Sherre Hirsch

Desperately needing time away from our ‘regular’ lives, I made plans for the family to escape to Palm Desert for the weekend after Thanksgiving. When I told the kids, they were ecstatic. Just the idea of going away together thrilled them. So we left on our trip to the desert filled with hope and good intentions.

The first night was a disaster. Our youngest (2) was so excited that she could not sleep - it was her first family vacation. Since we were all in one and half rooms, none of us slept.  So the next morning got off to a bumpy start with three grumpy, tired children, one grumpy, tired me and one grumpy, tired husband.  By the late morning Alia (the youngest) was still awake and I realizing we were not going to survive if she stayed up for three days straight.

So, I drove her back to LA to stay with my parents.  Four hours of driving later, I was back at the hotel, exhausted and ready to collapse. But there was still the evening, when the older kids would be asleep and Jeff and I could have some time for ourselves.  Ha! We ordered dinner and everyone was fast asleep by 7 pm.  So much for day 1.

By the second day we were a little desperate - every one was trying to have fun.  We swam, we ate, we sang, but something was not clicking.  The hotel pools were packed with people, the food was mediocre and it was cold out.  All I wanted to do on my weekend away was get away!  I’ve written about my kid’s love of dogs here before and I thought that a dog movie would be perfect and so that night we went to see Bolt in 3D.  Dogs!  3D!  But taking a 6 year old and a 4 year old at their first 3D film was not so fun. The glasses hurt, the violent scenes more violent than normal. By 7 pm, we all crashed again.  Day 2, down.

By the last day, I just wanted to get home.  By now no one is expecting much; and then, a miracle.  We head out to the pool and it’s empty.  We start down the 60 ft water slide one by one. Finally, in a moment of daring, I ask the lifeguard if we can all slide down together.  I was sure he’d say “no”  - it had been that kind of weekend.  But he said “yes.”  For the next hour, over and over again, the four us went down that slide.  I have never laughed so hard in my life.

Driving home, my husband and I talked about how our horrible, terrible, no-good vacation was saved in the last hour.  Everyone was in a good mood.  And the best part?  The kids only remember is that last hour - all of us together, laughing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Family, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.