First Family Vacation

You knew it wouldn't take long, right?  The Powells love to travel, so indoctrinating Eli and Isaac into the world of packing, hotels, and tackling new experiences without fear was inevitable.  "Hahahaha tackling new experiences without fear??" you say?  Yes, of course, they've been tackling new experiences without fear every day for the last five months!  Given that, I figured they'd enjoy this vacation thing.  We started small, with a three day road trip to Great Wolf Lodge in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, TX.  Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel attached to a massive indoor water park.  It's really an impressive beast, with monstrous water slides and a wave pool and countless other water activities.

This whole "family vacation" thing was a whole new concept to Eli and Isaac.  We waited until about a week out before we even brought it up, as we knew they would be full of questions.  It took awhile for them to understand that ALL SIX of us were going to leave the house together.  They had never stayed in a hotel before (when we traveled to Lviv with Anya, and Kiev on our way out of Ukraine, we rented apartments), so that one was tough to explain.  We showed them photos online of the resort and the water slides.  We showed them maps and calendars.  I still think a lot of the adventure was a surprise to them, but they enjoyed every step of the way.  They were fairly patient travelers, with only a handful of "are we there yet?" variations.  I think they were a touch concerned when we left Oklahoma.  I hope they weren't thinking that we were getting closer to Ukraine, or someplace like Ukraine.  Oklahoma is home and it's comfortable, so I can understand them having some anxiety about leaving that safety zone.

Once we were there, though, riding the slides together, they were like pigs in slop.  Oh what fun.  As expected, Isaac was fearless, ready to tackle the scariest of slides right away.  Eli took a little more time and coaxing (read: peer pressure from his siblings) to ride "The Howlin' Tornado," as did Curt and I, but in the end, it was the favorite feature at the park for all of us.  As the nervous mom, I explained to the boys repeatedly where they could go on their own and what required parent supervision.  After the third or fourth time, this mantra was met with, "I KNOW, Mom!" :)  And they obeyed.  It feels good to know that I can set boundaries and trust them with them.  To an extent.

It was great fun to experience this with the boys.  I think it was good bonding time for all of us.  My favorite part was riding on a raft with Isaac on a really scary slide.  His mouth would be wide open in a full-on scream, with a look of sheer terror and delight on his face.  Where's a helmet cam when you need one?

After three days of water fun, inhaling chlorine gas, battling crowds, noise, and general overstimulation, all of us were ready to go home.  Last night, after our last bout at the park, Isaac calmly volunteered, "I like home.  I'm ready go home." Me too, buddy.

June: California.  :)

March Update

Daylight Savings Time.  Springing ahead.  How do you explain this to kids like Isaac and Eli?  You don't, I decided.  Just change all the clocks when they're not looking and they'll be none the wiser, right?  I didn't want to get into a discussion about it, lest they think they can just change the time whenever it suited them.  Apparently their internal clocks are firmly set, as they figured out something was fishy Monday morning when I insisted they get out of bed when it was still dark.  "Early!  Early!"  I kept pointing to the clock, insisting it was time to wake up.  "No, early!  Early!"  Again at bedtime.  "No bed.  Early!" they said, pointing to the sky.  Sigh.  Can't slip anything past these guys. 

You may know that Elijah has had a lot of dental work done over the last two months.  A LOT.  He rarely complains about pain after a procedure ("No medicine.  It's good!") and overall seems to be more alert and focused.  He's joking around, picking up on math much faster than he was just a couple of weeks ago, and is as happy as can be.  Poor baby must have been living with some severe mouth pain.     Now that this chronic pain is finally being lifted, we are seeing the REAL Elijah.

These boys are still filled with so much joy.  I got up the courage yesterday to take them to Target.  You've never seen eyes so wide.  "America good!  I love America!  GOOD store!"  They took turns pushing around a shopping cart.  They had their first experience with a dressing room.  Everything was so exciting!  OHH, the things we take for granted.

Isaac keeps saying he loves summer and can't wait for it to get hot.  All I can do is laugh.  Remind me to follow up here in August.