Trip to the Beach

I think my definiton of a vacation has changed slightly.. for it to be a restful vacation:
1. Your kids must be older than 23 months and 7 months old.
2. You must not share a room with your 23 month old and your 7 month old sleep in a laundry room (really this wasn't that bad)
3. You should not have to go to the doctor (mommy) and find out its not strep its Pharangitis. And no, there is nothing they can give you except a Zpack
4. Your 7 month old must not get a steroid shot for croup the day that you leave and then get another shot for croup 5 days later.
5. You should be allowed to go straight home and unpack without being required to drive into town and straight to Childrens South with two sick kids, both of whom have croup. Where you will spend two hours after having spent 5 hours in the car with two sick kids.
6. your camera battery die just two days into your vacation and you realize that you forgot to pack the charger.
7. Your youngest should not fall out of an upside down high chair, while still strapped into his car seat, at a very nice restaurant. (he was okay).


But having kids on your vacations includes, but is not limited to, these benefits:
1. because you are sharing a room with your 23 month old, when he wakes you up at 6:30 you are greeted with, "Hola mommy." And, well, that is precious.
2. You do get to spend some time in the Word while looking out at the beautiful ocean.
3. You find out that your 23 month old hates sand but LOVES the ocean. And your 7 month old loves to be in any kind of water as long as its not cold.
4. Your 7 month old will learn to commando crawl at the beach and you already have your video camera ready, because hey, you're on vacation so you actually capture this wonderful milestone.
5. Your husband loves being at the beach so he happily volunteers to take your oldest child to play on the beach while you get to take a nap with the youngest child. (he does this at home too I should add)
6. Your kids are so excited to be at the beach that they adjust their bedtimes so that you can go out to eat dinner and not have to be done by 5:30.
7. You are on the trip with friends who didn't forget to bring their camera battery charger so they take tons of pictures for you.

All in all, we had a great time. It was a lot of work and I must say, as my first trip with two small children, its not for the faint of heart. We had a great time with Paul and Christina and they were an incredible help with the kids. And it was fun to see how big Christina's belly is getting. Ha! I think things were compounded by all the sickness but the little fellas got shots and hopefully they are on the mend.