There is a lot that could be said about our Christmas vacation this year. I'll probably make a Shutterfly book to cover all the details and show all the pictures so I don't feel as though I need to do that here. Plus I'll most likely most pictures on Picasa in the near future. I think here perhaps I'll tell you all the reasons this was the worst vacation ever and then all the reasons that even the worst vacation ever is really pretty good.
Reasons Why This Was Our Worst Vacation Ever (and we've taken a lot)
1. Out of the 11 people on the trip, 7 of them had the flu (vomiting and diareah) within the two weeks prior to leaving on vacation. Paul was first, then Dennis, Hailey, Micah, Matt, Amanda and finally Megan on the 26th. Two others got the same flu while in Nashville, Dad on Monday night and Mom on Tuesday morning. Dad was down for a day or two and unfortunately Mom felt the effects all week long. Jack had some sort of something and puked three days in a row, but only once or twice each day and was fine the rest of the time. Somehow I was the only one to escape what seemed like impending doom. And as of yesterday Hailey and Micah have it again. Ughhh, will this family ever escape this nasty flu?
2. There's also the obvious, we didn't get to go our our Bahama cruise. Nashville is great and all if that's where you were planning on going, but it hardly compares to the sort of vacation we had all packed and planned for.
3. Despite telling the hotel when we made reservations that we would need two cribs, no mention was made to us that there might not be any available. So when we checked in we were quite surprised and dismayed to hear there were no cribs available. Thanks, could have mentioned that on the phone don't you think? So Monday night Amanda and I drove to what ended up being a nice Wal-Mart, thankfully, and purchased two cheap pack 'n plays. By the time we got back to the hotel, we had one out of two cribs. Nice. Oh well, it all worked out.
4. We had lovely plans to go to Wild Horse Saloon for dinner and dancing on Friday night. We were all really excited for it and wouldn't you know the place was closed for a private event that one night. Just our luck. So no dancing for us.
5. And to make it an even 5, I'll add on our visit to the Parthenon. Just to give Dennis a hard time since he wanted to go and seemed to enjoy it. But actually it was pretty lame and we teased him about it all week long. Perhaps if we hadn't been cheap about it and paid for the museum part it would have been cooler, I guess we'll never know.
Reasons Why We Still Had a Great Time
1. All the girls got new cowgirl boots, including Hailey. She loved hers even though I think they make her feet hurt. I guess it's never to early to learn that style and good looks can be painful in the world of women's shoes.
2. Our hotel was amazing. The Gaylord Opryland Hotel has three atriums with beautiful plants and waterfalls and palm trees. We tried to use these features to help us pretend we were actually in the Bahamas. Also the kids absolutely loved the place and were always wanting to explore and look at the water.
3. We got to eat ice cream and pizza several times and went swimming twice which were most of the things Hailey was looking forward to on the cruise. And we also got to ride a shuttle bus a few times which Hailey and Jack absolutely loved.
4. We had lots of time to relax, take naps, and play Wii.
5. We had Bahama night on New Year's Eve which was fun. We dressed nice, in the clothes we would have worn on the cruise, went to a fun aquarium restraunt for dinner and tried to ignore the cold air against our legs as we walked back to our hotel. We were going to do a family picture with the palm trees, but we ended up in front of a Christmas tree instead. It still turned out cute.
6. There were no car accidents, thefts, deaths or major injuries. I think any of these things would have made vacation a whole lot worse.
7. Taking a road trip with my family brought back many fond memories of driving to Colorado so many years when we were younger. It sorta made me nostalgic and excited to be doing something similar with our children even though the drive was shorter and less snowy and our kids will likely not remember this trip.
8. We were together. We laughed and had fun and our kids did the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment