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oy. that was not pretty. vacation play by play if you're super bored
So here's how it went, just in case you're bored...
The flight out was ok. Amelie was pretty fussy for a bit but fell asleep and slept for quite a bit. I knew she was tired. Owen was great and understood we were on a plane and loved it, then promptly fell asleep.
Got there, got some crappy McDonalds and headed to Sea World. Tons of people, but that was to be expected. I bought tickets online that were buy one day, get the next day free. We get there and Kelly insists that we have to double check to make sure we can get in again the next day. ::sigh:: Ok. So we wait in line for about 30 minutes to talk to someone at the service desk. We were there for about .8 seconds for them to say, "yeah - you can get in tomorrow too." Fricken duh, but whatever.
We start walking, see a few things, then walk past a big roller coaster. 52 inches to ride. Owen = 44 inches. (no go) Well, he decides he's going on that. "I can do that!" he keeps saying. "Sorry buddy. They said no." Que freak out. We stand in line to see the dolphin show. Freak out continues in the form of a pissy face saying no to everything. Time outs, questioning sessions, etc. Nothing is working with this kid. He's going on the roller coaster and if he's not then he's going to make sure he screws with our lives too.
Before we leave Kelly is once again nervous about our tickets not working the next day so we stand in line for another 45 minutes to double check that we can get in the next day. Again, we get to the window for less than 2 seconds. During this time Amelie is pissed and wiggly. She nurses off and on. Throws binkies. Owen continues to be mad and just wants to sit down and pout about the roller coaster.
Went to the whale show. Saw some more exhibits, the usual. Owen is still mad but he's riding on Kelly's shoulders and he's quiet. Good enough, I guess. We head back to the hotel and he crashes big time.
The next day we had planned to do some outlet shopping. The trolley takes about 45 minutes when we thought it would be 10 minutes. We get there and eat a lunch of disgusting chinese food (it was so gross). By that time it's time to head back so Kelly can work. We get back to the hotel and Owen decides he's mad at me for something. (Still not sure why.) He was just ranting about how naughty I was and how Santa's going to bring me a rock because I'm naughty. More time out in the hotel while Kelly works. Owen zonks.
Head out to Sea World We tell Owen he can go on the kid roller coaster if he makes good choices. He's clearly pissed off but we're (again) not sure why.We started off by seeing a Sesame Street Christmas show. It was really cute but Owen tried to make it out like he was too big for it. The little girl sitting next to us was probably between 12 and 18 months old. She and Amelie hit it off and were "talking" and touching each other. Amelie was getting kind of aggressive so I spent my time trying to save the other little girl from getting clawed to death by my overly happy little girl. During this show they were singing all sorts of chirstmas carols and it was super cute. Then they made it "snow" by shooting foam through the air and it made me realize how much it DIDN'T feel like Christmas down there. I mean, we were in short sleeves and were still a bit warm. (not complaining!) Owen continues to be a grump for no apparent reason. Not enough to be a big problem, but enough to put a damper on the fun. We see the rest of the exhibits and a few shows then head off to the kid area. Owen rides the roller coaster with Daddy. He's scared at first but apparently likes it at the end. He doesn't want to go on it again. He climbs on this giant, 4 story play structure (think McDonald's play place) and loves it. Amelie decides she is DONE! She is overly tired and won't nurse or take her pacifier. She just screams in my face. I text Kelly to get down here because we have to go now. I had blisters on my feet from walking for 2 days. My legs were tired and my kid was pissed. Owen, of course, decides that he doesn't like that we have to leave and melts down. Time outs, discussions, etc. We get him calmer, get him on Kelly's shoulders and head out. This is about 9pm on New Year's Eve. It's packed and takes us quite a while to navigate through the park to the exit. We have to wait about 10 minutes for the trolly. Kelly decides he's going to treat me to Ben and Jerry's. (gah - gotta love that guy!) I express concern that at 10pm on New Year's Eve that Ben and Jerry's will be closed. he decides it's worth a try. Whatever. We get off at the mall and of course it's closed, but he had told Owen we were getting ice cream so of course Owen melts down. I tell him we'll get some at the hotel convenience shop (for $300 or so but at that point i didn't care) During his fit he trips and falls and scrapes his knee. Of freekin course. We get back to the hotel and I crash with Amelie. Owen plays his DS for a few minutes and then falls asleep.
