bratmaster
06-18-2007, 09:48 PM
cast members:
Me (bratmaster!)
DH
DD Morgan age 11
DD Brynn age 7
DS Shane age 4
I was tempted to titled this trip "bratmaster's family road trip from hell". This is our second vacation as a family, the first time we went to disney 3 years ago. So i sort of knew what to expect this time and had expected it to be a lot more relaxing. This time the big difference was that we drove down instead of flying (from illionois), so the trip total took 2 weeks instead of one with driving time. Actually, I totally prefer to drive down. I found that aspect to be a lot more relaxing; we were on our own time schedule and i just felt more in control. The kids were actually really good in the car, all 3 of them. we left on friday june 1st, their last day of school, at 4:30pm. The kids were great and we had no problems. We made really good time that night and our only problem was when we tried to find a hotel they were all booked. I was baffled; as a kid we drove to florida every year and had never had that problem. The other problem was a lot of places had no rollaway bed, which you need with a family of 5. So it took us about a good hour to find a hotel. The second night was the same thing. Otherwise, other than a small traffic jam in georgia and some slight rain there too, the ride down was great. I didn't even use half of the distractions i brought for my DS4 (his birthday is next month, so he has a lot of presents saved up already!). Everything was great UNTIL.... we hit florida. this is where the hell part of the trip comes in. My daughters suddenly turned into psychotic little she-devils once we hit florida, and remained in that state until the exact moment that we started our drive home. They just snapped. Now our oldest DD11 has always been our "challenging" child. Pain in the butt if you will. But our DD7 is the "golden child" normally so we did not expect the misery that SHe put us through. She suddenly just began a pattern of tantrummy behavior, and complete obstinance to everything. DD11 just delighted in annoying and ticking everybody off to her utter amusement, which was worse than having a tantrummy kid. Once again, the one i had worried about, DS4, turned out to be a total angel on this trip in comparison. He has hyperlexia, which is sort of borderline under the autism umbrella, and he did have a few blow-ups, which i will describe later, but other than those few moments from him he was fine. The girls were so awful that by day 2 i seriously considered driving home.
Anyways, back to the trip. We stayed off-site at a wonderful hotel. i can't say enough about it. I know you guys are all for staying on-site, and we stayed at Pop last time, but honestly there was no comparison for what we got for our money. A beautiful, immaculately clean hotel about 5 minutes from everything. Huge room for the 5 of us, about twice as big as Pop, with a mini kitchen and a huge vanity. Laundry on every floor, big pool, and a free full size breakfast every day. (with chocolate chip mickey mouse waffles - my favorite!)
It was all so perfect - except for the witches of eastwick we had to bring along.:witch:
Me (bratmaster!)
DH
DD Morgan age 11
DD Brynn age 7
DS Shane age 4
I was tempted to titled this trip "bratmaster's family road trip from hell". This is our second vacation as a family, the first time we went to disney 3 years ago. So i sort of knew what to expect this time and had expected it to be a lot more relaxing. This time the big difference was that we drove down instead of flying (from illionois), so the trip total took 2 weeks instead of one with driving time. Actually, I totally prefer to drive down. I found that aspect to be a lot more relaxing; we were on our own time schedule and i just felt more in control. The kids were actually really good in the car, all 3 of them. we left on friday june 1st, their last day of school, at 4:30pm. The kids were great and we had no problems. We made really good time that night and our only problem was when we tried to find a hotel they were all booked. I was baffled; as a kid we drove to florida every year and had never had that problem. The other problem was a lot of places had no rollaway bed, which you need with a family of 5. So it took us about a good hour to find a hotel. The second night was the same thing. Otherwise, other than a small traffic jam in georgia and some slight rain there too, the ride down was great. I didn't even use half of the distractions i brought for my DS4 (his birthday is next month, so he has a lot of presents saved up already!). Everything was great UNTIL.... we hit florida. this is where the hell part of the trip comes in. My daughters suddenly turned into psychotic little she-devils once we hit florida, and remained in that state until the exact moment that we started our drive home. They just snapped. Now our oldest DD11 has always been our "challenging" child. Pain in the butt if you will. But our DD7 is the "golden child" normally so we did not expect the misery that SHe put us through. She suddenly just began a pattern of tantrummy behavior, and complete obstinance to everything. DD11 just delighted in annoying and ticking everybody off to her utter amusement, which was worse than having a tantrummy kid. Once again, the one i had worried about, DS4, turned out to be a total angel on this trip in comparison. He has hyperlexia, which is sort of borderline under the autism umbrella, and he did have a few blow-ups, which i will describe later, but other than those few moments from him he was fine. The girls were so awful that by day 2 i seriously considered driving home.
Anyways, back to the trip. We stayed off-site at a wonderful hotel. i can't say enough about it. I know you guys are all for staying on-site, and we stayed at Pop last time, but honestly there was no comparison for what we got for our money. A beautiful, immaculately clean hotel about 5 minutes from everything. Huge room for the 5 of us, about twice as big as Pop, with a mini kitchen and a huge vanity. Laundry on every floor, big pool, and a free full size breakfast every day. (with chocolate chip mickey mouse waffles - my favorite!)
It was all so perfect - except for the witches of eastwick we had to bring along.:witch: