Oh family vacation.
It reminds me of that Charles Dickens quote: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”
Don’t act like you guys don’t know what I’m talking about. So much planning; so much hype; so much packing; all the excitement. Then you finally get everyone in the car and start your blessed journey when thirty minutes in you hear the first, “Are we there yet?” You turn around lovingly and explain, “No we most definitely aren’t there yet. For the love of God, it’s a 15 hour car drive so please don’t ask again.” Approximately two hundred and fifty-seven “Are we there yets” later, you think it’s possible that you just might lose your mind and you find yourself thinking, “What have I gotten myself into? Will I survive this?”
Oh yes, there are definitely ups and downs on family vacations. If you want to post nothing but pretty pictures and act like your family vacay was nothing but sunshine and roses that is completely fine. I’m actually going to post a lot of sunshine and roses pictures when I get back and have time to go through the 1,000 plus gorgeous pictures I took of pristine beaches and emerald green water with those adorable black and white umbrellas dotting the beautiful white sand. Oh yes, I’m going to post some pretty pictures. But today…today isn’t that day. Today I’m getting real about the ups and downs of family vacations and sharing our day yesterday.
I should have known it was going to be one of those days when it started like this….
All of the adults were drinking coffee and enjoying our leisurely vacay morning when Mike Miller logs onto his computer and then looks like he’s seen a ghost.
“What in the heck?” he says in shock. “Who spent $99 on dragon warriors on iTunes?” Slight pause as he looks increasingly more distressed while he obviously scrolls down a lengthy list on his computer. “Hold up! $1700?!?!?! Someone spent $1700 on iTunes yesterday!?!”
In unison – “COHEN MILLER GET IN HERE!!!”
While we wait on the culprit to arrive, Kate (my best friend’s daughter) explains, “Oh yes I kept telling him he better stop hitting Purchase but he wouldn’t listen.” Of course. Of course he didn’t listen. What’s that saying about “You pay for your raising?” Good gracious I’m paying for my raising with this kid.
So that was the start of Day 5 of our vacation. Mike Miller spent an hour trying to get the charges Cohen racked up reversed and we have yet to hear back from anyone so….we might be spending $1700 on gems for an online treasure hunt and dragons for some dragon warriors game. AWESOME. Personally I had a few cute tops picked out in Seaside but I guess we will be passing on those since we bought some fake dragons and treasure gems instead.
After our eventful morning where we learned Cohen spent $1700 on the iPad, we decided to go on an 8 mile bike ride to Seaside. Just what we needed to take our minds off our frustrating morning. Well, we got two miles into the bike ride and it started lightening and thundering so we had to turn around. On the way home, Easton was trying to “touch the palm trees” and absolutely bit the dust. There was blood and a skinned knee and elbow and I think some wounded pride as well. Needless to say, the bike ride didn’t really turn out as expected.
Oh, and I should probably admit that I wasn’t with the crew when said bike wreck happened. I pulled into Alys Beach to snap a few pictures. The lighting was absolutely perfect. There were no people there messing up my background. The setting was amazing. Then I took one picture and my battery died. Yep. Sounds about right.
We got home from the bike excursion and cleaned Easton up then decided to head to the pool. It was more of the same at the pool…the kids were arguing, no one liked the pool we were at and everyone was just a little, or a lot, grumpy. Oh yes and Easton refused to get in the water because of his bike wreck wounds. It was fun times.
We finally packed up and headed home and I made my kids take a nice long nap. They were super excited about that and everyone was fighting me on it and complaining, but I knew we needed to hit the reset button before we ventured back out to finish our 16 mile bike ride to Seaside and back.
After our nap, we tried round two of the bike ride to Seaside. Again, the bike ride had some ups and downs. There were a few tears shed (no names mentioned) and I hit a monstrous bump and my phone flew out of my basket and shattered the screen but hey, that’s pretty par for the course for how the day was going at that point. But we made it there and back and if I’m being honest, that was a victory in itself.
So there you have it. Miller-Wilson Family Vacay Day 5 in a nutshell. There were moments yesterday that were intense and frustrating. Then there were also moments that were beautiful – like when we were on the bike ride and everyone was cheering each other on and saying not to give up; and then finally, last night was perhaps one of my favorite moments of the entire trip. It wasn’t anything glorious. It was unplanned. It was just a walk down to the pool for an evening dip. We were all in the pool together. The dads were taking turn throwing the kids and doing all sorts of stunts. Above all else, there was so much laughter, and so much joy.
So yes…yesterday had both the best of times and the worst of times like pretty much every family vacation will have. When we leave this gorgeous place in 24 hours though, something tells me it will be both – the best of times and the worst of times – that will make the trip. Something tells me that when we recount our trip, we will laugh about the bike wrecks and yes, even the $1700 worth of in app purchases that Cohen made (but not yet, we aren’t ready to laugh about that one yet). Something tells me that the beauty in all things, including family vacations, is the ebb and flow to life. The lows make us appreciate the highs that much more. So what fun would a family vacay be without a little of both?
PS does anyone know how to get those $1700 of in app purchases that Coco racked up reversed?
