"They have cows and sheep and goats and donkeys that you can feed and pet," I told my offspring. "Maybe they'll even let you collect the chicken eggs in the morning," I promised.
When we arrived at the farm, my children were more than little put out by my lack of full disclosure.
"You didn't tell us the farm had a trampoline!" they yelled in unison as they stampeded past enclosure full of bleating animals and pounced on the contraption.
In my defense, I was not aware of the added attraction. "Come look at the baby goats!" I pleaded, as I stepped over a pile of excrement. Everyone pretended like they didn't hear me.An hour later, the farmer's wife handed me a bag of table scraps and leftover dog food. "I need help feeding the donkeys!" I called.
"I'm staying right here," Cortlen announced, clinging to the side of the trampoline for dear life. It was equally difficult to pry his siblings off the object, which struck me as strange, since several houses in our neighborhood have trampolines in their backyards, including the one next door.
"Congratulations," my sister said smugly, as we reclined on comfy army cots in the 'rustic' attic bedroom of the farmhouse later that night. "You just drove two hours and spent $100 for your kids to jump on a trampoline."
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Any similar vacation success stories?
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23 comments
Yay! I'm the first commenter of the day!!
My family lives in San Diego and we are lucky to have many world renowned attractions such as Sea World, SD Zoo, Disneyland, Hollywood, Universal Studios...in our backyard. But we wanted the experience of Disney World. We took 10 days, flew across the country, stayed in a "lavish" timeshare, paid several hundreds of dollars for Park Hopper tickets...all for my daughter to want to just stay in the pool the whole time. REALLLY?????? ::::sigh:::: I still love her though. Check my blog to see our adventures as well!
My favorite was shelling out the money for my then-3-year-old to go to the zoo, only to have her spend the majority of her time at the playground there...which could've been done for FREE, or if she REALLY needed the "human hamster habit-trail" experience, the cost of a Happy Meal at our local Mickey D's. I feel your pain.
My fiance Brian's mom took him and his sister on a family trip to San Diego when they were younger. She spent quite a bit of money on a house on the beach. That you literally walked out the door and on to the sand. She thought they would enjoy the ocean for the week and go to seaworld and the zoo etc. Instead it ended up being Shark Week on the discovery channel and Brian and his sister spent the entire week glued to the TV watching sharks week.
So I am sure she feels your pain.
Awwwww! Sorry that it was kind of a flop. Figures, trampolines are enticing.
Where in central PA? Just curious, I live in PA.
I think every vacation we take turns into a total disaster. We went to Chicago a couple of years ago and had to force the kids to do any of the Chicago-y things we had planned. But the night at the movies and batting cages (things that are readily available to us at home), that's the night they always talk about.
Kids -- gotta love 'em.
What about going to Disneyland and paying for the tickets, when all your kids want to do is stay at the hotel pool? And we HAVE a pool at our house! I feel your pain.
Hey I love your blog! I'm not a mom at the moment, but your stories always make me laugh! I have two younger siblings and two older ones. All of our vacations are like this! If we stay at a hotel, the boys in particular practically LIVE in the pool and jacuzzi. No matter where we are. You can bet that our trip to Palmyra this summer will be the same as always!
Keep on keepin' on.
-Ashley
A year before my god daughter turned 5 and graduated kindergarten, we promised her a trip to the beach to celebrate the milestone. We thought she'd forget about it. Nope, no such luck. A few weeks before her 5th birthday, she announced that she was packing her suitcase. We were puzzled and asked her why and she said, "because we're going to the beach, remember?" We figured if we were going to the beach, we'd do it up right, so we sprung for plane tickets from the D.C. area (where we lived back then) all the way to Miami Beach. We arrived way after midnight and were all exhausted so we said we'd show her the beach when it was actually daylight outside. After finding an all night diner and getting a bite to eat, we hit the beds. The next morning we woke her up bright and early and stood eagerly beside the black out curtains on our expensive ocean front balcony ready to reveal the ocean to her for the first time. My husband and I couldn't have been more excited to be sharing this experience with her. "Ready?!" we announced before throwing the curtains wide to lots of jumping up and down and squealing from our 5 year old. We were so pleased with ourselves until she exclaimed, "Wow! That is the biggest pool I have ever seen!" She wasn't even remotely interested in the ocean! She was happy that the hotel had a pool. Considering that we had a pool at home and had just flown the entire Atlantic coast to get to our destination, we were more than a bit bummed! ha.ha.
It's like taking your kids to a restaurant and all they want to order is a grilled cheese sandwich. And sadly I must admit I was one of those kids.
We are on vacation right now in Florida! This was my kids' first trip in an airplane and did they fight to sit by the window? no. DId they practically trip over each other getting into the jetbridge? no. DId they sit anxiously by the door as we waited to leave for the airport? no.
They sat on the couch until I had to threaten them within an inch of their lives to GET OFF THE COUCH BECAUSE WE NEED TO GO GET ON A PLANE. And once actually on the plane, all my son could ask was, "Can I play the gameboy now?" Of course I replied, "ABSOLUTELY NOT. You are going to look out the window as we take off and be amazed at all that is out there, just like you should. You can look at the gameboy anytime!!!'
