Vacations are a glorious thing!  We save for months, plan for what feels like ages, and go on them, with high hopes, big dreams and chaos in tow!  Reality sets in usually within 23 min of a car ride in our world of "vacationing"....



     I'm sorry but I have to quickly detour and go back a few years "pre-child" to get the full pict.  I have so many great memories of places like, Florida, England, Israel, Mexico, ski trips, backpacking trips, Hawaii, and disneyland a 100 times over...Ya, now those are vacations....Now lets fast forward to recent history....vacations in the past few years more resemble a family of ten moving across country, ya know, by the time you pack strollers, porta cribs, back packs, costco size diaper boxes and 8 changes of closes per person per day!  And the term vacation, well lets just say I'm sad to report that staying on a cold, windy beach where the drive is within 3 hours because we can't make it any further, that is now vacation!

   I alway try to look at the positive though, so today I have come up with a list of why "vacations with babies and toddlers really are a great thing".  Please make sure to add to the list that I have started, we would love to know how much you love traveling with littles ones too!



My kids learn new vocabulary words...like "moron, and idiot" (in reference to people who drive white Cadillacs and swerve around cars lined up 13 deep on narrow forest roads!)  Ya, some guy just did that...I thought it was so cool that he was willing to risk all of our lives so that he could get there 3 min faster!  Moron!  Oops...said it again!

Gourmet food for every meal! Oh how I love Red Robin and Applebees for days on end!  Lets get real here, people don't like kids in any other restaurant and to try to enjoy a decent meal, means being in a decent restaurant, and we all know how fun that is with little ones!



Swimming, swimming and more swimming.  Now this in itself is actually a pretty fun event, but honestly paying $163 a night at a hotel so they can swim for countless hours and never want to leave to go do anything else, well that is crazy!  (Unless your a kid who thinks everything is free!)



Countless hours of rest and relaxation!  And by this I mean having to sit in a dark hotel room for two hours mid day trying to force naps, and turning lights out by 8:30 PM because the kids go to bed then.  It's so fun sitting in the dark staring out the window at the other adults out for an evening on the town, while you sit in silence so your kids don't wake up!



Coffee!  Ok so this is a great thing for real...hotel lobbies that have coffee on 24/7, now that is my kind of vacation!



Movies, movies and more movies.  I have to preface this one by saying that when I was young, we didn't  have to wear seat-belts and so mom and dad would throw us kids in the back of the wood paneled station wagon and cruse the 12 hours to Southern Cali with no problem.  Now, my children have to be strapped in car seats like nascar drivers and since they don't have the option of building tents while we drive, they get to watch more T.V. !   Here's the thing, cartoons can get on my nerves, but when I can only hear them? oh this is enough to drive me freakin crazy!  Especially the time they watched a cartoon with Roseanne Barr as the main "cow" character...I think I might have thrown that one out the window!



Money....lets face it, when it comes to vacationing, there is no way to put a "positive spin" on this one!  Does anyone else think that it is totally ludicrous (thank goodness for spell check!) that you have to practically refinance your home to take a family of 4 to a theme park, museum, water park, or zoo?  Seriously, do the people who run these places sit down and think "how can we get people to have to steal from their kids college fund in order to get them here??"  And all of that money just to have to leave within 2 hours because jr. peed his pants, sissy is cold, daddy is grumpy from lack of food and mommy was in charge of packing everything for everyone for the entire week with no freaking help from anyone because she is always in charge of everything no matter if she is at home or half way across the %&^*#@* country!!!!  (insert throat clearing and shirt adjustment here)



ok, so enough about my vacations...

Lets hear about yours!!!  

We will even give a set of 

"travel essential" 

Earth Monkey gear to a random commenter with a great addition to this post! 

Bring it home sisters!  (literally!)

     As I sat in the middle of our living room floor yesterday, surrounded by crazy amounts of Christmas clutter, I looked down at my poor, tired hands, and as I did, I couldn't help but laugh...not a laugh like "ha, ha, ha" but a laugh like "hu, hu, hu".  Around two of my fingers I had strategically placed bandaids that were being used to cover some pretty intense war wounds, (and this is where I am going to leave out the part about the blister on my palm from pealing 10lbs of potatoes...ya really).  Ok so back to the bandaids...they were actually there to conceal gouges I got after battling that stupid plastic stuff inside of the boxes that my kids new Christmas toys were in!  You know the stuff!!  It's too difficult to cut it with scissors, and just a bit too sharp to tear with your hands...hence, the bandaids!  

     I spent  almost a full 12 hours yesterday just trying to get all of the "stuff" that we lugged home from our families Christmas gift exchanges, put away and organized of course... needless to say that my day was spent in much frustration.  Now before you get all "oh poor thing, they got too much stuff" on me...I asked everyone to do VERY little for my kids, and nothing for me (except a coffee maker!!! girls got to have something!)...that being said...it was still a mess.  It did get me to thinking though that as much as I love Christmas and all that it brings, I started to wonder if all of your "days after" were just as frustrating.  Misery loves company right???  So I had to ask "what is the most frustrating thing about the day after Christmas?"  And now, I'm going to share... 



"Clutter! I now have to buy things to put the things we bought in!!"

(I love the thought of Kim out buying plastic storage bins to store all of her new stuff!!)





