Holidays With Kids

January 2, 2013

Day 1 of family vacation to Coff's Harbour.

The kids and I were on the road by 6:30am. This is impressive not because it's hard to pack up - Ted did 95% of it the night before, no it was impressive because I was up at 5:30 and it took me an hour to hear the cats, um...I mean the kids out the door. It doesn't matter how many times you say to a kid, "Get dressed, eat some breakfast, get your bag, go potty and get in the car," they will listen to only about half of what you say.

I suppose I should be grateful they got the potty part right. Forgetting to eat breakfast, the sacred White Blanket which Tessi can not achieve REM sleep without actually pales in comparison to me forgetting the pre-cooked spaghetti Bolognese sauce and hamburger meat I forgot to make my cooking chore easier.

Damn it. I really hate it when I do something stupid that really impacts my life. Mainly because I can't get that cathartic release of screaming at someone else.

Our 6 1/2 hour trip took 7 1/2 hours. This was because of the unexpected breakfast stop since I was a mean cow and didn't let them nosh on the chips and candy for breakfast and I thought Tessi was going to gnaw my head rest off if she didn't get food, and of course the endless summer road construction. That's something that Australia and the US definitely have in common - all roads come to grinding halt in the summer so roads can be fixed. I'm not complaining though, being only an hour late hardly registers on my radar these days.

I think it's the herding cats, er um, kids thing. 12 years I've spent really just happy we've arrived anywhere at all.

7 1/2 hours in the car plus 2 hours at the coolest pool I've seen outside Schlittlerbahn (Aussies, look it up...it ROCKS) and my 3 kids are in a stupor on the couches waiting for directions to their beds.

So far, this place is a winner!!!!! Even the lack of wifi and mobile phone reception isn't enough to damper my tech head mood. I don't even mind walking out of my cabin and down to the pool area to catch some reception.

I suspect though, that crap might start to get old soon.