5 minutes after take off: "Have I looked out the window enough yet?"
whatever.
(this is what I get for not having cable TV or a Wii. Go somewhere that does and it's like they discovered electricity or powdered donuts or something)
Sounds like Texan Mama and I learned the same lesson. Took my kids to a friend's cabin in the beautiful mountains, but would my kids go outside to play? Heavens no, the kid had a Wii (the forbidden fruit)... it was as if the heaven's opened and dropped the holy Grail of childhood vacationdom right there in that dark cabin basement.
Two years ago, we took a beach vacation and the kids loved the ocean. This year, I'm a little worried because this time we'll actually have a pool at the house. I'll have to lay down the ground rules before we go I guess...
This is part of the reason we won't do huge vacations like Disney World. We can take them to Cedar Point or Kings Island (only 2 hours away for us) and they think that is the best!! I think they would bum me out at Disney by scenarios just like your own.
pick me...pick me...my kids say i am the meanest mom....i love reading your blog....
Reminds me of the playground episode with the pink princess in Hamilton, Bermuda. Please come visit our blog http://madjaqsworld.blogspot.com
How about going on a cruise and having not 1 but 3 kids that had sea sickness! The motion sickness meds kept them sleepy so they didn't really get to enjoy it. :(
Oh my Gosh...Don't you love it...My husband and I went to vegas and saw a cirque du soleil show and he ended up sleeping through the entire performance... So basically he took a 150.00 nap!!! I feel your pain. 80)
I just found your very funny blog! I love the travels at least you could sit outside and a chair and watch the kids instead of running all over the place now that sounds like peace to me!
Were they quiet though - not whinning the whole time? It was worth it and I'll need explicit directions on where this place is.
A couple of summers ago we went to New York with our sons, who were 15 and 12. I was so excited about seeing the big city through their eyes. Did they enjoy Central Park, the subway, or the Yankees game? No, they wanted to stay in the hotel and play baseball with a hacky sack and a small baseball bat. Sigh!
Then we drove to Cooperstown to see the Baseball Hall of Fame. The highlight of the trip for them? Playing miniature golf. Which we can do at home. Any day.
We're about to drive to Pensacola. Wonder if they'll want to leave the hotel room.
We just spent about $40 to sleep outside in a downpour with thunder and lightening right outside our tent. Now I'll have to fork out even more money for the therapy my 2 younger girls will need due to this awesome vacation.
you want to wear your kids out every day! buy a trampoline. yeah, they are a bit pricey. but they will use it until they are WELLL into their teenage years. We got one 4 years ago and the kids still jump on it every day! when family and friends come over, EVERYONE has to jump on it.
Colleen
Oh I so wish I had the time to read everybody elses somments, but I do have to quickly mention our trip to sea world when my son was 18 months old, we drove in the back of my mom's mini van and had to put up with all the joys of knowing we where only able to og on the "family trip" because my parents were paying for us to attend (that is what she informed everybody, later we found out she was paying for everyone to attend) but it was definately a humiliating trip on our behalf because my parents rubbed in that they were paying for us the whole way, anyhow we packed a cooler full of food cause we knew we couldn't afford to buy fast food the whole trip,m so what does my parents do, she puts the cooler in the truck with my brother who makes it a point to not follow and then eats all the food we packed for us, to which my mom made a huge deal about "why are you do mad?" when I discovered my "rich" brothers ate all our supplies, so we were to go hungry the rest of the trip--oh wait no my mom had to buy food for us, and rub it in, forgetting to mention the only reason was cause my brothers ate our food
anyhow, we sucked it up and took the tomrnting cause we just knew our infant son would love all the fish at sea world--NOPE, wrong again, he freaked out so much we finally told him the fish tanks were TVs and that was the only way he would go near them, Shamu scared him, we tried to get a picture with the guy dressed up, he wouldn't go within 20 feet of him, and then he got 3rd degree burns because the stroller we took didn't have a canopy and although we put sunscreen on him we didn't notice we had to reapply every 30 minutes--can we say it turned otu to be the trip from you know where, the drive back from Caliornia to Utah in the back of my parents MINI van was even worse listening to why we were the worst parents in the world (my brother's little girl didn't get sunbiurned in part cause she was tan to begin with)
before the trip I was sad we were moving thousands of miles away from the family the following week, after the trip the move to texas didn't seem far enough--and I tell you I have never been invited on another family vacation and I have no desire to ever attend another family vacation, as far as I am concerned I love my family but miles between us are the best....oh and Dominic loves to see the fish at walmart, we are simple people, so rather than driving to go to sea world once a year we save our money and take him to walmart once a week--good enough for him
WE DON'T DO FAMILY VACATIONS UNLESS WE HAVE TO!!!!!!!!!
www.lewis4higher.blogspot.com
Don't worry even if you paid $100, at least the kids enjoyed the trampoline. You really can't stop any kid when it comes to trampoline because it's really fun to bounce up and down on a trampoline. I guess you were the only one who enjoyed the farm annimals then.
TrampolineSprings.com
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