Since my husband has been a baby, his family has always spent summer vacations at
Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. They liked the quaintness and family like feel enough to purchase and then eventually build two houses there. We were fortunate to be able to visit
Rehoboth and stay at the beach house each summer and before the kids were born, a few times during the summer.
When
Ayla was 10 months old we took her for the first time. She had never been sick EVER until a couple of days before we were set to leave. To make a long story short, she only had an ear infection and with antibiotics, we were good to go.
So we thought. On the 8 hour drive there, she started having diarrhea. The next morning she was vomiting. She was so miserable and she literally cried almost the whole time. After one whole day of vomiting, diarrhea and not eating we finally decided to take her in to the ER. She was dehydrated so they had to start and IV and give her fluids. Needless to say, after two days, one in which was spent in the ER, we packed up and headed home. So much for vacation, right? Since then, I swear it seems like every time we decide to go out of town our kids are sick!
Last summer during our vacation in Myrtle Beach, Brennan had a stomach virus and he was miserable and did not sleep at all. It's so funny, about a week before we have plans to head out of town, John will always say that we should keep the kids inside so they wont get sick-HA!
Anyway, I became side tracked for a moment, what I really wanted to say was that two years ago his parents decided to sell the beach house and we have not been back since. It was very sad when the house sold, but we knew it was for the best. The upkeep was very hard on his parents, especially being so far away!
Well, last month John had a vacation week off from work and on the spur of the moment he suggested that we take the kids to
Rehoboth beach for a few days. At first I
didn't think it was a good idea because our children do not travel well and they do not sleep well in hotel rooms. Reluctantly I agreed because I know my husband loves the beach so much and I know he wanted to take the kids to the beach where he spent every summer as a child. He also works so hard every day to support us and I knew he deserved a vacation.
I'm sorry , did I say VACATION-HA, a vacation it was NOT!
So on the way to Delaware, the kids did not sleep AT ALL. Its an eight hour drive, how can they not sleep? They are only one and two, it makes no sense to me. I must have the only kids in the world who do not sleep in their car seats. So when we get there, they are completely exhausted and needless to say they whined through dinner and we basically swallowed our pizza whole just so we could get the kids out of the restaurant. Johns favorite place to eat there is
Grotto's pizza. I
secretly think this is the only reason why he wanted to go to Delaware :) !!!
We go back to the hotel and I finally get Brennan to sleep.
Ayla will be three soon and she still sleeps by herself in her CRIB. We took a pack n play but she would not sleep in it. We put
Ayla in bed with us (which we have never done before) and even though she was exhausted and did NOT have a nap that day, she did not fall asleep until after midnight. She tossed and turned and talked and whined in her sleep the whole night. She also woke up around 3am and did not go back to sleep until 7am. By that time Brennan was ready to get up and so you can imagine how the day went!
We went to the beach that afternoon but
Ayla was scared of the ocean and she kept running to the very back to play in the sand. Brennan on the other hand LOVED the ocean and we could barely hold him back from running into the water.
I'm telling you, this boy is afraid of NOTHING. We could not get Brennan to sit down and play in the sand. One of us took turns chasing him around the WHOLE time and the other one watched
Ayla in the very back where you couldn't even see the ocean. This is why we have no pictures of that afternoon! After about an hour, we decided we had enough and we went and rented a bike thinking the kids might like that. Oh, by the way, they did not have a baby pool and the water was freezing anyway. Okay, so this is what Brennan thought of the bike
Ayla surprisingly liked the bike and after a sucker Brennan warmed up to the idea as well.
We rode around the town for a little bit and I took a picture of the two houses that his parents have built. This is the first house they built
and this is the second house they built and the one they just sold two years ago
So, after the bike ride John drove me to the outlets and let me go in a couple of stores and then we when back to the beach and walked on the boardwalk for a little while. The children were still very
whiny and so the evening went about as well as the first evening. We did however take them to the Kiddie Land that they have on the boardwalk and they loved riding all of the Kiddie rides. John was a nervous wreck because of all the "germs" on these rides. He was cracking me up because he was sanitizing the rides before the children got in and then washing their hands after each one. Yes he is a little obsessive but with
Ayla's immune system being compromised we try our hardest to keep her from getting sick.
This night
Ayla was also supposed to have her two injections but we forgot the numbing cream and so we just decided to leave the next morning. We had planned on staying two more nights but because going to the beach was not fun and because there was no pool for them to swim in, we just decided to leave early. I think the most fun they had was pushing their strollers around in the hotel room! Go figure!!
So this trip actually turned out to be more stressful and more work than if we would have just stayed at home. There was no relaxing, no sitting down and definitely no reading any of the TWO books that I brought-HA! I really
don't understand it because it seems like when I read other blogs, they have no problem taking their kids out of town and everything was hunky dory on their vacation. Is it just us? Are our kids just that bad at traveling? I
don't get it!
So why is this so important? Well, John has a conference next week at Myrtle Beach (another eight hour drive) We always make this week into a vacation but I have been on the fence about going. I have offered to stay at home with the kids and just let him and Kaleb go. After to talking to John yesterday, he wants us all to go. I keep trying to tell myself that things will be better this time but I dont know.......one good thing is that there is a children's water park where we are staying and I know that the kids would love that. Our neighbors by chance are also going to be there that week and they have a daughter Ayla's age so I am sure she will enjoy playing with her! I think that the sleeping situation is the most stressful part. Oh, well it will definitely be interesting I am sure!! We did however decide to cut our trip a little short. We will be leaving on Sunday and getting back on Thursday. So if anyone has any tips, suggestions etc, I would love to hear them!! Or you know you can just say a prayer if you feel so inclined!
