Today's guest blogger is Kim from Thoughts by Kim.  Kim is a fellow C&P gal, who is also currently dealing with infertility issues.  She is amazing and when I asked for volunteers to blog, she was more than willing to share a post with us!

So in honor of summer, here you go...

Family Vacation

 

I know – the words bring up images of all sorts of things… all staring Chevy Chase, I’m sure.

 

For me… the concept of a family vacation means a “clipboard of fun” (aka meticulously planned activities for every second!), chaos, and a load of laughs… let me just give you some scenarios via a bulleted list.

 

• Driving to Monticello while on a trip to Washington, D.C. and after an hour of driving realizing that our Dad has gotten us lost in a completely different STATE!
• Going to the San Diego Zoo with my Dad and one older sister… and my Dad notoriously had a “trip hat” that he wore everywhere while on a said vacation… this time – very poetically – a bird pooped right on the bill of that hat! HA!
• Another trip to the Wild Animal Kingdom or something in that area – a different vacation… going on the safari tram… and someone having to stop the train because their pacemaker went off.
• Almost getting kicked out of a bed & breakfast because we woke the whole place up while playing competitive board games… we were REALLY in to it and probably were yelling at each other.
• Getting food poisoning on my first trip with John’s family… landing myself in the hospital… only AFTER they went to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast – I planted myself on the bathroom floor of the restaurant for that entire meal. Then on the way home from the hospital… doing the same thing on the floor of Luby’s while they ate dinner. (In their defense – I was in the hospital for 8 hours!)
• A trip with John’s family to a football game across the state… we dropped our things off at the hotel and went on to the game…. Not realizing that the hotel either serviced the rooms with all heat or all air conditioning… that day it was heat, and I cranked our thermostat up full blast… it never did cool down in there that night. ARG!
• Same trip – ordering (accidentally) something that wasn’t on the menu of Denny’s and NEVER getting my meal.
• My sister’s obsession with having a trip food item… something that we sample every restaurant we can – for instance – key lime pie in Washington, D.C. or fudge in Mackinac Island, MI or guacamole in Santa Fe, NM
• Being on one trip while still engaged with John – and since we couldn’t stay in the same room… we were the only ones that didn’t get a jacuzzi tub in our room on one leg of the trip…
• Getting a major medical procedure the same day as flying across the country… said medical procedure was the awake equivalent to a colonoscopy! Yikes!
• John remembered that many years later, and made it up to me on a different trip – we got our own jacuzzi tub… but were so tired because it was the last night of the trip – we didn’t even use it, and we ordered pizza to be delivered to our room instead of going out to dinner.
• John and I deciding that we would drive to meet up with the family for a trip… and naturally OUR trip started the day after Hurricane Katrina… so we drove right through the devastated areas… and had to wait 3 hours in line for gas at a filling station.
• That same road trip – my doctors had changed my medications for my blood pressure right before we left… I’d never been able to sleep on a car trip before in my life – so we were planning all sorts of audio books and things to listen to… but I slept the ENTIRE trip from Houston to Williamsburg, VA AND back.
• Another trip plagued with food poisoning… John and I got food poisoning on Christmas Day one year, and actually had to travel on a plane with it. I used very barf bag within a couple of rows of our seats. I had to endure a drunk guy making fun of me too – it was literally the worst ride ever!

 

I think that this list gives you plenty to laugh at, groan about, and certainly evidence that a trip with me is never anything short of an adventure!