First Haynes Family Vacation

Thanks to my parents Mauch Family Vacation is something that I've always loved! I have such fond memories of being a little girl and packing my suitcase (or maybe mom actually packed it?), getting crammed into our car...I'm talking CRAMMED! We would put all of our stuff and tons of extra stuff in and when we couldn't fit anything else THEN we would try to cram ourselves in and somehow thanks to dads amazing gift of packing things tightly everything would manage to fit, even if we did feel like we needed to sing the theme song of Sanford and Son driving down the road with all our junk! I loved that where ever we went I knew that we would have fun because we were a family! Our family always did everything together on vacation...it didn't really matter if we were camping, at the beach, in the mountains or where we were there were some things that would definitely be on family vacation! Mom would have tons of food and would cook like every meal, not just mac n cheese but a really great full meal! Dad would have made sure we had plenty of games like 15 board games a ball and some made up group game and occasionally we'd have some kinda matching article (hats, shirts, a pin...something) I did none of the planning or packing but did plenty of eating and playing! Its odd how you can live under the same roof with 5 other people day in and day out but getting away from your house and your normal life causes you to spend some really quality time with each other! I guess its possible at times that my parents forced us to have quality time but in the end I'm pretty sure our faces had smiles on them.

So now that I'm 30 and have 2 kids of my own its time for the Haynes Family Vacations to begin! Chris and I love to travel we both crave quality time with each other and with our kids and we hope that every year we can take the boys on a family vacation! Good thing for me that Chris is a planner, in fact, when he retires he'd love to be a travel agent...too bad that due to the Internet travel agents probably wont be around anymore...but that's okay he can keep planning trips for me for the rest of my life cause hes REALLY great at it! So Chris did the research and found us a great deal on a great place! And I made some home made banana bread and started packing! Clothes, snacks, diapers, games, toys, cameras, sunscreen, sand toys, pack n play, beach tent.... We loaded the Camery and borrowed the car top carrier from dad and it appeared that some other family vacation prior to this one the car top carrier was over loaded because the back of it was a little bent but that's okay we got some bungee cords and strapped them on and started singing the theme song from Sanford and Son! We were set, ready for fun! We had a great car ride down, Mason ate from the time we left the house till the time we stopped to eat at Hardees. He had cheese its, an apple, string cheese, and a strawberry rice crispy treat. By the time we had checked in and unloaded the car and found our room the excitement began to rise! Chris played Checkers with Mason, I read a chapter in my book and Micah napped then Mason and I went to explore the hotel and the pool while Micah took a nap and Chris watched a little of a basket ball game. The idea was to just let Mason LOOK at the pool but I guess I got a little caught up in the excitement too and told Mason he could take his shirt off and ply in the kid play area...it was so fun! It has water guns, a big tree that has water running down, a squirting hippo and alligator, big water slide, lazy river, hot tub...lots a fun! I cant wait till we are in our swim clothes and can really play in the water. Micah woke up, Mason had a spanking, everyone was happy again and we had a pizza party at Basil's, went to the grocery store (sorry mom, I'm not planning any elaborate meals just some chicken nuggets, mac n cheese and sun butter and jelly sandwiches) We got back from the store and unloaded the groceries and headed down for our first look at the beach. Its amazing to me that even though I've seen the ocean lots of times I'm still amazed at the awesomeness of the never ending ocean, sand as far as you can see to the right and to the left, how the first step in the sand feels so soft and smooth and a little difficult to walk in but the closer and closer you get to the waves the sand gets easier and easier to run in as if the waves are pulling you closer and closer till you stop and let the foam from the waves wash over your toes...and how fun to watch my little 3 year old boy experience the sand, and the ocean and to watch a smile and wide eyes come over my 6 month old little boys face as he felt the wind, heard the waves and the squeal of his big brother. Micah and I sat on a towel and watched Chris and Mason jump waves, chase waves, race waves, laugh, smile and as I looked at Micah just learning to sit and watched Mason jumping it was one of those moments that people tell you about before you have kids, a moment you wish you could just bottle up and save forever!

Well, its day one of our first family vacation at the beach and the forecast is calling for thunderstorms everyday...hopefully we wont have to give out any more spankings and hopefully we'll get a chance to use our sand toys... but even if we don't, I have no doubt this will be a great vacation because it doesn't matter what you do it just matters that you're doing it together! Let the fun begin!