Our first family "vacation"

We didn't want to go anywhere too fancy, since Cam is too young to enjoy any type of outing. But David and I did want to do something this summer we could call a vacation. My mom had told up about an indoor waterpark in the Columbus area, Ft Rapids. So I reserved a room for two nights in August. It was just far enough (100 miles) to be considered 'travel', but close enough that we could make a relatively easy escape.

So on a Tuesday mid-morning we packed up the kids and headed north. Happily, Cam slept all the way up. Megan started out a bit grumpy, but she perked up when we ate lunch at Red Lobster. (I did too - Yummy!) Then we found the hotel and we were lucky enough to get our room right away. We settled in, got our suits on, and went to check out the park. It wasn't bad - there was even a bouncy seat/swing that Cam could hang out in. At first the kid slides were a bit fast for Megan, and our first trip down to the park didn't last very long.

By 3:00p Tuesday we were already in the room watching SpongeBob (David's choice, not Megan's). Cam was getting fussy so I put him in the Bjorn and told Megan and David we were going to look around the hotel. Megan wanted to come with us - hooray! At least one of the 'kids' could pull themselves away from the TV (LOL) We were disappointed to learn that the 'Kids Activity Club' was only open on the weekend. The other stops on 'Activity Alley' were not particularly kid-friendly - fitness center, tanning room, virtual bowling (I still have a bruise on my finger from trying it) There weren't even any fun activity pamphlets at the front desk. So we ended up in the gift shop for almost an hour. Megan's pretty good about not nagging me to buy her something, but she did find a $3 "little pony" that she really wanted ("It has to be purple, Mommy. I want purple.") So I told her if she went to the top of the water tower ("Rascal Roundup") with David, she could earn the pony. She didn't really like this answer, but she accepted it.

After our exciting adventures in the gift shop we found David again and decided to try to find a Pizza Hut. We had a wonderful dinner - Cam slept in his car seat (the kind you can transport, no we didn't leave him in the car!) and Megan, David and I did all the activities on the Pizza Hut placemats. The three of us sat on the same side of the booth. David and I kept squishing Megan and she would giggle and poke us.

David and Megan headed back to the waterpark after dinner, while I tried to nurse Cameron in the room. I'm not sure how much food he got in between pulling painfully on my boob and being distracted by imaginary shadows. But he was calm enough at the 'end' (basically when I become tired of trying to re-focus him on eating) so we headed down to find them.

David had managed to get Megan to try the little slides again and was working on getting her onto a medium-sized, tubular twisty slide. At first I didn't want to push her into it, but after I showed her that I could go down and have fun, I could tell she really did want to try it. I thought the problem was walking through the water at the top, but after I got her through that she still wouldn't go down. I had already told her she could earn the little pony by going on the slide, and she was very interested in getting that purple toy. (I think she tells us approximately twice daily that "Purple is her favorite color.") I knew she was trying to work up the nerve, so I told her "I know you think it's dark in there but it really isn't. It's light all the way down." A few minutes later, I saw a determination in her eyes: "I'm going to do it!" she said and walked through the falling water, to the top of the slide, and down she came! After that, she created a little whirpool circle around that slide as she went down it over-and over- and over - all the way until the 9pm closing time.

Both of the kids were in a good mood as we got them ready for bed. Megan took her little pony into the bathtub with her and showed him how to splash around. After bath, she happily got into her pull-up, and wasn't too sore at me when I told her I forgot her pajamas. She got into bed and I could tell she could hardly wait to go to sleep - one hurdle leaped. We turned out all the lights and I nursed Cam and soon he was sleeping too... for about an hour at a time. Between getting up about six times that night to nurse Cam back to sleep and trying to get comfortable on a bed that was only slightly softer than a stiff board, neither David nor I got any sleep. Megan was the only one sawing logs that night.

In the morning I told David "let's stay at the waterpark until close tonight, then drive home and the kids can sleep in the car." I think David thought that was the best idea since the invention of the wheel. Megan didn't seem to mind either - I think she already knew she was running out of kid rides at the park. When we got back to the water that day the idea seemed even better - there was a 'bring a backpack, get 2 passes' deal and the place was overrun with adolescents. I feared Megan would get trampled, and there was a line even for her little slides.

It didn't take us long to decide to head to Chuck E Cheese for lunch (Oh good, pizza again! *sarcasm*) We had a pretty good time, although the appeal of riding in a little car with Chuck himself is starting to wear a little thin now that Megan is four, and she's not old enough for most of the video games yet. Cam 'rode' on a virtual rollercoaster, which was pretty amusing to see.

After visiting the mouse (actually that would be Disney wouldn't it? well, the other mouse), we tried the waterpark one more time. But Megan was worn out, and she was the one to tell us "Let's go home." So we were in the car and headed to Cincy by 5p that night. We were all glad to be home.

The next day (Thursday) I told Megan we were still on vacation. No work for us, no school for her. We headed to a local mall and went to 'Wonderpark', an indoor amusement park. It was pretty similar to Chuck E Cheese, but it was 100 degrees outside, and Megan picked it over the Museum Center. We also saw 'Surf's Up', which was pretty cute (well, Megan and I got to see it, David walked Cam around the mall) We also stopped at a local confectionary and got Megan a Ladybug Rice Krispie Treat, and ended the day at her preschool, where they were having a very fun open house.

All in all, it wasn't bad. It could have gone a lot worse. So why did I feel so exhausted by Thursday night? And why did I tell David "Let's never go on vacation again" ??