My Vacation by Monica

Because of some pretty big recent expenses like Alyssa's new bedroom furniture and a new sliding glass door being installed (where is that guy anyway?) we decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to take a long vacation this year. Not to mention a road trip with an infant didn't seem like it would be a lot of fun.

But for the past three years we've taken a trip to Cedar Point. It's about three hours from here and it's become the highlight of the kids' year, so we figured we could swing that.

We always buy the hotel and ticket package that gives us two nights in a hotel and some of the tickets we need. You can't check into the hotel until 4 pm, but they give you tickets to get into the amusement park after 5, so that is what we do the first day. It also makes it nice not to have to rush out of the house first thing in the morning to get there.

That was the plan anyway. The day before we left, I noticed that Brendan was yawning a lot. Like constantly. But only when he was sitting still, so it was really strange. I was getting worried that something was wrong with him. The next morning he was still doing it, so I put in a call to the medical assistant at his pediatrician's office. She said it sounded like something the doctor would like to take a look at and they had an appointment at noon. Ugh, that's when we were going to leave! But I took it.

We finally got to see the doctor about 12:45 and Brendan had to know "What took you so long?". Her excuse: first day back from vacation. She checked him over and found him to be completely healthy. She said she sees this type of thing once or twice a year and said it's probably a kind of tic and would go away on it's own but it could last awhile. Okay, great, now let's get on the road!

We got into town a little after 5, stopped at McDonald's for some dinner and I fed Lucas in the car. He was very good on the drive there until the last 20 minutes or so. Then we checked into the hotel, got all our stuff in and took off for the park but we didn't make it there until almost 6:30. Our first ride was the merry-go-round.

It's Lucas's first ride ever! Doesn't Jeff look thrilled?

Soon after that, Alyssa and I ran off to go on one of her favorite rides. It's called Disaster Transport, but she can't remember that name and at one point called it Disappearing Transplant. And that is how it will be forever renamed. It's a roller coaster in the dark, so we don't have any pictures of that. Jeff stayed with Lucas and Brendan in Kiddyland and we joined them after our ride and Alyssa went on some of the kiddy rides with Brendan.

I love this one because Brendan has such an evil look on his face before he slams into Alyssa.

Then I took the kids on the Ferris Wheel. Jeff doesn't do heights, so he stayed on the ground with Lucas.

Happily waiting in line. I believe this was before we had to bail out of line to take Brendan to the bathroom.

We finally made it on the ride. Here's Brendan with the "ocean" in the background (it's really Lake Erie).

Alyssa was convinced her glasses were going to fly off. It was kind of windy, but not that windy.

Soon it was time to feed Lucas and try to convince him it was bedtime. I went to the first aid office and they said I could nurse him on one of the beds in the back. It was so nice there - the people were friendly and eager to help, we were able to have privacy and it was nice and cool after being outside where it was hot. As a result of being so comfy and without distractions, he ate really well and fell asleep. He woke back up when I put him in the stroller, but after a long walk to find Jeff and the kids, he fell asleep again.

While I was busy, Jeff took some pictures. He doesn't like to do it, but was under strict orders.

This is the Froghopper, one of Alyssa's favorite rides and Brendan was finally big enough to go on it this year. It raises up and then bounces back down. This was right before the first bounce which, um, got Brendan's attention.

When I found them again, Jeff was able to go on some of the kiddy rides with Brendan (lucky him!). No way would I be caught dead on the swings, even the kiddy ones!

By this time it was almost time for the park to close. We weren't too far from a roller coaster we all like. In fact, it's the only one Jeff will ride at all. We ran there and Alyssa and I rode it while Jeff and Brendan shared an elephant ear. When we got done, Jeff went on it with Alyssa. That was when Lucas woke up. Uh oh.

So we headed out. We were way at the back of the park, so it was a long walk. When we got up near the front, I decided we should have some ice cream. This is what two kids eating ice cream at 10:30 pm looks like:

And this is what their baby brother who should be asleep looks like:

We finally got back to our hotel room about 11 or so. It took until way past midnight to get Lucas back to sleep again. We had brought the pack-n-play for him to sleep in and he did - for about half an hour. For the next couple hours he would wake up, I'd get up and plug his pacifier back in, get back in bed and repeat every half hour or so. About 2 am, that got too old and I just brought him in bed with me and Jeff where I didn't have to go so far to find the pacifier. He developed this nice habit of rolling his head back and forth every so often and waking me up. I didn't get much sleep.

The next day was for the water park. I didn't want to take Lucas to sit in the sun all day, so I didn't get to go. Don't feel too sorry for me, though, because I hate the water park! I was just going to lounge around all day in the hotel room, knit, read, watch TV, get a massage and a pedicure, drink margaritas... Oh wait -- I had to entertain a baby all day. He wouldn't even sleep long enough for me to take a shower! I had to leave the bathroom door open and talk to him while I was in there. For our big outing, I took him in the stroller and went across the street to get a gourmet meal from McDonald's for lunch.

It was also his 4 month birthday so I had to take lots of pictures of him. Behold the cuteness:

Jeff called from the water park at about 3 pm to let me know how it was going. Brendan had gotten a big bucket of water dumped on him in Alyssa's favorite section, so he didn't want to be there anymore and would only sit on Jeff's lap. He only wanted to play in the baby pool. So they had to do 15 minutes in each place, back and forth all day long. Oooh, sounds like fun, sorry I missed it!

