Thursday, March 27, 2008

Trying to get to Cancun


We just returned from a warm spring break in Cancun. Our condo was right on the water (literally the waves came all the way up to the pool wall at high tide) and had ocean views on three sides. Beautiful! We arrived home Monday and today it snowed. Will it ever stop?! Aslan, where are you? (Ha, ha...that's for Sheree).

Prior to our trip I'd been very successful on my diet for the two week "cleansing" period. Then I had a couple of bad diet days because I'd purchased everything for Christopher's birthday party ahead of time, including the pinata candy. And at night it was calling to me. CURSE YOU PINATA CANDY!! However thanks to the bacteria that magically appears in water as you cross the pretend line from the U.S. to Mexico, and my cavalier "I'm sure this salad won't hurt me!" I've lost the pinata candy pounds. ...I should have bottled some of that magic diet water and brought it home! Who's going to Mexico next?

Well, we started off our trip with me having to make a quick stop at the post office to buy stamps so I could mail out the birthday invites. With only 1 person working it took 20 minutes to get through the four customers in line. I didn't want to lose my place in line to yell at someone in the car to check to see if the stamp machine -- on the other side of the building! -- sold 2 cent stamps, all the while believing that not every customer could be as slow as the person ahead of them. I was wrong. (And why didn't anyone in the car come in to me to find out what the heck was taking so dang long!)

Eventually I mailed the party invites and now we had to make our typical family vacation airport mad dash (topped only by the time that with less than an hour to departure to Vancouver, Dan literally did pull over like he said he would if the kids didn't stop fighting. They did and we made it. But I wonder if one of these trips...). We arrived at the airport to discover Marty's suitcase had been left home.

We made it on the flight and thanks to my impeccable timing and friendly demeanor I was able to get us all seated together from our previous 4 different rows configuration. After many long years of traveling with infants and toddlers--oftentimes on my own on long cross-country trips--we have finally made it through to a new age!! Where a flight used to feel like I was holding my breath the whole time hoping to make it to the other side (city) without disrupting anyone around us--holding my breath, yet singing, reading, nursing, walking, cajoling, finding snacks, finding toys, cleaning up spilled drinks, anchoring little legs to keep them from even touching the seat in front of us...and on and on and on...NOW, everyone hooks up to their respective IPods and Gameboys (I pack books just in case--but who am I fooling?) and even Nick gets Dan's IPod with Arthur and Blues' Clues episodes, and I cram those earphones into his ears (not an easy task) and he was happily engaged as was everyone else for 5 short hours. I read three magazines, played Sudoku, ate my crackers and cheese (but not the raisins) and the vacation began.

3 comments:

Blue said...

Now for my real comment.
Your story reminded me of the time we got in the car to go on a trip, and used the "we're not going anywhere till you two stop fighting. Wait too long and we'll miss the flight" threat.

They didn't stop, and we had to follow up our threat by missing the flight. Hard lesson learned. They couldn't believe when we told them we'd missed the flight. Then the howling began in earnest as they realized the consequence of their actions. No vacation that week. But that was the last time they did anything like that.

I'm glad you had a great trip. You don't have to import bacteria from mexico to make yourself sick though. come on over to my house today!

frizzlefry said...

Marginally jealous of all of your fun travel. Happy for you that you had a great time though!

Sheree said...

I have a great idea, bottle a bunch of Mexican water, and name it "detox" water. Lose 5 pounds in 2 days, guaranteed.

Party invitations reminds me, is Nicholas free on Saturday at noon? We are having a pirate party over here for Miles's birthday two months ago. :) That is how on the ball I am.