Back from a little weekend vacation
Last night we rolled in about 10pm from a quick trip to Ohio. The main point to our trip was to attend a performance of The Drowsy Chaperone at Denison University. Now while most of us are very involved in theater and enjoy acting. (OK, really that would be everyone in my family but myself... I am a committed audience member.) But even for us, driving to attend a show two states away might seem to be a bit much. This is where the story becomes complicated, so I'll keep it brief. J., his sister, and both of his parents attended Denison and were all very involved in the theater program there. The show we saw was in honor of J.'s mother (who was a theater major) and Denison invited us to come and helped defray the cost. We had dinner before hand with some of theater faculty and there was a very nice reception afterwards where many photos of show J.'s parents had appeared in were displayed. It was a very nice evening.
We left home mid-afternoon on Friday and arrived late to our hotel. You know you have become blase about car trips when you are getting ready to leave on a nine hour trip and realize you made no provision for car ride entertainment. What this really means is that I forgot to get a recorded book from the library. So, I grabbed the large Cd binder that contains our entire collection of children's Cd's and headed out the door. Everyone did fine and entertained themselves quite nicely and we ended up breaking out the Cd's only once.
Saturday was spent at the indoor water park which was part of the hotel we were staying at. It was the main focus of the trip for some smaller members of the family and I was a little concerned that it might not live up to their expectations. Most of the children had a grand time. The adults and babies? Not so much. Why, why, why do places like that, which are already naturally loud, feel the need to blast bad 80's pop music at levels which should really require earplugs? It is so incredibly unpleasant. Plus, being a holiday weekend, the water park was very crowded and need I mention ridiculously overpriced? Five dollars for a child's PB&J plus chips. Really? Oh, and you're not allowed to bring in your own food, of course.
I was thrilled when the hotel desk called to say one of our rooms was ready early and we could check-in. G. and L. most likely will not be requesting a water park birthday party in June. At first they were very excited and wanted to get into their swimming suits. (Which they looked mighty cute in, by the way.) B. and I brought them over to the 0-depth entry pool where we thought they would enjoy walking around and play in the water given how much they love baths. But, no. Evidently this water was made out of a toxic substance because every time a drop touched either of them they screamed and screamed. I will add that the level of noise in the place made their screams hardly noticeable unless they were screaming directly into your ear. Eventually they got so that they would toddle around the areas without water, but for the most part the whole experience didn't really do much for them.
When the room was ready, I took the two unhappy girls, a sleepy K., M. who was developing a headache from the noise and D. who was just tired andbolted left for the room. Everyone else remained and continued to have fun. Even B., having lost his excuse for non-participation, was lured onto the slides by A. and TM. J. was the noble parent and stuck it out until it was time to change for dinner.
After all that playing, I was surprised that everyone stayed awake for the show, but they did. K., G., and L. didn't join us. Some very nice college students were hired (and vetted) by the University and they stayed in the hotel with the littles. K. could have probably managed, but he was tired and for as much as he would have gotten out of the show, resting was the better choice.
Now we dig out from having thrown everything in the front hall and regroup to go on with the week. I have also given myself the challenge of creating dinner from whatever is in the house since I missed going to the store last Friday. I'll pick-up some dairy and fresh fruit, but that's it. I'll post in the What's for Dinner sidebar when I figure it out.
We left home mid-afternoon on Friday and arrived late to our hotel. You know you have become blase about car trips when you are getting ready to leave on a nine hour trip and realize you made no provision for car ride entertainment. What this really means is that I forgot to get a recorded book from the library. So, I grabbed the large Cd binder that contains our entire collection of children's Cd's and headed out the door. Everyone did fine and entertained themselves quite nicely and we ended up breaking out the Cd's only once.
Saturday was spent at the indoor water park which was part of the hotel we were staying at. It was the main focus of the trip for some smaller members of the family and I was a little concerned that it might not live up to their expectations. Most of the children had a grand time. The adults and babies? Not so much. Why, why, why do places like that, which are already naturally loud, feel the need to blast bad 80's pop music at levels which should really require earplugs? It is so incredibly unpleasant. Plus, being a holiday weekend, the water park was very crowded and need I mention ridiculously overpriced? Five dollars for a child's PB&J plus chips. Really? Oh, and you're not allowed to bring in your own food, of course.
I was thrilled when the hotel desk called to say one of our rooms was ready early and we could check-in. G. and L. most likely will not be requesting a water park birthday party in June. At first they were very excited and wanted to get into their swimming suits. (Which they looked mighty cute in, by the way.) B. and I brought them over to the 0-depth entry pool where we thought they would enjoy walking around and play in the water given how much they love baths. But, no. Evidently this water was made out of a toxic substance because every time a drop touched either of them they screamed and screamed. I will add that the level of noise in the place made their screams hardly noticeable unless they were screaming directly into your ear. Eventually they got so that they would toddle around the areas without water, but for the most part the whole experience didn't really do much for them.
When the room was ready, I took the two unhappy girls, a sleepy K., M. who was developing a headache from the noise and D. who was just tired and
After all that playing, I was surprised that everyone stayed awake for the show, but they did. K., G., and L. didn't join us. Some very nice college students were hired (and vetted) by the University and they stayed in the hotel with the littles. K. could have probably managed, but he was tired and for as much as he would have gotten out of the show, resting was the better choice.
Now we dig out from having thrown everything in the front hall and regroup to go on with the week. I have also given myself the challenge of creating dinner from whatever is in the house since I missed going to the store last Friday. I'll pick-up some dairy and fresh fruit, but that's it. I'll post in the What's for Dinner sidebar when I figure it out.
Comments
I'm not sure if I should be more amazed by that or by the fact that everyone entertained themselves so nicely in the car for such a long time! My kiddos are such good fighters in the car. :-)
Megan
As to the car ride, having done our huge AZ trip last year where we did 13+ hours in the car for multiple days in a row, this seemed pretty easy even to the children. I would also recommend the book Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. I think it helped my older children look at their relationships a bit differently and the olders definitely set the tone of the family for the youngers.
e
Megan