Family Vacations

Until this past week I never truly understood why some parents choose to take vacations without their kids. Being an overly protective parent, it's hard for me to leave my kids with a sitter for just a doctor's appointment -- and with Chris' career in the navy, we don't live close enough to family to take advantage of grandparents as sitters. I have watched other families 'pawn' their kids off on sitters and family members to steal some time away for themselves. While I have always understood time away from kids...and strongly suggest taking some, it was the vacations I didn't understand...how could one enjoy themselves without their kids for more than a couple hours? When Chris and I do find ourselves out on a date on occasion, it seems that we still talk about and think about the kids a good bit and it's always a relief to get home and see for ourselves that they are tucked safely in their beds! Going for days without physical proof (with my own eyes) has seemed like some form of torture. Why wouldn't these parents prefer to share these vacation experiences with their children?

We just spent the last week in San Francisco...all 4.5 of us...and I am now fully aware of why separate vacations are a good idea. Sleeping arrangements made difficult by stuffing a family of 4 in one room for 5 days...wasting money on meals that get thrown away because the kids are picky eaters and even more so once their sleep schedule has been disturbed. My own sleep schedule disturbed...bringing on the nausea, thanks to the .5 in my tummy! Top it all off with a cranky husband, who seems to have a difficult time understanding that the kids aren't just being difficult for the fun of it, but because they're tired and hungry...Sound like fun, yet? Add all that stuff together and then finish it off with the understanding that you're just not going to be able to see everything you want to see because you have little ones with you. Either it's not appropriate for them, too boring for them, they just can't really take that much excitement in one day...or they've turned into monster children you scarcely recognize thanks to the vacation schedule you're keeping (Lack of sleep and lack of food apparently equals cranky kids...who knew!)

We spent about 3 days in San Francisco and then headed to Monterey for a day before coming home last night. I can't say we didn't have fun, because we certainly did. We saw a lot of cool and beautiful things, ate some yummy seafood...but I also can't say it was a relaxing vacation. I can honestly say it's good to be home, and to see the two 'Happy Scrappies' that came out of the kids rooms this morning, rather than the grumpy kids we had with us in San Fran...well let's just say I understand taking vacations without kids now!

We only took about 1000 pics this past week and once I get the chance to sort through them I'll post some. Of course, that may take a little time since our CPU apparently fell victim to a power surge while we were gone, even though it was off and plugged into a surge protector...Fun Stuff!