I Hate Planning Trips

The first week of July is now behind us, and we move on from the fireworks and festive BBQ's, thankful if we made it out of the holiday with no one missing any fingers, toes, or eye balls.  At my house at least everyone made it out of the 4th of July with all body parts still attached, I hope they did at your home as well. 

I hope everyone's 4th went as they had planned, ours was quite interesting to say the least.  Originally the plan was to BBQ at home in the back yard then in the evening travel to our local park for the city fireworks.  Well, the day before the 4th my husband and mother in law decided to change up the plans.  "Let's go to the OTHER lake (that is roughly an hour away) and we can BBQ at THAT lake and watch their big fire works display at the lake, that sounds like a GREAT IDEA!" 

Oh yeh.  It SOUNDED like a great idea. However, from the beginning I KNEW it wasn't going to be the dream they thought it would be.

I didn't have to work on the 4th which was nice, so early that morning I woke up and made home made potato salad (a big ol' gallon of it) and a big ol' gallon of macaroni salad, and some baby potatoes were cut up and wrapped in aluminum foil with butter and  garlic, same with some cabbage, corn on the cob was shucked and wrapped up with lots of butter as well. Everything was ready for grillin'. 

Tossed our frozen hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats into the cooler with a big bag of ice and all of the other food items, and another cooler fool of soda and bottles of water and juice boxes for the kids. 

Swim suites were put on, sunblock was applied, beach towels, flip flops, the kids pool noodles and floating toys were packed carefully into the new van.  We set out on our trip.  Loaded to the gills.

All in the new van.  Like, literally.  We had not even had it for 24 hours. 

It's the 4th of July also, please keep that in mind too.

We set out on our hour long trip.  We get to the lake just fine no issues, however we find that the lake is PACKED (I tried to warn them but no one listened to me, ooooh no let's not get there early and get a spot, let's run to the store and stay gone for HOURS, them, not me I was home dutifully preparing and being ready to go well before THEY got back from the store). 

So there were NO available fire pits.  None.  We had no where to grill.  We were not giving up! Never give up never surrender! Isn't that what Buzz Lightyear says?

We decide to go back to town (that wasn't too far from the lake) and pick up a small grill and just come back, pick a shady spot and start  grilling and to heck with everything else.  Our 4th wasn't going to get ruined.  Nope.

HA!

We get to town and park...and the van quits.  Will not start at all.  Go to call for help, the cell phone won't work in this area. Are you kidding me?  Really?  The car won't start, so it is HOT and it's a van so it's just a bigger hotter oven as there is NO air circulation in a van that won't start.  Plus it's a holiday so of course the car dealership is closed.  Lovely.  A kind woman in the parking lot let me use her phone to "phone a friend" whom I had thankfully spoken to earlier in the day and she had no plans for the 4th.  She was the only person I could think of that would be home to help.  So bless her heart she came to save us! She drove an hour or more to pick us up.  During this time someone gave us a jump and we made it over to O'Reily's to test the alternator which was apparently no good.  Bummer.

They *thought* that with a good jump they'd be able to get the van home.  Nope.  They didn't even get out of town.  Unfortunately...the kids and I had already left town with my friend.  We make it all the way back to town b y the time her husband calls to tell us we just drove right past them in town and they tried to flag us down we didn't see or hear them.  Poop.  So back to the other town we went! We found them and boy oh boy was my husband disgruntled.  Sorry dude.

I got an earful.  How many times can I say "I'm sorry I was talking to my friend instead having my eyes peeled to the road looking for you guys...."  My Mother in law was just ready to go home, she was not happy with the van. 

We get home,  the husband is FUMING.  Ranting about how our 4th was RUINED and yadda yadda.  I could have gave in and said, yep it's ruined and been as upset and frustrated as he was.  That wouldn't have solved anything, and there were 3 kids who needed to learn a lesson out of all of this mess. 

When life hands you lemons?  Make water balloons and have a water balloon fight, start up your OWN grill pop that food on the grill and have a GOOD TIME! We didn't need to be at the LAKE swimming and all that. Plus it was super crowded anyway, where is the fun in that?

We filled up a bunch of water balloon for the kids and just went to town having a blast.  Invited over a couple of neighbors, grilled and sat off a few remaining fireworks when it got dark. 

The husband got in a better mood thankfully! He didn't stay sour long, which for his sake is a good thing. 

The kids didn't know they "didn't have a good 4th of July" to them it was a BLAST! Anytime they can throw water balloons at Mommy and Daddy, it's a good time. 

