BEST VACATION EVER!!!

The last week has been filled with so many amazing things.  It's so hard to decide which things to discuss.  If I hit every wonderful moment this post would go on forever and well, I honestly would rather be with my kids than write about it forever.  But don't worry, I've got a lot of great stuff I will take the time to write about.  We just got back from our very first "family of five" vacation.  We, of course, had the BEST TIME EVER!  Not without our fair share of hiccups though.

We left Sunday afternoon to start our journey towards San Antonio.  For our very first "family of five" vacation, we decided to head out to Sea World!  Fernando nor I had ever been there so all of us would be experiencing something together for the first time.  Now, for those of you who don't know this about our children and I, we are a car sick family.  I was very very nervous about someone or everyone getting sick in the car.  But it NEVER happened!!!!  A while back I'd asked the doc what we could do about car sickness because it was happening too frequently.  We implemented pretty much every single tip from the doc and it was a success!  I'm sure there are some of you out there that may need these simple tricks to help ease your or someone else's car sickness, so here are the things we did. 

1.  Do not ride on an empty stomach. Believe me, from experience I know this, do NOT try to give a snack when the child starts to complain about stomach ache.  Get out of car as soon as possible if this is the case.  CRACKERS are NOT the answer!!!!!!

2.  Stop every hour for some fresh air and stretching/exercise (yes we did this and it actually saves time rather than takes time since you aren't stopping to clean up a sick kid, car seat, and have a yucky lingering smell that you are desperately trying to mask....enough said) 

3.  Keep the child from sitting and constantly looking out the window, instead have books to look at (warning...the books do not work for me, but make me more sick) or more successful in our car, watch movies.

4.  Have ice cold water to sip on constantly.  This makes for more potty breaks, but we just added that into our stop once an hour.

5.  Keep it cool in the car, even if you need to keep blankets for those who get too cold.  The cool air definitely makes a difference. 

We decided to break up the trip down to San Antonio into two days.  That way we could take our time and enjoy ourselves, not break our backs and go insane trying to get somewhere.  As much as I try to schedule our time to make the most out of it, I try to be really flexible and go with the flow on vacation.  Perhaps, almost too a fault, my hubby would probably say.  (He's a vacation planner!) We balanced each other out and it was perfect!  We made sure that we had some special things hidden under our hats to pull out at just the right time (like when a melt down was sure to occur or when boredom in the car or hotel was setting in).  Here are some tips and tricks that made our vacation go even smoother.  (Disclaimer:  We do not claim that these tips or tricks nor the tips or tricks listed above regarding car sickness will work for everyone.  Every child and family are different.  Variations to these suggestions or completely different actions may need to occur.  These are just based on our experiences and our successes/failures.)

1.  We had a bag of entertainment for each child.  Most of the entertainment were forgotten story books or puzzle books that the kids loved when they got them, but had long since forgotten and just needed to be rotated back into play.  We got them each a superhero hat that we knew would obviously come in handy being outside for the entire vacation.  Other goodies were from a dollar store.  We found things that would go along with the theme of our vacation such as toy killer whales.  Over the course of the trip we would pull something out when necessary or when we felt like the kids had been extra specially patient (although rare for our little guys.  Unfortunately patience does not naturally run in our family, it is a slowly learned skill.)  This also saved us lots of $$ since we didn't need to hit up the souvenir shops because they knew that when we got back to the hotel there would be something waiting for them. 

 





Belle inside of one of the chambers
of the human heart. The "beating"
sound was creeping her out.

   

       

Fer thought he was being clever

letting his organs all hang out.



