The thing to note about the below pictures is that we are all soaked.  It rained on us all day long.  Not sure which I prefer, heat or rain.  But when you spend upwards of $250 just to get into the park, you stay all day, no matter what! And we did.  Almost 12 hours in that park with 2 little kids.  Not the way I remember spending my days at Disney! :)  So, we had borrowed a double stroller that got soaked numerous times, so Kyle & I ended up carrying our kiddos most of the day.  And we looked like drowned rats for all our pics.  But - we still had a really good time.

We also spent a couple of days at the beach.  I had grand plans of tanning while reading a book and relaxing.  So we were smart and brought a little tent for Kayla so she could stay out of the sun. But when I got her to take a nap, Ryleigh wanted to go play, so alas, I did not even touch a book and spent most of my time jumping over waves with Ryleigh. But, I had a blast so I can't really complain about that either. We also managed to make it to the pool, where Ryleigh had a blast, and Kayla just napped! I swear she is the easiest child ever!

We spent the evening of the 4th of July at my Uncle's house for a cookout and fireworks.  Ryleigh was not a fan of the fireworks. She can't handle the loud noises, so I stayed inside with her and Kayla and watched from inside!  Which was fine with me as it gave me some time to visit with my Grandma who had not seen Kayla yet.

We finished up our trip by staying for few nights with one of my cousins (who also had 2 girls about the same age as Ryleigh & Kayla).  One of those days we all went to SeaWorld together - another of my favorite parks!  Ryleigh and Kayla both enjoyed this one as well!

So, all in all, we really did have a great vacation, but it just wasn't that slow, lazy, relaxing kind that I had originally had in my mind!  We were on the go every day, up early and didn't get in bed till about midnight each night. We got rained on more times that I can count, and there's just something about having 2 little ones with you that makes things slightly more complicated.  But - I wouldn't really have it any other way.  Now, if I could just find a volunteer to watch our kids while we take a vacation from vacation, I'd be set! :)