The next day was our "off" day. We decided to go to have lunch at the Universal City Walk. Nothing big, but fun. I go to get us some breakfast an miss the trolly. It was just me and Owen so I decided to just walk. It was a lot further than I had expected and Owen was walking SO SLOW! We barely get back in time for Kelly to leave to go work. We were supposed to have plenty of time to eat but he had to inhale it. Then he had to work longer than he expected. We finally get ready to go and Kelly misread the map so we got off 3 stops beyond where we should've stopped. The trolley won't take us back either. It has to wait for 10 minutes, yadda yadda. So we get off and start walking, but Kelly doesn't trust that I remember how to get back to where we should be. He decides to just stand there and try to get a signal on his phone. That wasn't working so I start walking. He doesn't want to follow me so I told him I'd meet him at the Hard Rock Cafe when he finally got signal on his phone. That pissed him off, but it was already 3pm and we had a super hungry kid, plus I was hungry and tired of carrying the kid around. She just wanted to crawl around and I didn't blame her one bit. So we finally get back to Universal City Walk (again - a much longer walk that we realized, but at least I had paid attention so I knew how to get there. I was right. Duh)
We eat an amazingly good meal. I totally recommend the pulled pork sandwich at Hard Rock Cafe for anyone who goes. It's so good! Owen had a grilled chicken sandwich and ate the entire thing. :-)
We walk around the city walk for a bit. We found a dog tag necklace with spiderman on it that had Owen's name so we got him that. He wore it for about 5 minutes and then gave it to dad to keep in his pocket. Then the effects of eating fast food for 3 days got to me and I needed to find a bathroom RIGHT NOW! we get there and it's a long friggin line and isn't exactly clean. Kelly took Owen to the men's room and I had Amelie. I got her out of the carrier and of course the hook in the stall is broken so I just try to hold my bag, the carrier, and Amelie up in front of me while I, umm, relieve myself. It was not pretty. Amelie was all squiggly so I put her down, thinking that I'd just make sure to wash her hands really well. She tries to crawl out at warp speed but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to have to revisit the bathroom again in 4 minutes. It was awful. They were out of soap so we "washed" with water only then drenched our hands in hand sanitizer that I had in my bag.
We walk back to the trolley stop and get to our hotel. By that time it's dinner time again, even though we had just eaten. We had planned to eat dinner (for free) in the hospitality room but it was already past the time that they would allow kids in. So we order a pizza, eat it, then go to the pool. The water was a bit too cool than I was comfortable putting Amelie in so we went to the "warm" tub (the hot tub wasn't overly hot - thank gawd!). Owen and Kelly go swimming in the regular pool. Then Carl Pelini gets in the hot tub like he owns it. I get uncomfortable and head out. We just hang out on a pool chair while Owen and Kelly finish swimming. The rest of the night is uneventful. Thankful for that - i was beat friggin tired.
Game day. We all get on the bus and then Kelly realizes we needed to be on a different bus so he leaves. Owen gets all weepy and says, "I want my Kelly." Oy. It begun less than 1 minute after kelly left. (9am) We drive to the stadium and walk around for an incredibly long time. Amelie gets elbowed in the face by some idiot drunk guy who laughs about it and I just shoot him an "I'm going to kill you" look. This stadium is in the ghetto. The houses around it have graffiti and the windows are covered in plywood. It was so entertaining. Owen decides he loves the band (good kid!!) and we follow the Carolina band around because I couldn't find ours and at that point I was going to do anything to keep him happy. We finally decide to head into the stadium around noon. (game at 1) Owen sees corn dogs and politely asks for corn dog and french fries. i agree because he's actually being really good. $12. Yeah. $12 for a corn dog and french fries. Ouch. We find our chairs, Owen eats then has to take a dump. (again - duh.) So we go and I figure out we were sitting in the wrong section. So we go to the correct section and Owen is livid that we left his bam bams in the old seats. So I get out the new ones (they were on every seat), blow them up and he doesn't want them. I pull out his DS and he calms down and plays pretty much the entire game. I didn't even care. i just wanted him quiet. Amelie did a great job, even after being elbowed in the face. She nursed, slept, and only wiggled for 90% of the time, as opposed to the 100% of the time like I expected.