"mind numbing exhaustion..... I have lost it twice today with my fam... at least we made it through Christmas Day without a visit from "mommy dearest"

(this is from our own EM Lindsay, couldn't leave her out...really only twice??? Hmmmmm)





"the constant clutter of new toys everywhere...even after you pick it up a hundred times."

(oh sweet Stacey...is this really any different than any other day, oh I see, the toys are NEW!!!  How many more days till those kids go back to school??)





"packaging, toys, left over desserts, decorations that need to be taken down....a bit overwhelming, very very tired. today we had a second christmas with my husband's family...I think I'm Christmased out!"

(Amy...to that second Christmas...just say NO!!!)





 And the winner of the BUOAMTT award for "best use of a meteorologist term today"...Mindy and Callee tie for their brilliant use of  "tornado" when describing their homes!!!





We wont be taking away Patricias MOTY award for this...but I think she may be the only one that could tell this story..."Using the auto clean on the oven, only to start a fire, turn it off but can't open the door until it cools. Teenager waking up saying something smells here. Now not only the the cleanup of all the celebrations but the "de-stink" of the house"





"All the Christmas decorating still being up. I've been known to take them down Christmas night...lol"

(Um...Stepanie....are you SURE you are related to Lindsay???)





"Food hangover and hating yourself for how OUT OF CONTROL you were with your eating!!!"

(Thanks for being honest Leigh...and I think I'll throw Renee's "ugh" in there that she used to describe how here jeans are now fitting!  Guess it makes setting a New Years Resolution just that much easier!!)





Katie nailed this one..."Too much trash and not enough room in the trash cans!!!"

...I can't pass on mentioning the irony of this one...I just had to let the dog out, and after he did not return in a timely manner I went to check, and found him rooting around in the overflowed trash bag that was left laying on the garage floor!!! ARG!!





And even though I had a bunch more I would love to mention, I thought I would end on this one from Rebecca...

"Knowing that the anticipation of Christmas is over and now have to wait 364 more days for that day again. And that I can no longer listen to Christmas music."





...I have to be honest here for a second and say that when I first read this (don't hate me Rebecca) I think I threw up a bit in my mouth from all the sweetness!!!  But then as I looked over at my beautiful tree still lit in all it's glory, ornament-less on the bottom (thanks to my 2 yr old) and covered in random drawings and stuffed animals (thanks to my 5 yr old) I got just a tinge of sadness that I will be unplugging it for a final time in about 2 weeks when I can finally get around to it! (sarcasm!) And you know what?  I realize that I love more than anything to be in a store when the words to the music are "Christ the Savior is born" and not "I kissed a girl and I liked it" (REALLY??)....I love driving around with my kids  in constant amazement of the gorgeous lights!    I love that my husband and mom gave gifts to others in need "in our names", and that our church feeds hundreds of people in our community Christmas day...I will miss my daughter with her daily countdown, and the bantering and sneaky remarks my husband and I have been tossing around about Santa (he's a lover, I'm the hater).   I will miss being able to justify cookies and wine I mean fudge, I will miss our stockings hanging on the wall, but mostly I will miss the people that choose to smile through the chaos and say "Merry Christmas"!!!





So to Rebecca and the rest of us, I say, keep the Christmas music playing, keep greeting each other (even if its with a "Happy Lunar Eclipse") and keep up the spirit of giving...We need each other all year long!!





We do still want to hear about your "day after' madness...so please leave a comment below!

And please keep sharing us will all of your friends!!!





And one more thing...tune in Friday when Lindsay and I give our best "how to survive New Years Eve" advice!!!

OK, so mornings around here are almost comical they are so hectic and crazy, I have to laugh or I will cry. Usually somewhere between 4:30 and 5 the kids are up jumping on us, prying our eyes open with their chubby little fingers. We try to get them to “snug” with us as long as possible and only roll out of bed after someone’s diaper has exploded, or sibling rivalry has commenced to such a point that someone is about to be shanked with a broken toy.



This morning within minutes of making lunches and breakfast and shooing my husband and older son out the door I heard.. “POOP!” …I wish they were just using slang, but not my oh so literal boys… Crew had ripped off his diaper and pooped and peed across the entire kitchen floor… but hey, at least it was in the kitchen, usually I just head straight for the carpet cleaner when I hear that. To make things even a little crazier, I was working on getting a friend some info on Earth Monkeys for an article she’s writing … my brain was foggy (well, that and I had to get up every 30 seconds to “help” my kids share) anyway,  it had taken forever to get the wording just how I wanted it, when I got up for the seven thousandth time in a 5 minute period, I forgot to hit save and my 2 year old snuck in and unplugged the computer. I had to just keep saying, ” happy place, happy place… go to your happy place… just smile… don’t scream.” I’m sure I looked like a crazed lunatic with an eerie serial killer type smile plastered on my face.

Ahhh… so what’s my point?  I know I’m not alone with the poop, and the shanking, and the crying and the craziness of life. I know I’m not the only one who feels like there is actually not one second of the day that I can have to myself for anything.

I have really been trying to work out daily… my husband goes to the gym and that’s just not possible for me. I tell myself all day, “As soon as _____ is done, then I can work out.” But the truth is, I hate it and end up not doing it at all. So I came up with a solution… (that doesn’t usually happen to me:)) The other night a bunch of us EMM’s went to a halloween party and danced like CRAZY… my legs hurt for two days, it was so much fun.