They came back around dinner time and then went out and got pizza and brought it back to eat in the room. They were considering going back to the water park, but everyone was pretty tired so what should you do after a day at the water park? Go swimming in the hotel pool of course! Lucas and I went down to watch for a few minutes and take some pictures.

Alyssa showing me how she swims underwater.

They also have a fountain to play in.

Lucas was getting really crabby and sleepy, so I decided to take him back to the room to get him ready for bed. I had just started changing him when I couldn't find any diapers. I was about take him out to the car to get some more when the power went out! In the entire hotel - including the pool area. I found out later that Alyssa was in the bathroom when it went out, poor girl! Anyway, Lucas was screaming but I was afraid to leave the room in case my key wouldn't work to get back in. Jeff and the kids came up a few minutes later and sure enough, the key didn't work and I had to let them in. Jeff went out to get the diapers and got some flashlights for the pitch black hallways. He was just coming back in when the power came back on. Whew!

The kids were pretty tired, so they went right to sleep, but once again, I couldn't get Lucas to fall asleep. Finally, after much fighting, he did. Then someone in a nearby room slammed their door and that was as much sleeping as he did in his own bed that night.

We got up the next morning and packed everything up and checked out of the hotel. Then we headed to the amusement park for another day of juggling:

• A baby who can only ride a very few rides, not that he cares.
• A toddler who wants to ride all the rides, but is too small for almost all of them.
• A big kid who can ride everything except the most intense roller coasters.
• An adult who won't ride anything big or scary.
• An adult who will ride some of the roller coasters, but has to spend a good deal of time feeding the baby.

We started the day at the racing horses. Alyssa beat Daddy. Brendan, Lucas and I got to watch. Poor Brendan still does not understand that he's not tall enough to go on a lot of the rides.

Before long we were at Camp Snoopy where Alyssa can ride by herself and Brendan with an adult. But those kiddy rides are not my thing. Just watching them makes me dizzy! Like this one:

The cars would go up and down and rotate around the middle, all while the individual cars were spinning. No thanks!

Then there's this one, where the whole bus goes up and around in a circle. No thanks, again! That's Alyssa peaking out from the third seat from the back.

One of the kiddy rides that I do like is the Woodstock Express roller coaster. It takes everyone's picture at one point in the ride and they usually turn out so goofy. But we liked ours, so we coughed up the $9 (!) each (!) for the pictures made into magnets.

After that we went back to the roller coaster that Jeff likes and each had a turn with Alyssa. Lucas was awake, but not fussy so we decided to all go on the antique cars. While we were waiting in line, Brendan was getting a little grouchy, so I tried to get a picture of his "mean face" and got this:

Hey, that doesn't look very mean! Let's try again:

That's a little better!

We got on the ride finally. Brendan got to drive Daddy (with a little of his help pushing the pedal):

And Alyssa got to drive me and Lucas. Hey girl, watch where you're going!

It was time for me to feed Lucas again, so the kids and Jeff went back to Camp Snoopy. When I found them again, I wanted to go get some lunch. We stopped at a restaurant and the wait was about 30 minutes so Alyssa and I went to ride Disappearing Transplant again. The line was waaaay long and by the time we got back to the restaurant, Jeff and Brendan had ordered and already gotten their meals. Jeff was trying to juggle Lucas and his salad. By the time the waitress came to take my and Alyssa's orders, Jeff was done and had taken Lucas outside to walk around. Brendan was still eating. Alyssa and I got our food and then Brendan decided he had to go to the bathroom. So I took him. And then I took him again when we got back to the table and he said he had to go again. Fun, fun! I finally finished inhaling my chicken sandwich, paid for the food and got out of the restaurant. This is how we found Jeff and a sleeping Lucas outside (yes, somehow he could still breathe like that):

The kids went on some kiddy rides and then Lucas woke up. Alyssa wanted to go on the Scrambler (one of those spin-around rides that I can't stand) and Jeff said he would go with her. Brendan, of course, was not interested in watching, so I stayed with him at the kiddy rides. On the merry-go-round, I even managed to get all three of us on while holding my purse and camera, help Brendan on, hold Lucas and take a picture:

Soon after that feat, Jeff and Alyssa showed back up which was a good thing because Lucas was getting hungry again. When I was done feeding him, I found the three of them on the same merry-go-round again:

Then it was finally time for Alyssa and I to go do all the big roller coasters that we both like while Jeff took Brendan back to Camp Snoopy. When we were done, I fed Lucas once more and then it was a little after 7, which is when Jeff had wanted to leave to head home. But Alyssa and I talked him into letting us go on a roller coaster that Alyssa hadn't been on before and I had only been on once. I'm glad we got to do it because she loved it!

It took us awhile to find the boys again after our ride and when we did, Brendan was on a ride. Then Alyssa saw one she wanted to go on. While she was waiting, Brendan got done, so he went to go wait with her. They rode together and had that car spinning like crazy:

It was now way past the time when Jeff wanted to leave. We had to cut the kids off. But on the way out, we stopped at one of those guessing games and had the girl try to guess the kids' birthdays. She missed both of them, so they each won a prize:

We finally left at about 8:45. And couldn't find the car. Then we had to stop to feed Lucas and get some dinner at McDonald's (again with the McD's - ick!). We didn't get home until after midnight and Jeff had to get up early for work. Lucas had woken up right before we got home and it took about an hour to get him back to sleep. But we all had fun!

The End