We get back on our bus after the game, get our chick-fil-a that was provided and Owen chows down on his chicken sandwich until he finds the pickle and throws a fit. Really? Just pick it off, but no. He had to cry and throw a fit while everyone else on the bus was completely silent. I was really wishing I had duct tape at this point. Then Amelie decided to cry so I had 2 crying kids and side eyes from everyone on the bus. Not fun. I get amelie asleep and then work on getting Owen to sleep. This whole time we were still sitting in the parking lot at the stadium. We finally head off and get to the airport but since it was a short game we were way early and nobody was there. No flight crew, no tsa, and we watched the plane pull up. Kind of cool, but Owen was asleep. We proceed to sit there for about an hour. On the bus. About 15 minutes in they both wake up and i pull out all the stops to keep the noise level low. The team shows up and they get to go threw security first. More time just sitting on the bus. I text Kelly and tell him I need help so he gets off of his bus and comes to get us. TSA takes pitty on us (i must have looked like total ***/ super pissed). We get on the plane and Amelie decides to wail. We're sitting in the middle of the plane and we have players on all sides of us. They're tired. They're bummed out, and here's this kid screaming. Great. I felt like such a tool bag. I try to nurse and do everything I can but she's just overly tired and wants to be home. Half the team saw my nips but I didn't care at that point. I just wanted to survive long enough to get home. She falls asleep about half way into the flight and sleeps off and on the rest of the way home. Owen was kind of crabby but I ignored him and let Kelly deal with him. I was beat.
There were some fun moments during this trip, but i learned my lesson. DON'T TAKE KIDS ON BIG VACATIONS!! It wasn't worth it. Next year I'm leaving the kids home. I should've stayed home this year but I decided to take one for the team. Now I get to go to KC just me and my BFF Amy to see our BFF Trisha this Saturday. Kelly will be home alone with the kids all day so I can have a day with the girls. Seems like a good start to me.
It sucked but if I hadn't had my Beco I would've hitch hiked home. It saved me. Half of Florida has probably seen a glimpse of my nip but in the whole scheme of the trip, I'm not too concerned.
Oy. That was long. Did you actually just read all of that super bratty rant?
Re: oy. that was not pretty. vacation play by play if you're super bored
Oh. And here's a picture from the game. See - I put Amelie's N on upside down, which normally wouldn't be a problem, except it's the unofficial one with the script "Huskers" written across it. Great. (idiot)
See? I'm fvking stupid.
Holyshitballs Nancy! That sounds like a (mostly) horrible experience.
(Can I say "I told you so" or is it too soon?
)
love is for every her, love is for every him, love is for everyone
No. No. PLEASE! I told me so too, but Kelly *really* wanted me to go and I knew I couldn't pump and get 4 days ahead for Amelie. If we took only Amelie, Owen would've known it and would've been super pissed. Turns out he was pissed going too. It was a lose, lose situation with that kid.
I honestly tried to have a positive outlook. I really didn't expect it to be quite that bad. The game and boarding went better than I expected. I just expected it to go well when it was me AND Kelly. Turns out that wasn't the case.
I think he'll listen to me now though when I tell him that's more than I/the kids can handle. I made him do most of the work with Owen when he was being a total sh!tt and he felt it too. I wasn't alone in this. That's good and bad.
I think that's good though! Even though you have a wonderful husband and he's an awesome dad, I think men don't always realize the challenges that can arise. It was a learning experience for both of you
love is for every her, love is for every him, love is for everyone
Exactly. I absorb 85% of all issues that involve the kids. Most of them happen because he's gone so I have no choice but to deal on my own. I'm not complaining. That's just the way it is. He just really thought everything would be hunky dory. I think I'm going to ask for a massage. I should be able to go get a massage now, right?
Gah - that sounds soooo good right now.
OMG...I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have cared what the expense was. I would have marched my happy a$$ to the airport, credit card in hand and bought a ticket home. F that noise....I think that you can get anything you ask for at this point. I would be livid!
I am sorry it was awful for you. I was one of the ones that was rooting for you to go and hoping you would have fun, darn it.
Did the hotel have a pool? Did you get to use it?
Have fun this weekend in KC!
This! Except I'll add that I would have also had a panic attack of such an epic scale that I would have ended up in the ER. I'm sure you handled it better than most!
Ugh, sounds like a lot of it was very stressful. I do think the pic of you & your little turkeys is adorable, though (that upside down N looks cute on her chubby little cheek!)
Well it was really decent of you to do it since your hubby really wanted to, even though it sort of sucked. Obviously next time he wants to drag you into something (or possibly the next 8-9 times) this your reference! "Yeah, remember when you wanted us all to go to Orlando, and then it was a big effing nightmare?! Remember that?!" hahaha. You can keep this one in your back pocket for AGES.
Sorry it was such a mess.
Yeah, almost. But this is exactly how it would have gone for us, too. Which is why I stand by my original suggestion to leave the kids at home
You're a rock star for going and I know you'll enjoy your girls weekend with all of your being.
thanks to jennied