The Way We Were

We used to take vacations and have to SEE IT ALL.  We used to want to fit in every bit of the city or location that we could. We used to want to use all the available time we had to do all we possibly could. Not anymore! I have decided we pretty much have become the worst family vacationers ever, IF we are going by the SEE IT ALL standards I had previously set out for myself and our family.

We seem to be more of the try to ENJOY EVERY MOMENT kind of family. We have been "vacationing" in Florida. I really love this place until I try to go somewhere and can't find a parking spot or have to wait in line for more than 10 minutes.  Then, I long for good old South Dakota once again. The worst is trying to watch fireworks at Magic Kingdom, when really there is not a "bad" seat in the house, but some people think they have to inch their way up to block your view, getting themselves a few inches closer to the action. Blah! That's when I long for the wide open spaces of South Dakota. This family seems to go to one attraction, then we need food for someone, or a bathroom for someone else, and then we need to decide where to go next and then we may catch one more attraction if we are lucky before having to start the whole process over again. We are just slow!!

Today, we wanted to enjoy Universal Studios. The boys seem to be almost "too old" for Disney World, if that is EVER a possibility. The bigger rides at Universal seem to be more their style. So, we all headed out to Universal this morning and both of the girls wanted to be carried as we walked from our parking spot to the park. Hmmm, that makes me think we will NEVER make the day work. As we are waiting in line to pay an astronomical amount of money to feel sick to your stomach from the ups and downs of roller coasters, I decide that perhaps the girls should just wait for the daring brothers and their dad. We saved a lot of money and I don't think they were feeling up to it today. So, we left them and enjoyed an hour of chasing and feeding the seagulls. Then, the girls played in the shooting water for another hour. Then, we checked out the movie times and really we just played. We even got to see the Despicable Me minions as they climbed aboard a boat! Pretty much a "wasted day" in my old way of thinking. In my new way of thinking - we loved every minute. We even got to see the movie, Joyful Noise, which we loved. We finished up at the parks around 5:00 and headed back to our hotel to swim in the hotel pool and order pizza. Finally, we have them all tucked in and asleep. Whew. I am worn out and what did I do today? Nothing - really, but I smiled more today and enjoyed more today and thanked God more today and watched my girls be kids! That's worth more than a thousand full days of seeing the sights. Watching Dannika feed those sea gulls cookie crumbs because she really was convinced she could pet a seagull was priceless.  She almost did it, too, but they just were too leary. Watching the girls giggle in the water and go from just touching their toes to the water to being fully drenched - hillarious.  So, I'm going to continue to try to enjoy every breath with these kiddos God has entrusted me to love and care for and teach. Hopefully, I will be rejuvinated tomorrow, for they will be ready to go get 'em again.