The Baumann Blog

The Highs and Lows of The Baumann Family Vacation


Well, by the title you should already know that our family vacation had its ups and downs. I think I'll spare you all of the details [because there are just waaaaay too many details] of the whole trip, and just point out the major highlights and low lights. Let's start with the bad and end with the good. That way you'll feel good about reading this post when you're done. Although you may get more laughs out of the first half...

The Lows
1. Our kids are too young for this week-long-stay-in-a-tiny-cabin-cooped-up-with-no-TV business. They need to be at least 5 and 7. Then we can boot them out of said cabin and tell them to go play. WE were the week's entertainment. Which equals exhaustion.





2. When on a family vacation, it's always good to plan for the unexpected. Like 50mph winds about 4 of the days we were there. Which again meant staying close to the cabin and entertaining the kids. Which in turn equals exhaustion.

3. Realizing that your kids are addicted to TV. Well, at least mine seemed to be. This was a low for me. Each morning when we woke up, Will would point at the portable DVD player and say "E-I-E-I-O Mama." Meaning he wanted to watch the nursery rhyme sing-a-long video for the 1,000th time. And Sean was just as bad. "Tom & Jerry, Tom & Jerry!" But, I do need to say that the DVD was a lifesaver as well. Trent was reduced to watching "Over the Hedge" before he went to bed at night because I didn't think we'd need any videos to watch. Sorry. The watching on the kiddie videos equals exhaustion.

4. Sleeping with your child ain't all cuddles and snuggles. It's more like a lot of kicks to the gut and hits in the face with flailing little arms. Will has a lot of push for a 21 month old. By the time morning rolled around, I had about 5 inches of bed space, while he sprawled out in luxury. Why you ask was he in bed with me? He refused to sleep in the pack-n-play. All of this equals exhaustion.

5. Rock hard beds. Ask Trent about this one. Morning should be a time of renewed energy. Not at the Wildwood Beach Resort! Man, those beds were awful. You could feel the springs. So when I came back to Brainerd Wednesday morning (dentist visit, another story), I ran to Wal-Mart and bought some eggshell mattress pads. Seriously, they were that bad. All of this leads to exhaustion.


The Highs
1. Waking up each morning with your family. Ok, so this may sound mundane, but truly it was my favorite part. Just watching the boys be lazy on the couch. Cooking everybody breakfast and sitting down a the table and eating together. I loved it.



2. Watching Sean become the next Al Lindner. This little kid would have the fishing rod permanently attached to his arm if he could. Kind of like Wolverine in the X-Men, only instead of claws coming out of his hands he'd have a fishing rod pop out. He cried each time he had to put the pole away.



3. Sleeping with Will. Ok, so I know that I am contradicting myself. I didn't get much sleep, this is true, but waking up next to that precious little pouty-lipped face each morning made me want to cry. And the way he'd drop his Nuk and search for it and say "Elp Mama, Elp" in this tired sleepy little voice. Melts my heart.

4. Breaking the "cycle." Although it was tough, it was a really good lesson for us to get out of our routine. We discovered that we CAN find things to do other that plop in front of the TV, etc. We don't watch a lot of TV in the summer, but it has acted like a babysitter for us on many an occasion. It's good to know that we can opt out of that pattern.

5. Getting home. So this isn't really vacation related, but it is in a way. You never appreciate home until you haven't been there in a while. We drove up the driveway and we instantly breathed a huge sigh of relief. Our own beds... our own food... our own yard... our own everything! Ahhh. You'd realize how good this felt if you had a toddler, who on the SECOND day of vacation was already pointing at the van saying "Ohm, ohm, ohm Mama." (Meaning home, home, home Mama.) Plus yanking on the door handles saying "Elp. Elp Mama."

So yes, we had our highs and lows indeed. Would we do it again? Probably. The memories are invaluable and so are the lessons we learned. The main thing I learned is how darn much I love my kids and hubby, and that I'll never take a good pillow top mattress for granted ever again.

p.s. a couple more highs: 1) Naked babies in the lake. 2) Sean looking soooo serious when fishing. 3) My wonderful husband taking the time to help the boys fish, and various other activities. 4) Getting the chance to read 2 wonderful books. 5) Watching Will throw the candy back in the street at the 4th of July parade in Walker. 6) Having a fabulous time at Gail and Erv's on the 4th. And the fish fry. Mmmm.















(If anyone wants to give me lessons on how to edit this darn blog, give me a jingle. I'm having the hardest time. What am I missing, or do I need a little HTML knowledge? In which case, I'll suffer along...)