The Vacation from Hell- ALMOST

The kids sharing Sami's rice cereal

Tom's back up birthday party

Our Entertainment

Wyatt's first steps

Sami

Notice the adults in their matching jammies

Ella wore my T-shirt for jammies until we could shop for her

game room

Ella & Jack playing ping pong

Grandma Joyce came to visit

Jack, Ella & Sami swimming at the "resort"

game room at the "resort"

Grandkids stockings from Grams & Pops

dentist Ella

Ohio roads

Uncle Shawn bonded with Wyatt

Jack loved to run around the table and yell "run, run run"

We weren't far from the Hall of Fame

I'd like to say Ella played alone with her video game but I can't

Ella getting things ready for PaPa's birthday

The kids got together and got me an external hard drive AND had it loaded with all their pictures

Uncle Tim came to visit and Ella took a shining to him

We really enjoyed spending so much time with Wyatt

Tom and I have been hosting a Christmas get away every other year since Thomas was in college. We have had his brother & his family and even his mother & step father join us but with our family getting so big with 8 adults, one child, 1 toddler and 2 babies we decided to just stick with the immediates.

We've tried a few different locations and this year we had some obstacles to overcome in the selection. Charlie had to work (in Ohio), Jen & her family would be getting back from a week in Chicago and I wanted to be close enough to Ohio family to give Tom a surprise 50th birthday party. I found a web sight for a "resort" close to Charlie, sent it to everyone and we agreed, Lake Atwood here we come!
After packing the cars with everything we could think of (and somehow Ella had no suitcase when we got there)to take we spent an hour longer than mapquest driving through stomach churning back roads to get to a cottage that looked nothing like the web sight. Even though it had 4 bedrooms, a kitchen( if you consider a fridge a tiny stove and 2' of counter space a kitchen)and a bath and a half (if you consider a shower stall in a powder room to be a full bath) it just wasn't going to work. We tried to call the "kids" to ask their opinion and realized there was no cell phone reception. It had advertised WiFi (which of course we didn't get, THAT was the resort) so it nevered occured to me we wouldn't get reception. Darn you AT & T!

The manager at the resort (which was just a hotel with a seldomly opened restraunt and a pool) offered us a second cottage for half price. We took it and Tom and I offered to share a cottage with the grandchildren so the adults could have their own. It seemed like it could work.

In the morning I woke up to mouse chewed bread. Natalie HATES rodents so she called the resort and they offered to let us move cottages and a free breakfast buffet. Aint that generous! Then Wyatt got sick, then Jack threw up, then Ella threw up and Grams threw up, then Jen threw up and Tom's birthday party got cancelled.

In Ohio Our Vacation Gave to Us

No cell or Internet Reception

2 Rustic cottages, one with a mouse

3 puking children

4 snow storms with a closed road

A cancelled 50th birthday party!

a closed bowling alley

7 hour drive on snow covered roads

8 miles to civilization
9 stomach aches
10 presents each
an 11" stove

12 family members

and a forgotten suitcase

This could have been the vacation from hell but I am so proud of my famil;y. They worked together, solved problems and even managed to have a great time. I love you guys, let's stay home next year.