Posts tagged Trips
The Relax Inn
Jul 29th
My parents own a little slice of heaven in the middle of nowhere. It looks like this:
On Tuesday I packed up the car and took my girls to spend a few days here. It may not look like much but it’s such a break from the ordinary chaos of life. It’s a place where no one cares if you’re showered or properly dressed because no one really sees you anyway. It’s a place where you eat yummy food that’s not so good for you. It’s a place where the phone rings maybe once a day and there’s no internet connection. The closest store is twenty minutes away and excitement is seeing the legendary beaver or snapping turtle swimming by in the lake.
It’s been called many things: The Camp, The Cottage, The Lake House, The Relax Inn. But it doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s just awesome. It’s decorated with lots of little trinkets both old and new. And inside the cabinet doors you can find little news paper clippings and such with instructions for wound care and “recipes” for things like paint remover and drain de-clogger. We all sleep in one room that has 5 beds and a crib. And the kids bathe in the kitchen sink because there’s no tub. It’s not big, it’s not fancy, but it’s one of the greatest places I know.
My girls love it up there. They get special treats and we take a wagon ride over to the other side of the lake where there’s a little beach. If you ever want to feel good about yourself, just go there. It’s amazing to see what some of the locals wear for swimming attire and how they just have no shame at all. It’s so peaceful and the view is amazing.
It’s a little place to go and get away from it all. And sometimes that’s all you need to feel refreshed (even if you were up all night with a feverish teething toddler!)
Really, Burger King? Really?
Jul 20th
I’m not Team Edward OR Team Jacob. In fact, I don’t even know which one is which. I’ve never read any of the Twilight books or seen the movies. And I don’t plan on it. Ever. But all of that is really beside the point that I’m about the make here.
This past weekend we were on a road trip and stopped at Burger King for a quick, unhealthy lunch. Of course the entire restaurant (if you can even call it that) was plastered with Twilight and Eclipse posters and paraphernalia. I understand that big chain places like BK are going to market hot movies and do promotions based on them. It’s always been that way. It’s a money maker for both parties. I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that Burger King continued the Eclipse marketing in the form of their kid’s meals. WTF!
To me, kid’s meals are just that, meals for kids. And when I say kids I’m implying someone under the age of 12, most likely even younger. Most teenagers I know can and do consume much larger quantities of food than are given in a kid’s meal at Burger King. So, if kid’s meals are geared toward kids under 12 then why would BK put an Eclipse “prize” in the kid’s meal? The movie is rated PG-13 due to some violence and scenes of sexuality (according to IMDB.com) so it seems very counter intuitive to me for BK to do this. I know all they’re doing is seeing dollar signs but still. It’s not like there aren’t any other big blockbuster movies that they could use in their marketing. How about Toy Story 3? Of course, I’m not a marketing expert or anything and I’m sure one has to offer the other the deal. I’m sure they don’t just get to choose what they want to use for prizes, but I simply can’t understand this.
After bringing this topic up with some of my family and friends I have heard that some Burger Kings offer an alternate “toddler prize” for the kid’s meals upon request. However, I was unaware and the cashier who took my order at BK clearly saw that I had a 3 and 1 year old in tow. Obviously they had no idea what Eclipse was. I was never offered a toddler prize and I didn’t see any signs anywhere that they were even available.
In reality I know that BK and [whoever produced this movie] do not care about whether or not my child actually likes the prize. I know they just care about the money, but really Burger King? Really? (a la Seth Meyers on SNL)
Image borrowed from www.bellasdiary.com
The “prize” we received was the mini tote bag. Seriously? It’s a little piece of fabric with a handle on it. It’s not even big enough to hold a pack of gum. Oh and I love how the poster says keepsakes for girls and guys. It’s clearly not targeted toward kids, otherwise it would have said girls and boys. Ok, rant over.
It can happen to anyone.
Jul 7th
As I told you yesterday, we spent the day at the beach on Saturday with lots of family. It was crowded but lots of fun. This was the firs time, really, that we had the girls at the ocean. We’ve taken them to the beach at my parent’s lake house, but it’s on a small lake and it’s rarely crowded. You can see from one end of the sand to the other easily. The beach on Saturday was more like this:
Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but that’s certainly what it felt like! I’m not a huge fan of the beach to begin with so this left me a little bit uneasy. In between shaking sand out of my bathing suit bottom and cleaning sand off of the kids’ cups (hands, mouths, food, towels) I spent just about every other minute of the day making sure that I could see both of the girls. We had a lot of family members around us so I always felt sure that someone had an eye on each of them at any given time, but if I couldn’t see them, it made me a little nervous.
Well, after we had been there for about 3 or so hours, I got more comfortable in the setting and everyone was having a great time. And then a woman approached us. She was a bit frantic looking. She started hollering to anyone who would listen, “A six year old boy is missing. His name is Shane. He’s wearing a camouflaged bathing suit.” My heart immediately began pounding at the thought of someone’s child missing on a very crowded beach. A parent’s worse nightmare. I made sure everyone that I was with knew what the woman said and then I stood up and started scanning the crowd. My heart would start racing even faster (if that’s even possible) and then I’d immediately look to both of my girls making sure they were right there with us. If I couldn’t find them for a second, my throat began to feel a little tight.
