First Family Vacation

Hey everyone. Well... it finally happened. Jaden is now four years old and we all finally took our first family vacation. YIPPE!!!! Well.... not really. Here's how it all went down.

Tuesday Morning (Dec 16th) we left for Sipapu NM around 7am for 2 days of playing in the snow and 1 day of skiing. Jaden drove us crazy the whole way. I don't think he stopped talking or making sound effects till we got there. He didn't want to sit in his car seat, then he didn't want to go on vacation, then he wanted to just play in the snow, then he wanted us to turn around and play with him etc etc.......... Okay, so now that our nerves are about fried 6 hrs into the drive, we are 1 hour away from the resort in a huge windy snow storm. So we pull up and I get out to go check in and........... I have chills. No, not from the cold, but chills to the bone that run from my toes to the last hair on my head.... and I feel fatiqued. Like I just ran a marathon and need to sleep for a week. I get inside and the lady says we can't check in till EXACTLY 3pm and it is only 1:20pm. We got there way too early. So I head out to the car and Jaden is throwing a fit to get out, our luggage is in the back of the truck getting snowed on, Joe is mad that I got our check in time right, and Jaden starts screaming he wants to play in the snow. So we decide to get out, put all of our luggage in the cab and wait in the lodge resturant till check in. Jaden just wanted out in the snow, but he didn't have any snow equipment (boots/Pants) on so we kept telling him to wait till we checked in and got changed. It seemed like 5 hours. I was really sick feeling now and it was all I could do to just sit in front of the lodge fire while Joe chased and corraled Jaden around the lodge. You can all imagine, Joe is now tired and frusturated, so is Jaden and I just want to curl up in our apartment bed and sleep all day.
When we get to the room it takes us like and hour and a half to get the logs lit with paper towels and boxes, and I think even Joe tried to light one on our gas stove ( ha ha). Then it hits me. Jaden's little luggage with his snow pants, snow boots, gloves, undies and long sleeve shirts is no where to be found. WE FORGOT IT!!!!!! Man did I feel like a looser. What kinda mom forgets her kids luggage?? Anyway, because his snow gear was so bulky, I had poked all his warm pj's in my bag, 1 pair of extra undies, 1 sweatshirt and 3 pairs of jeans. Thank God for that! So we just told Jaden that the sun was going down and we couldn't go outside till tommorrow when we bought him some gloves and boots and besides..... bears come out in the snow at night ( ?????). I seriously didnt move from in front of the fire all night long. I slept on the hard stinky fouton all night... but only slept for about 1 hour. I tossed with body aches all night. Oh yeah... we also didnt go into Taos to buy groceries and the lodge resturant closed early that day so we ate more junk food for dinner that we traveled with.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! FUN VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the next day was okay. We went to Taos, ate an awesome breakfast, got some groceries and Jaden so snow gear and headed back to the resort. Jaden and Dad built a snowman and walked around till he had to come in and dry up some in front of the fire, then I went out with him and built a snow fort and played " Narnia" with him in the snow. It was fun. We did get about 10 minutes of video of all of us outside playing...... But then my chills and aches came back and I was miserable the rest of the day. Dad started feeling sick that evening and Jaden was crying that no one wanted to play with him and he as bored because we didn't bring his cousin for him to play with. He wanted to go home, Dad agreed and I was throwing up trying to finish cooking Chicken and Dumplings. We decided that night that we would get some sleep and leave for home (even though we had already paid for another day and night there) around 3 am the next morning. So we did. We all ate chicken and dumplings, went to bed around 8pm and packed up the car at 2:45am and left at 3am. I got home around 11am the next day and went to the doctor. I had strep throat. YIPPIE!!!!!!!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...... That is how our first family vacation will go down in the history books. Hopefully it isn't a sign for all future vacations! I am blessed though that we were able to squeeze a little bit of joy and fun out of it playing in the snow together and pretending we were all different animals in the apartment. It just makes me realize how much I love my family, and it doesn't matter if we are in a fancy resort in some far off place or at home..... it is just being with them, spending quality time together as a family that I cherish most. I pray you and your families have a great holiday and make wonderful memories together that will last a lifetime!!! Merry Christmas and God bless you all!!!!