The thrill of the planning, anticipation, and actual vacation itself – my husband and I never got to enjoy that experience of vacationing with our parents. Sure we would visit grandparents and the occasional fishing outing, but that was the extent of the vacation portfolio. So when we got married and started planning a family, we decided that it was of extreme importance that our children got to enjoy this whole practice of vacation. We set out to make memories that would last a lifetime.
We started this journey on our honeymoon. Steve took me to Disney World. This was overwhelming to me. I had only been to Ohio and West Virginia. I never seen the ocean. I never seen the sights that different states had to offer. Georgia has red clay everywhere. Florida has beautiful orange groves. Their flavors are so different as well. This traveling thing was not only delightful, but educational for me as an adult. I was hooked.
On one such vacation, with our first son, Nicholas, who was only fifteen months old, we took him to Disney World and Sea World. I’m positive he doesn’t remember any of it, but it holds precious memories for my Steve and I. One of those memories is when we were at Sea World. We were standing by the glass wall looking at the killer whale. It jumped high out of the water and made a large splash that drenched all three of us. Nicholas didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He just sat there pointing at the whale and saying, “aww, aww, aww” he obviously thought the whale was being bad. It is ever etched in my mind. A special place with the people I love – just making memories.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee was another favorite vacation destinations as our boys were growing up. We enjoyed this because we would park our car and just walk up and down the strip looking in the shops. Now having four boys and going in and out of little shops was always a challenge. Invariably, one of the boys would find something that they could not live without. So early on we decided that the boys had to have an allowance so they could learn the value of the dollar and saving money. We thought as young parents that this was very wise of us to be teaching our young brood this financial concept. Haha! Logan our youngest son, was so excited to go on vacation, because he had saved $98 to spend on whatever he wanted. He was so impatient to spend the money that he was buying absolute junk. He bought a yoyo that lite up when you did the little yoyo move. On his first try he slammed it into the ground and it broke. He looked at me with tear filled eyes asking me to replace the money because it broke. Funny little boy.
Zachery, our second son, wanted to have some salt water taffy. It’s a big thing in Tennessee. There are stores on every other corner (not really). However, he thought it would be better to get the sugar free taffy so he could eat more. Well, much to his dismay, whatever they put in the taffy to make it sugar free also caused one to have diarrhea if you eat too much. Poor boy. It was a good thing there were lots of spots to stop. I don’t think he likes taffy to much anymore.
Another memory that floats in my mind is one year when we were at Walt Disney World. We had all four boys. We were in Epcot at The Living Seas. The boys were fascinated with all the sea life. There were lots of people standing around peering at the sea creatures too. It was hard to keep track of four miniature humans amongst all of the other ones. Jordan, our third son, was completely taken with the manatees. He had his little face pressed against the thick glass wall of the aquarium watching them gracefully swim about. When it was time to move to the next exhibit I tried to gather my little brood. I thought I had them all, but I didn’t. We got to the next little cove and discovered that my little Jordan was not with us. Immediately I panicked. I started shouting his name, but in a room full of people my voice was flat and unheard. I ran back to the manatees to find him, but he wasn’t there. Finally, I found him staring at other sea creature, of which I can’t remember, I was just an emotional mommy glad to have found her baby chick. He looked at me like I was a mad woman. He was fine. Definitely a memory maker there.
I could go on for many more pages of memories that my dear family and I have shared on vacations. However, for now I will stop and say, take time to do things with people you love. No matter what happens in life – memories are always free and there for you to relive them any time you want to. You would also be surprised how those memories help your children form the things they like or do not like. It also propels them on to make memories with their families.
Go make some memories today!!!!
LaDonna Fridenmaker~Writer 