The woman continued to walk up the beach making her announcement. Then she saw some police officers standing at the top of the sea wall. She climbed up the very uneven, sand covered, concrete stairs to talk with them. They radioed the message to other officers and the woman descended the stairs. And fell. This scene was totally upsetting. She hit her head on the stairs when she fell. So now not only was she searching for her (I’m guessing) grandson who was missing on the crowded beach, but she was being taken away on a stretcher to the hospital. I felt like I was going to throw up just thinking of it.
Well, I won’t leave you with a sense of panic. Instead, I will leave you relieved. Not minutes after the woman was taken away the little boy was found by his family. The woman was fine and just required a stitch or two to close her wound. But this will forever leave a mark with me. I will never lose sight of my children in a crowd. I will never become complacent where I think “that will never happen to me”. It can happen to anyone. Be vigilant. Keep your eyes and the eyes of anyone who is with you on your kids at all times.
Life’s a beach…
Jul 6th
Saturday was our five year wedding anniversary. Since it falls on a holiday weekend we decided not to celebrate this big milestone on it’s actual day but wait and do it the following weekend (this weekend). With that said, we traveled down to visit Scott’s side of the family for the day. His brother lives right on the beach and always has a big gathering on July 3rd. So we packed up the girls early that morning with beach gear galore and drove a little over an hour. To our HUGE surprise there was no traffic! We got there in record time, grabbed some food for the kids and headed to the beach. It was PACKED beyond belief. I can’t say I’m surprised but the tides were not cooperating with the 90 plus degree weather and everyone was jam packed in about 10 feet of space between the water and the sea wall. And the tide kept rising meaning we had to push back our chairs and bags about every 5 minutes. The girls had a blast though and even though I despise ocean beach sand, it was completely worth it. The water was even warm enough un-numbing enough that you could go in and actually enjoy it. Brinley made sand castles with her cousins and swam in the ocean with her daddy. Nora ran around non stop the entire day, ate everything in site and tried out everyone’s beach chair. She attempted to go in the water many times but every time a wave came toward her she’s run for the sand. It was too cute.
After we were all drained from the sun and ran out of cold drinks and food, we headed back to my brother-in-law’s house for a BBQ. Burgers, sausages, steak tips, chicken, pasta salad, fruit salad, coleslaw, cookies, brownies, margaritas, beer… you name it, it was consumed! The kids all played in the yard while the adults talked and ate. Around 9pm we all paraded back down to the beach for the most amazing fireworks display ever. You’d never have known that lighting off fireworks was illegal in Massachusetts after seeing the show that was put on by the locals. Probably some of the best fireworks that I’ve ever seen. We kept the kids up waaaaaaaaay late but they were amazing. Nora stayed awake for the show and Brinley fell asleep in daddy’s arms under the fireworks.
At about 10:30pm we trudged back to the house and packed the girls up in the car. Nora was still awake so I managed to get her into her PJs. Brinley was already passed out so we just plopped her in the car. They both slept for the entire ride home and then we transferred them to their beds. Scott and I followed suit and passed out just as our heads hit the pillows. We never originally planned to stay for the fireworks but the girls were being so good and having so much fun that we just went with it. I’m so glad that we did.
All the single ladies…
Apr 7th
Last week I was a single lady. From early Monday morning until late Friday night, Scott was in California for a work conference (the O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference for those who care). He asked me before he left not to “tweet” or post about being home alone because he’s overprotective of his girls and didn’t want anyone to know that he was all the way across the country from us.
Anyway, after being home alone with the girls for five whole days I’ve realized that I could never, ever, ever be a single mother, or a pilot’s wife, or a military wife, or any other woman with children who’s man is away from them for extended periods of time. I mean I’m a stay at home mom and it’s a lot of work in itself. But to not have that relief at the end of the day where your husband comes home to give you five minutes of alone time is just plain hard! It’s even harder when your kids are constantly asking when their daddy is going to be home. Let’s face it, dad is the best and mom can’t take his place. So when daddy is the one who puts you to bed every night and let’s you climb all over him and he’s gone for a whole week, it can get hairy.
I almost started talking to myself at night. Well not really, but I’m so used to having Scott here to talk my ear off after the girls go to bed and I lived in near silence for the week (well of course I watched TV, but it’s not the same). We had our share of phone calls and Skype convos but due to the time difference it was just hard to find the time to talk. Though one night we did manage to get all four of us on the computer for a chat. Brinley loved seeing her daddy but kept asking him to come home. It must be so hard for her to realize how far away California is. And Nora? Well she thought she could just go right through the computer screen to have daddy hold her. It was pretty comical.
You want to know what else is hard about being a single lady? Meals. How do you plan for your meals when you’re cooking for one? It’s so hard for me. I can’t see the point in cooking a big meal for myself when there won’t be anyone else to enjoy it with. Brinley is the world’s pickiest eater so it’s not like she was going to share it with me. Nora may have eaten some of it, but not enough to make it worth my while. So what did I do? Well one night I had a bowl of cereal, one night I ordered a pizza, one night I went to my mom’s for dinner and one night, well, I just didn’t eat dinner (I had beer and pretzels).
So all you women out there who have absent husbands (at times or all the time), you amaze me. It’s hard. Yes I do most of the child rearing and household chores, but my husband provides me with that little bit of relief at night and also with some adult interaction. I am not looking forward to his next trip!
