Family Trip

On the eve of our summer family trip, I am feeling exhausted, apprehensive, and uninspired.
Trying to pack for a 2 1/2 week trip is next to impossible while refereeing a constant wrestling match between 2 young boys. It requires a tremendous amount of patience, energy, and an anal retentive husband. As we take every single item we use on a daily basis and attempt to pack it into one suitcase, I am bitter knowing it will cost me an additional $25 on top of my ticket price. And if all of our stuff doesn't weigh under 70 lbs, add another $50 on top of that. My toiletry bag weighs 70 lbs.

To get to the family trip destination, it requires a lengthy car ride, an even longer plane ride, or sometimes both. Oddly enough, it's not my almost 4 year old who is causing me to lose sleep about this journey. These days my 18 month old sits in one place about as long as a puppy on crystal meth. Have you ever sat next to someone in a shoe box size seat for 6 hours, who is tweaking the entire time, and doesn't have any discernable words beyond 'mama', 'stop it', and 'play-doh'?

So here I am, unispired, wondering what I have left to give as we are t-minus 12 hours from the start of the family trip. Please note my use of the term 'family trip' and the very deliberate ommission of the word 'vacation'. Merriam-Webster's On-line Dictionary defines 'vacation' as, a scheduled period during which activity is suspended; a period of exemption from work granted to an employee. Hmm, vacation, doesn't really feel right as I ready myself and my kids for 10 humidity filled days in Florida visting my in laws, followed by 6 days in Minneapolis with my brother and his family.

I think I'm going to write to the lexicographers at Merriam-Webster. If words as serious as 'dirty bomb' and 'subprime', and as silly as 'wingnut' and 'fanboy', can be added to their dictionary in 2008, then I do believe 2009 is the year for 'family trip'. Simply placed next to the word vacation, it will say, 'see family trip'.

family trip noun (2009): a vacation taken with children, not really a vacation at all; a trip where you do everything exactly as you do at home, but in a different place.