Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Forgotten Vacation

About a month ago we embarked on a weekend trip to the Wisconsin Dells with the hopes of a fun-filled family vacation... Casey had fun. The rest of us - not so much (though I would be lying if I said none was had). In July of 2009 T, B and I took a similar trip - a weekend at the Polynesian Resort in the WI Dells. We all had a great time despite the unseasonably cool temperatures and a rainy weekend that forced us to take advantage of the indoor water features of the resort. This time, we just wanted a weekend away. Brendan had just returned from a week in Colorado engaging in work and play.

We arrived on a Friday night and Tegan and Brendan headed down to the pool while I put Casey to bed. It was a hit - despite wanting to stay at the pool T came back to the room with minimal complaints. Saturday brought an experience we had not had with Tegan in quite a while - kicking, screaming, laying on the floor tantrums when any sort of transition was proposed.
At some point we tried to lighten the mood by heading down to the Arcade. Fun was had by all - Casey had her first ride on one of those cheesy arcade "rides". She didn't really seem to care one way or the other if the ride was moving. It was still fun to watch her reactions nonetheless. Tego and Brendan played at least one game together and I think T won a few pieces of candy from another game. Then it happened - we ran out of quarters. "Playing" games without coins doesn't last very long for a smart 4 year old... surprisingly one of the arcade games as spitting out tickets every now and then despite none of us really playing it. After T got tired of pretending to play games we grabbed the tickets and headed to the gift shop hoping we had enough to "buy" something fun. Let's just say it wasn't pretty when T realized that 35 tickets wouldn't buy the fake Transformer. Instead he could buy a couple little crayon shaped erasers. The floodgates and Tegan's lungs quickly opened and the erasers were thrown across the hotel lobby... and T had to be carried kicking and screaming back up to the room.

After the display in the lobby we decided to order in pizza and eat in our room as we were too scared to take our self-proclaimed big boy out in public. At one point I told Brendan if there was one more tantrum I wanted to pack our bags and go home on Saturday night. To me it just wasn't worth it. At least at home we could send Tegan to his room to let off his steam and cool down. Not really an option when you're staying in a several hundred room resort and there are other guests on either side and above and below you. UGH!

By the time T realized we weren't going back to the pool after dinner he decided to make fun of his own... "hiding" in the closet. I just prayed he wouldn't slam his fingers in the sliding door.Following in T's footsteps, Casey had to join in the fun and play hide-and-seek, too.
Thankfully, though, T did pretty good Saturday night once we got some food in him and he went to bed with minimal fights.

On Sunday, the kids woke up happy and seemingly ready for a fun morning at the pool. C wanted her suit on as soon as she got up. After repeatedly bringing her swim top to B he finally put it on... over her pj's. We headed down to the pool and had a nice hour or so of fun. Then came the time to transition from the pool back to our room. All we needed to do was move our things out of the room and to our car - check out, really. We were still allowed to continue to use the pools for the rest of the day, just the not the hotel room. As we feared, though, this brought yet another round of tantrums. Looking back, we should have gone with out guts and just checked out first thing in the morning and just not even gone to the pool to tempt fat... you live and learn.

I'll finish on a positive note - Casey really enjoyed herself. Like last summer, she thoroughly enjoyed the pools (which didn't surprise me since she loves bath time, too).She loved walking all over the baby pool as long as she had a hand to hold. The minute we'd let go and she'd try to take a step or 2 she'd tumble down and go under. True to her nature, though, Casey would get right back up and keep on going :) That's our girl!
Love to all! ~j