Vacation Smaycation

Last week, our little brood was handed a 3 night stay at the Waldorf in Key West. It was a part business, part customer appreciation event that My Chef's co-worker had to cancel on at the last minute, so we gladly filled in.

When our Tazmanian Princess was just a wee little bundle of fat rolls, we used to go to "the lake" for long weekends. Inevitably during our 3 or 4 days away from home, My Chef would say something like "this vacation isn't very relaxing."  It was around this time that we realized that just because we didn't have to go to our respective jobs, didn't mean we'd get to be on vacation from all of our duties. The term "family vacation" really just meant that we'd be parenting in a different location.

Well, we had sort of forgotten this little anomaly. I mean just a few months ago, we'd spent two gloriously relaxing weeks in Minnesota. It was so dreamy. So last week we filled our car with sand toys and life jackets and snacks. We filled our heads with dreams of beach side massages and hammock naps. We were ready to have a mini version of our Minnesota vacation.

Eight minutes into our 7 hour car ride, the eye twitching started.  Twelve minutes later I was starting to doubt that we would even make it to our destination, little lone be able to enjoy three days on an island with two savages. 

We ended up having some serene moments. Some moments when our vacation really did seem like a vacation. Some moments sandwich in between the fighting and screaming and havoc wreaking, that we thought would be enough to fuel us on our 7 hour return car ride home.

But the next time we want our family vacation to be relaxing...we'll bring a grandma along.