Wednesday, August 14, 2013

High Heels and Dirty Dishes Column 5


Well being a parent this week certainly has had it’s challenges.  We are on a 6 day family vacation, and I know that when I get home I am going to need a vacation from my vacation.  Our first stop was yesterday in Duluth and we were down on Canal Street.  I asked to take a picture of Nolan and he grumbled, “NO PICTURES”.  I got a little upset, well I got a lot upset and pulled out the “When you get older you are going to want to look at these pictures and remember our family vacation”.  So I did get a picture and he looks pained in the picture, extremely pained. . . . Kind of like he just left the dentist office and had a root canal.  Then there was the car ride with two kids arguing over who was taking too much room.  So my kids found out that there is a river in the middle of the seat and if someone crossed it their legs would be swallowed up and they wouldn’t be able to swim at The Wisconsin Dells.  This was just a simple exaggeration on my part.  Well the kids started acting like there was actually a river, this definitely backfired on my part.  “He is looking at me”, “Nolan is eating all of the beef jerky”, and my favorite, “Hannah just kicked me in the head”.  Oh my word this is going to be a long trip and we aren’t going to actually get to The Dells till Saturday.  Before we left we packed every electronic device possible, and the cords have their own carrying case. We have ipods, ipads, iphones, DS’s, PSP’s, Kindle Fire’s, and laptops.   I looked at them before we left and thought that it was foolish that we take all of this along, that whatever happened to the games “I Spy With My Little Eye”, or “The License Plate Game”, and so on.  Well the thing is I love my kids but those games are games that I like to play when we are making the 3 ½ mile trip from my house into town.  Not the games that I would like to play on a 10 hour 6 day vacation with the kids.  Bring on the electronics, it will keep them quiet for a time, and hopefully cut down on the terrible thing of one kid actually looking at the other kid, which turns into a major meltdown.  Where is that family on tv when the kids go on vacation they look so nice in the pictures?  I realized that family is not real, and they don’t exist.  I am going to have to photoshop most of our pictures to portray the idea of them actually liking each other.  When we get home the kids will have had fun, I will be broke, and they will be planning their next vacation.  I will be planning my next vacation too.  Mine will be when everyone is gone and the house is quiet, the movie “Lonesome Dove” will be playing on TV, and no one will ask “How many more miles”.  Until next week my friends.

Allison Enge

Thief River Falls, MN

Highheelsanddirtydishes@yahoo.com

No comments:

Post a Comment