Vacation

Every year my husband and I take the kids somewhere for vacation.  This usually includes a trip to the mountains because he thinks hes a mountain man and would probably make a great one....if we lived in the mountains!  Well this year we decided to take a family vacation to Tennesee.  A WHOLE family vacation!  His parents, brothers family and ours.  Now I have to say that I was nervous about this trip but it turned out wonderful, we all got along just fine and had a nice time.  However, there were my girls!!!!! 
On the way to Tennessee Sidney decides that not one person can sit next to her other than me and not only do I have to sit by her I have to touch her!!  I did this for hours!!!  Plus I had Liv in the backseat who screamed because I wasn't sitting next to her and SHE wanted to sit in my lap.  Once we got to the cabin they were glue!  I couldn't walk, talk, eat, or go to the bathroom without them right there hanging on my legs.  I woke up the next morning with Liv sleeping on my legs and Sidney stretched out on top of me like they were holding me down so that I couldn't run away in the middle of the night! 
Then came the day for Dollywood!  We were so excited to go,, I was excited that I would actually get to ride the rollercoasters since grammy and papa were there and more than willing to help.   I looked forward to getting the girls on rides and seeing them all enjoy themselves.  Well I must have been just smacked right out of my head to expect this because we walked in, I stopped at a little booth because I needed a pair of sunglasses and then it happened........."AHHHHHHHHHA, MOMMY, COME BACK, YOU PUSH THE STROLLER, I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS AND I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!!"  Not one person other than myself could push the stroller without a meltdown but they didn't want to walk either, then I get them in line for the Carousel and we are next to get on but Sidney cannot wait that long so she starts screaming and hitting and throwing the biggest temper tantrum I have ever seen!!!  I was so mad and not to mention humiliated that I was about in tears and yelling at Scott to give me the keys!  By the way, we had not even been there but maybe an hour!  So I calm down, the girls are now in lock down in the stroller and we just start walking around hoping that they are so tired that they will just fall asleep.  No way!  We end up stopping to get a sandwich and this is alright, they are running around chasing these ducks and we are now just sitting watching them and they look to be having a great time and then all of a sudden Chase has done something to Liv and she hauls after him in the middle of the crowd screaming "DAMNIT CHASE!!!!!!"  Oh yes, she did.  I just sat there, not because I wasnt' going to punish her but at this point, I wasn't claiming them, are you kidding!!!!  So I send the boys off to do their thing and grammy Mary and I find a play area with water and that is where we stayed our entire 7 hours at Dollwood!  We took one of the most happy places on earth and turned it into somewhere I never want to go back to for fear of them having a photo of me and my children at the front entrance that says, "See this family, please let security know!"
The next day was much better I do have to say, they seemed to settle better, I had beer at this point, they got pony rides and an aquarium so life was good for them.  But by the time I relaxed it was time to go.  Again about halfway through Sidney required that I hold her hand, leg, foot etc for her but other than that it was good. 
But you do have to add the added bonus of driving with my husband and his father who have the exact same smartass gene.  My poor father in law felt awful on they way to vacation because he had a cold and on the way back you could tell the meds had kicked in and done their job because he was giving all kinds of hell to me and my mother-in-law.  I told her I didn't know how he walked around without at least one black eye a day.  By the way, hes innocent in his teasings, just onery!  But I made the fatal mistake of taking a wrong exit while they were in back watching TV and ended up in Cinncinati rather than Lexington!  I won't be living that down any time soon!!!! 
All in all it was a good trip I'm just glad we didn't spend the extra money for Disney this year!  Scott and Chase are getting ready to leave for a boys only trip on Memorial Day weekend and he mentioned while we were in Tennessee that he was thinking of taking a trip over Labor Day with just me and him.  Little does he know there is no thinking about this...........he's taking me and only me!!!! 
Mom, Momma, Mommy