On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give our 12 days away a solid 9. I will go into reasons below why it never made it to a 10. Overall, I am really proud of how well Ian and Sam behaved. They slept in 4 different places over the course of 11 nights and had 3 different sets of relatives look after them for extended amounts of time. They were rockstars and really went with the flow.
One of my biggest fears was flying with Sam again after our previous horrific experiences we had with her up in the air. Maturing to the ripe old age of 2.5 years old did wonders for her and us. She embraced the sticker books and the iTouch. The 2 hour flight flew by (pun intended!) and Jeff & I were even able to read our books. Who knew that flying with kids could be enjoyable again? The one hiccup we had was our descent on the arriving flight. The last 5 minutes really played havoc with her ears and we couldn't calm her down enough to understand she needed to drink something, suck her lollipop or chew something. We figured out a new strategy for the flight home, but the Gods were smiling on us and she slept the whole flight home, including the landing.
So why did the trip not score a 10?
If I had the choice to pick any family, I'd still pick mine. I am not talking about my husband or the kids, I am referring to the family I grew up with. The ones that are stuck with you no matter what. I love my family so much. I love how they make me laugh, how they drive me crazy, how they've got my back in any situation, and how much fun we have when we are together.
The first part of our trip was spent at a Resort in Cocoa Beach. Usually for my dad's annual family trip, it is a long weekend; Thursday to Sunday type of thing. However, this year we spent one full week together. We were fortunate to have (2) two bedroom oceanfront condos next door to each other. Each condo slept 8 people. There were 9 of us total (Dad, Rita, Lori, Ben, Meghan, and my Toppall team). You would think that with these numbers the odds were in my favor to have a proper bed. Ha! This was not the case. In fact, I didn't even get a bedroom. I am the oldest of the three girls, the only one to have produced grandchildren so far and I got the sofa bed in the living room. Lovely. Of course, I was seen as the bad guy because I was insistent that my kids really need to be split up. They can not sleep in the same room together. Sam is way to light of a sleeper and only Jeff could be in the same room as her. Ian got to share a room with Meghan (that is when she didn't have her friend spend the night) and therefore, I was left out in the cold...or the equivalent, the sofa bed. Something just doesn't seem right about this. But, as I mentioned earlier, I love my family dearly and this was a small price to pay to be around everyone. Each night I would go to sleep thinking about all the configurations on how the sleeping arrangements should've been set-up differently. And each morning, I was still waking up on the sofa bed. :)
HOWEVER, I've made it known loud and clear, that a bedroom will be available for me next year. Sure, the family was laughing at me thinking it was all one big joke, but just wait when until it is one of them on the sofa bed.
Stay tuned for more of "Travelling with the Toppall Team"
No comments:
Post a Comment