What I Did On My Summer Vacation

by | Aug 28, 2010 | Memories

Vacation. It’s a funny word these days in this house. As parents of three-year olds, my wife and I define vacation as pretty much any time we get to spend alone outside the normal bounds of our daily routine. An occasional dinner, for instance. Or even an overnight somewhere. But the old definition of vacation – taking a trip somewhere for a week or two – doesn’t really apply as a parent. Vacation, in the traditional definition, isn’t really vacation. Things like grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, showering or driving to work become “vacation.” Simply put, vacation for us right now is just parenting somewhere else and hoping beyond hope that everything goes remotely normal.

You hope for “remotely normal” because the odds are pretty much stacked against you. Remotely normal, in fact, would be an enormous win for many parents. Here’s what you’re generally looking at:

  1. You’re probably going somewhere with less space.
  2. You have less of their toys and books to use as weapons of mass soothing – you just can’t bring it all unless you’re J-Lo or Julia Roberts.
  3. Many kids don’t adapt well to a wholesale change in overall environment.
  4. You’re dealing with multiple three year olds. I shouldn’t have to explain that one, should I?

I am here to tell you that our vacation wasn’t even remotely normal. I can’t, by definition, say it sucked. But I can tell you it wasn’t ideal. But I don’t want to bog you down with all those gory details. Oh hell, yes I do! If I had to deal with it, you do too. It rained pretty much 5 out of 7 days. That was rather evil, as numbers 1 and 2 above were greatly exacerbated by mother nature, that bitch. You were so good to us all summer long and so mean to us on our vacation week.  We shake a finger at you. You can pick which one. So the weather didn’t help. It even caused one of us to make a trip home to pick up fall/winter clothes since the temps didn’t get past 65 for 3 of those days.

So yeah, that basically means that all four of those bullets above were operating full steam! That’s not good for anybody, really. The level of exhaustion was pretty dramatic. While we’re on the subject of dramatic, I should also mention how whiny a couple of three year olds can be. I should also mention I am not without fault. Because when you’re dealing with two whiny three-year-olds, you’re definitely getting a whiny 39 year-old as a result. Time doesn’t go by fast enough for anyone when you’re shut in for 3.5 days. At the beach.

OK, now – the good! Yes, there was good! We went to Plum Island, our vacation of choice each year. We just love Plum Island. It’s really an awesome little place. Every year we dream about having our own vacation house there! Anyway, if it rains (and boy did it rain) there are choices for the little ones. So if it wasn’t for the the mass of electric train sets at the Wenham Museum, the tidal pool creatures exhibit at the Joppa Flats, the clean, friendly people at Leo’s Super Bowl in Amesbury, MA or Gram’s in Newburyport, whose ice cream rivals some of the best I’ve had, this “vacation” could very well have been, well, shorter than a week. The sun finally arrived on Thursday and we did get to spend Thursday and Friday outside and at the beach, so it improved a bit, but the WHINING! Good golly gee, man. The whining.

But you know what? We’re going back next year, if only to capture moments like these:

Zachary free as a bird!

Or these:

Nathan, fly!

and yes…….this, the ubiquitous self-portrait:

What would my blog be if I wasn't somehow a focus?

Happy Winter

by | Sep 2, 2008 | Babies, Internet, Memories

Vacation and Labor Day are over now. We spent our vacation on the lovely Plum Island, a small island off of Newburyport on the north shore of Massachuetts. It is a very quiet, unassuming and beautiful little stretch of land with very little commerce. Just how we like it. Even better, we rented a house which was about a 45 second walk to the beach! Sweet. As indicated from the photo above, a good time was had by all. It was our first true vacation with the kids, which proved to be an interesting experiment, for when one thinks of vacation, it’s typically one of relaxation and unwinding. I am here to tell you, and this shouldn’t be news to anyone, that relaxation and unwinding was not a part of the equation, which is why I hesitate to call it “vacation,” truthfully. It’s more along the lines of taking care of the kids just like we do at home, only it’s in a much nicer locale.

Of course, that said, there were many great moments for our family, which I don’t need to pontificate on here for fear of making you bored. Just let it be said that the kids got to experience a lot of new and exciting things. I don’t remember which of Stephanie’s friends said this, but at some point last year it was explained to us that for adults with young children, the only way to really get everything you can out of a vacation is to envision it through the kids eyes. So I did my best to view everything through their eyes, except the part about envisioning what it must be like to poop and pee in my pants, I suppose. In doing that, I considered it a smashing success and despite our being exhausted every night, it was very sad to leave.

Rest of the vacation photos can be found here.

Upon my return, I found an awesome website, called YearbookYourself.com. You basically plug your face into various traditional yearbook pictures that span the years 1950 to 2000. It is hilarious. I had a few funny ones, but I think my favorite might have been my 1952 yearbook photo. I wish I still had this hair! I’ll post a few others this week as well.