When Andy was little we used to travel all the time. In fact, Charlie added it up and Andy traveled over 25,000 miles his first year. It wasn't that hard, we were able to do it all without checking bags, and he was an awesome flyer. When Sarah came along it got a little more difficult, but we still traveled at least once a month. We had to start checking bags, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Sarah was not a great flyer, but between the two of us we could handle it.
When Amanda was born the dynamics changed. It just wasn't that easy anymore. In fact, it was stressful and hard. When we travel the minimum we have to bring is one suitcase, two bags containing boosters seats and the car seat bag. That's the minimum, but we rarely get away with just the minimum. Andy is still good on the plane, but still wants your attention, Sarah has gotten better, but still wants you attention, and Amanda wants your attention the entire time. Security has gotten progressively harder with all the crazies trying to blow up planes, so now we have to remove five pairs of shoes and jackets and everything else, can't have any liquid or gel or diaper cream or blah, blah, blah. On top of that, and this is not usually a deciding factor but still a factor, is that the kids are older and now on sports teams and have commitments to their teams which we are totally ignoring when we take them away. Again, we do it anyway, but there is a small tinge of guilt every time we do.
The biggest kicker of all, is that a lot of hotels will not let you book a room with more than four people in it. Yes, Amanda counts as a person. We've been trying to book various trips using miles lately, and every time we are stopped because they don't let you book a room for five with miles. I don't know why, I don't get it, but the size of our family is starting to cause trouble. Charlie warned me this would happen when I wanted one more, but I didn't care. I still don't, it's just annoying. We will find hotels that will accept us, it's just a little more work and will probably cost a little more. I'm sure there are families with 5+ that have had very nice vacations. They don't all just stay at home and sulk.
The point of all this is to say that we were supposed to go to Miami this past weekend. Charlie's brother and nephew were going to be visiting his mom and we thought it would be a great time to see all of them. The kids were so excited. But our flight got delayed on Friday night and then when we did the math we realized that we wouldn't get to her house until 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and we were leaving on Sunday. That gave us one day with crazy, tired children. Unfortunately we had to make the decision to stay home. It just wasn't going to work.
The kids were so disappointed, we were disappointed and I'm sure our family and friends in Miami were too. We will go back in a few months when we can go longer than a day, but we were all excited to go now. What it really comes down to is no matter how much we want to be able to do what we used to, such as jump on a plane for a quick weekend, it's just not as easy anymore. Our lives and our family have changed and we're not the carefree singles we once used to be. Not that it's bad, just different. Not that we would change it, we just need to accept it.
In a few years, when we aren't dealing with potty training and diapers and everybody can sit and entertain themselves for more than five minutes, I'm sure we'll start traveling more frequently. For now we just need to accept who we are, big family and all, and enjoy this time. We may not have gotten to go out of town this weekend, but I was able to get a last minute babysitter and spend some much needed quality time with my husband, which turned a bad situation into something good.
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