Vacation - Before & After Kids

[cafemama]

There should be a different word for vacation with kids. Because it's similar to vacation pre-kids - you still get to sleep in a bed that's not yours - but pretty much everything else is different.

Before:
Pick the hotel room with the comfiest bed and a location near the bars so you can stumble home. You enjoy perks like in-room massages and a stacked mini bar.

After:
Pick the hotel room with an efficiency kitchen and wall-to-wall carpeting for your little roller. You feel like you won the lottery when you discover the room has a walk-in closet big enough for a pack 'n play. Score!

Before:
You enjoy big, romantic lobster dinners while sipping chilled wine and watching the sun set over the harbor.

After:
You enjoy big lobster dinners with the senior citizens taking advantage of the early bird special. You overhear conversations like "Ethel, will you look at that boat. How much do you think they paid for it? Is that Billy Joel on that boat? Does he have a boat?" "What? Did you say something to me Gertrude? I took my hearing aid out because it's too loud in here."

Before:
You wake up to torrential rains and decide to just stay in bed for a few hours, relaxing and reading a good book. When you get bored, you switch to gossip magazines.

After:
You wake up to torrential rains, say a few choice words, then spend the next 5 hours playing peek-a-boo and trying to remember the words to "The Wheels on the Bus".  When you get bored, you get out the video camera and try to make entertaining videos of your son rolling around.

So, it's not the exactly the same but, this new kind of vacation does have its merits. You do get to spend LOTS of time together, which to working parents who don't get enough family time is pretty darn awesome and more than makes up for all the other stuff you miss about your old vacations.

Our ocean view which finally emerged after the rain & fog lifted:

Our "Bonus" Baby Room:

Our first dip in the pool:

Mom, I'm tired of the pool. Get me out!

So many things to try to eat!!!

[Coriplus3]

Jun. 13, 2007 at 9:30 PM

In my first hotel room post baby#1 we had one of those bonus baby rooms too. 

Wait until you get to experience a night in a hotel with a 14 yo asthmatic allergic to the pillows, sharing a bed with a 4 yo bedwetter.  Along side a 20 month old in the port-a-crib with a cold .  A husband who snores, AND being 6 months pregnant.  How fun does that sound?  Actually it was so fun we decided to do it again, this time for ten days.  We leave Wed.