2.  We planned (or planned as we flew by the seat of our pants at times) little activities like a hotel room pizza party, trip to a local park (that just so happened to be across the street from our first hotel), Popsicle treats on a car stop, an hour long pit stop at the new Buc-ee's (check it out, it's awesome!), breakfast outside at the hotel, etc.  But the absolute BEST little treat was courtesy of the best hubby ever.  He found this museum in Waco called the Mayburn Museum Complex.  It is awesome!  Not only did the kids enjoy it, Fer and I enjoyed it too!  I would strongly suggest checking it out some time.  There were sixteen different discovery rooms for kids from things ranging anywhere from science, to music, to trains, to culture, allowing for unlimited imagination play!  AWESOMENESS!!!  We only intended it to be a short stop, but ended up spending 2 1/2 hours there, but wishing we could spend more.  There is potential for a full day of play there (at least for our family).  I would love to take the kids back there someday.  Totally worth it.  VERY INEXPENSIVE for what it is.  If you like the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's Children's museum, you will LOVE the Mayburn Museum Complex.  It's cheaper and it has MORE!  Wish we had one closer and we would get a season pass!  (but then again we'd love to do that with Sea World too!) 



There were several rooms where it took an army to get the kids
to move on to the next one.  The water/bubble room was one of them.





3.  We also invested (from a great dollar store) plastic baskets in several colors.  One basket for toys for Belle, one for snacks (a MUST in the car, but once again, stay ahead of the extreme hunger.  This keeps away or minimizes the crankiness and car sickness.  Do NOT resort to the snacks to cure carsickness!  Can't say this enough!), and one for books.  The boys also had a small bag that they could use for their personal toys that they got to choose ahead of time for the trip.  We also had a bag of plastic ware, paper plates, plastic cups, etc as well as a cooler with ice cold water and 100% juice boxes for the kids. 

4.  On the way home we had a car picnic with the foods we had purchased while in San Antonio to eat in our room (instead of eating out every meal and to cut back on costs).  This consisted of lunch meat and cheeses, carrots, dried fruit, etc.  The kids really enjoyed this. 



5.  I cleared out a spot in our van's middle row (and moved the middle child to the back with his bro) and that's where I parked during the entire trip.  This way I could tend to the kids quickly to deter some meltdowns (oh we had plenty, but imagine how many there could have been had I not sat there to pick up dropped toys or hand them snacks, drinks, etc)  Our youngest who does NOT enjoy being in her car seat did rather well with me sitting there to entertain her.  My hubby didn't feel too lonely since I was sitting close behind rather than all the way in the back like I've had to do in the past.  Besides, someone had to handle the constant DVD change.  

6.  We borrowed movies that our children haven't seem a million times recently.  That way they would catch the kids' attention and keep their minds off the long drive.  I tried to get some animal themed ones to kind of go along with the trip...you know Sea World has animals...I know it's a stretch, but we did have Happy Feet that we watched on the way home.  They really enjoyed it since they had just seen Penguins at Sea World.  We also enjoyed Madagascar and Madagascar 2, etc.  Nico has an obsession with safari animals. 

7.  This being the first week of the kids being out of school, it was time to implement the alphabet game we are doing this summer.  Each week we will focus on two different letters of the alphabet.  The beginning of the week we used the letter "V" for Vacation.  We pointed out things that started with the letter along our drive and while we were out.  The word of the week was "vacation".  This means that any time that someone would use that word we would scream AHHH!!!  The second half of the week we used the letter "H" for Home.  Same went for this letter, we pointed out things that began with H, we sounded out the letter and talked about all of the things we could think of that started with that sound.  Of course as we drove home any time that word was used, we would quietly say AHHH!!!  It's good times.  


 More pictures from our museum stop:

Putting on a show demonstrating the customs of the Waco Indians.

    

WAY TO MUCH FUN making a large bubble. 

It was awesome fun!



He was definitely in the role
of Oscar the Grouch
during several occasions on our
stop at the museum,
but we made the most of it!