The dealership received a voice mail from my mother in law the next morning and called early to apologize and let us know someone was already hauling it back to town and the problem would be fixed.  Several hours later the van was back sitting in our drive way.  Brand new alternator put in.

Now imagine my anxiety at the thought of planning a trip nearly 6-8 hours away in a few weeks!

Really?  I think I may faint. 

Do I trust the van? 

I do not think my friend can come rescue us when we are 8 hours away!! Good thing we now have good insurance! (Roadside assistance). 

My kids, my one year old niece, my mother in law, my husband and I all in a car together for 8 hours.  *gulp*

We are planning on going to the Omaha zoo, it's something we have been wanting and saving for and hoping to do for YEARS.  We were planning just a simple trip to a zoo 3 hours away this summer, but my mother in law said no, lets go ahead and shoot for the Omaha zoo.  Hopefully it isn't a full course disaster.  Must think positively! Seriously though, anytime we've made plans this summer it has NOT been going as planned.  Our camp out we keep wanting to do keeps getting rained out or it's too hot.  At least we did get to do s'mores on the 4th of July so that's been checked off the summer time fun list!

There is a lot that goes into planning a trip. Deciding when you are going, booking a hotel at the best possible rate that is everything we want, setting aside gas money and "uh oh" money for the trip, you never know what is going to happen!

Making sure there is a dog sitter for the dogs and that the boarder you want isn't full up. Finding someone who can come feed the cat, hamster, and fish while you are away and that you can trust not to rob you blind while you are away!

Make sure the house is spotless and laundry all done up before you go.  Making a list for each child on what they need (and a list for yourself the husband is on his own)!

Making sure you have enough stuff to keep your kids entertained on the drive without destroying the van (crayons are NOT happening)!

Getting a grocery list together of stuff to throw in the cooler, and all of the other fun stuff. 

Making sure we have enough money set aside for the entrance fee's, and a FEW souvenirs I am NOT going broke buying stuff from the zoo!  Taking pictures will be sufficient!

Cannot forget to pack the camera(s).  Yep.  Plural.  One for every member of the family so they can each take photos of things that interest them so we can have a million different fun photos.  Good thing I have a bit of a camera collection issue going on. 

Make sure the kids pack their lovies that they CANNOT do without.  At all.  Or no one will get any sleep at the hotel. 

When we pick up my niece I will have to pack her bags as my sister in law can't pack a bag to save her soul.  I want to make sure that kid has everything she needs while we are on our trip.

Since the baby is sitting in the back with my sons, I have to hope and pray they don't torment her on the way to the zoo (I may be rearranging some car seats to make sure there is no tormenting of a 1 year old!)  Although she is a pretty vicious little thing herself so I'm not sure who would really be the one getting tormented on this trip!

By the way the niece turns a year old on the 22nd! Can't believe she is a year old already.  Too bad her mom and "dad" are still driving everyone nuts with their bickering, fighting, and threatening each other and all that lovely crap that goes along with "baby daddy/mama drama"  Soooo over it. I would like to smack them both and tell them to get their heads out of their asses and think about what they are doing to their DAUGHTER.  They don't have to be together, move on.  They BOTH need to get over themselves and let the other person be with whoever they are going to be with, be happy.  If the parents are happy the kid will be happy.  Right now?  No one is happy.  It's a mess. 

So I'm full of anxiety for this looovely trip.  I'm sure it will be fine and go without a hitch.  The kids will have a fantastic time and not have melt downs (haha yeh.....right). 

Be positive.  Beeee positive....go to your HAPPY place. 

On a side note, we took the kids to the park today to run out some energy and while we were there we heard music....creepy music.

Coming from....

the ice cream truck. 

I find those things creepy, especially this one.  I mean, they are nice people but it's a tiny little red and white ice cream truck. WHY does the music they play have to be so slow and creepy! Eeeck! Gives me chills.  However, we wanted the kids to have that experience of getting ice cream from the ice cream truck (I never got to do that when I was a kid, that would have been really cool).  Putting aside my fear of psycho's in an ice cream truck, we purchased all of us an ice cream and went along with our time at the park. The only thing truly creepy was the SpongeBob Square Pants pop sicles my kids chose.  Those are some creepy looking ice creams!

With that in mind I'm going to go to bed and try not to dream of zoo's and crazy kids, ice cream truck weirdo's, creepy ice cream and wild animals!

Mae