Adventure in Adventureland

Vacations are meant to be an escape from the monotony of our daily routines. To stop and enjoy the things around us that we don't notice when we are challenging the details. Leave the details of life behind and vacation! I grew up taking vacations. For me they are a non-negotiable. I am surprised to find how many people didn't go anywhere when they were young. When I think back on my childhood vacations they don't hold very many memories. I remember my brother getting bit by a snake. It has been dramatized into some Colorado python that had my parents relieved it wasn't poisonous. When in reality no one actually saw the snake. Just the mark it left behind! I can remember seeing my Dad terrified for the first/last time. We were tubing some creek in backwood NE country and my dad's tube got close to the river bank of weeds. The terror came from fear that a bull snake would hop on his tube. The dude that rented us the tubes wasn't much of a salesmen when he told my Dad that some family had one hanging out on their tube. Now that I'm rethinking this story I wonder how a snake could just 'hop' up on a large inflated tube?! My Dad has a death fear of snakes, so it didn't matter that it made no sense, only that Bull Snakes were a possibility!

I recall my mother filling the van and camper with all the necessary items and then unloading it all when we got home. I'm pretty sure no one really helped her, cause I remember her telling us all how much work camping was for her! (pretty sure my kids will hear the same thing). My parents fought horrible over the map. There was no GPS in those days so you actually had to spread the big thing out and figure out where you were and then locate where you wanted to be. Even today when Don asks me a simple directional question I find my insides swelling with anxiety. I made it a point when we first married to figure out how to read a map! Yeah, it was that bad! Beyond those small memories I don't recall much from our vacations as a kid. 

I think taking time out to spend time as a Family left me with the impression that taking time out for Family is important. Vacations aren't so much for the kids, but for the adults. Taking time to share life outside all the demands of home. That means it doesn't need to be DisneyWorld. It just needs to be somewhere other then home! That stay-cation thing makes no sense to me! So, it doesn't need to be a vacation that leaves you with amazing memories and beautiful pictures and a credit card bill that makes your stomach churn. It just needs to be a break from the monotony of the daily grind.

With that said, we took a break from home and moved the daily monotony to Des Moines, Iowa! We got my Dad's RV out and packed a few things in it and headed East. We would be meeting Don's brothers family of six to share in the adventure of Adventureland! I forget to mention that vacationing with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins when I was a kids was always a little more fun then just me and my brothers and Mom and Dad! 
Going out in public with a 13 month old and 2 and 1/2 year old comes with challenges. Traveling with them...well that just sets the expectation that this trip will be stressful. I can say that if you assume the vacation will be a lot of work, exhausting, and patience testing then the whole trip will be better. I learned young not to assume picturesque in terms of anything in life. It never goes the way we would like it...unless we expect very little!!!! That doesn't go for all things in life, but it does for vacations that involve 4 kids under the age of 8, especially when they include Austin James!


It was a fun trip. The guys spent Friday at the Car Show that prompted us to go in the first place. We spent the day at the campground swimming pool and watching our kids ride their bikes around the campground! We grilled out steaks and roasted marshmallows. We let the kids stay up well past dark. We lit sparklers that lasted 20 seconds. We took the kids to the public bathhouse to wash their hands and faces of all the dirt. Then put them to bed with dirty feet and happy hearts. Austin loved everything about the experience. He was a happy camper!
Then Saturday came and my poor sis in law was up at 4:30am sitting outside her camper with a bright eyed baby! My kids slept until the usual 7am and ran outside the moment they saw their cousins. I realized we had no coffee maker and it could be 48 hours without my beloved caffeine! A walk to the check-in cabin had me finding free coffee! Don had to lift his jaw off the ground when I let Austin drink my hot coffee! Funny how vacations bring Dad's into the daily stuff that occurs when he is away at work. 

There is something special about cousins!
Molly (8) Britney (6) Aubrey (4) Mallory (almost 8) Grant (7) ~the blonde on the end...not related to us!!!

The waterpark brought complete and absolute chaos to our little adventure. I held the one and only lounge chair we could find for almost a hour, waiting for Don to come back with the babies who had napped. Twelve people had to share it so we were getting some dirty looks from the folks around us. Not sure if it was all the kids or our two double strollers wedged around our chair! I people watched. People watching is entertaining. Add bathing suits to the mix and it takes the entertainment up a notch!!!! God definitely created no two bodies the same! I was also very surprised by how many people have tattoos! I am definitely in the minority in that area. Austin is terrified of rides, but loved the lazy river. Grant didn't like being left alone at the "designated safe spot." Don found him curled in a ball crying. I had told him there would be someone at the chair, and, of course that wasn't the case. I wasn't sure if the tears were because he was scared or disappointed that the words I told him weren't true. My sweet boy!

Molly took a kick in the nose by Austin

I had to snap a picture of this.
It was the longest he stayed in one spot.

There were a few moments when my mothering skills were put into question. But, isn't that a daily issue?! As motherhood goes it is always easier when you're doing the crazy with another mother. I'm glad we joined Don's brother's family on the adventure in Adventureland!