  



We spent an afternoon plus two full days at Sea World.  It was a great adventure for the kids.  We saw the Shamu show, sea lion show, 4D Sesame Street movie, rode carnival rides, played on a playground, played in the water, saw penguins, fed dolphins, etc.  There was so much to do, but we got it ALL in!  We didn't miss anything.  We even did a few things more than once.  The first time we did water play, Nico wasn't interested so we let Max play and the next day Nico was super excited and all about it!  Belle was such a good girl.  She just went with the flow.  When she was tired and needed to nap, I would take a break with her in the shade and let her rest.  I can't possibly put into writing all of the lessons we learned, all of the awesome experiences had, and the pricelessness of seeing the kids have so much fun.  Nor can I add enough amazing pictures to demonstrate what a wonderful time we had.  It is just impossible.  But we do have some potential helpful tips in case you are considering a trip to Sea World:

1.  If possible, make your trip before the major schools let out for summer.  It wasn't 100 + degree temps yet and it was not crowded at all.  Also, go on week days, weekends you have to fight crowds as well.  We had no more than a 5 minute wait (if any wait at all) for any game or ride.  For shows we had no wait. 

2.  Go early in morning when the park opens.  At the season before all of the schools let out the park is open only from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. but it's plenty of time to get everything you want done.  Of course we spent a couple of days there.  The kids were worn out by 5 and so were we.  We couldn't have gone longer than that if we had the option. 

3.  Stay at a hotel close by that has a shuttle to the park.  This was awesome because we didn't have to pay for parking, park a mile away, or get into a blistering hot car when we were done for the day.

4.  Take a shuttle early before the park opens to get all of your stuff together at the entrance, take pics out front, get in line for security and tickets BEFORE the school buses or charter buses.

5.  Take the shuttle back to hotel or to a nearby restaurant to get a break from the sun and get cheaper tastier food.  We left for an hour one day, had lunch in our hotel room, and went right back.  It was just the refresher we needed.

6.  Wear hats and TONS of sunscreen applying often all day.  Bring sunglasses for everyone, even if you don't normally wear them.  This was especially helpful during the shows on the water where the sun would reflect brightly.      

7.  Wear bathing suits, get wet, forget the towels if you want to limit what you carry around.  We didn't use them once.  It was so nice letting ourselves dry out.  It kept us cooler longer.  Forget worrying about what you look like, just HAVE FUN and be a kid!!

8.  Just pay the money and feed the dolphins.  I know it can get expensive to pay for a large family to get into Sea World (we opted to get season passes so we could go more than one day...totally worth it!), and then when things cost more on the inside it can get pricey, but feeding the dolphins was very cool.



9.  This one was a very hard one for chickens like Fer and me, but let your little kids ride anything that they are tall enough to ride, if they request trying it.  This was definitely outside of our comfort zone.  Neither one of us ride roller coasters...ever!  With my fear of heights and car sickness tendencies it's a nightmare.  But kiddie rides...we did it for the kids....now when it's the big roller coasters, they can forget me going along, but Max and Nico will have each other to ride later on.  I'm not going to lie, these kid rides still made me nervous, but in the end we enjoyed them.  I was so proud of my little guys, being 4 and 2 (Nico's a big 2 so he got to ride most things with Max) they wanted to try everything and they loved it for the most part.  Nico not as much as Max, but they were fearless for the trying!  More than I can say for myself!!! 

10.  Spend some time either at the end of the day or on your last day to let your kids pick their favorite activity to do it again.


11.  Ride the carousel 15 times if your kids want to.  It's shaded and it's a break from walking

12.  Fork over the money to rent a stroller (it's a life saver)

13.  Let your kids eat that extra bowl of chocolate pudding.  They'll burn the fat calories, and they'll feel treated.

14.  Sit in the splash zone of shows towards the back.  You won't get a fishy smelling soak, but you'll get a nice cool sprinkle. 

15.  Bring LOTS of water bottles and snacks.



Along the way we had some meltdowns and boo boos, from all of us.  But those things just go along with the great, right?  We actually had a rocky start with  two cars colliding ahead of us on the highway, having to say goodbye to a laptop, me forgetting my wallet so being unable to alternate drivers, etc....but there's ALWAYS going to be things like this that we can either let get in our way, hinder us from having the most fun possible, or we can learn from it and count our blessings that things are as great as they are.  I'm not going to focus on any kind of bloopers or really reflect on anything that may have been our favorites and just end with this.  We are such a blessed family who got to share one of the best experiences we could possibly have.  We loved each other through every moment of it and we made memories that we won't forget.

BEST VACATION EVER!!!