What My Kids Reminded Me on Spring Break 2017

The week before Spring Break Lily got the flu. Finn followed 2 days later. I rushed around nursing patients that week amongst our regular school schedule, boasting that I hadn't had the flu since I was in 2nd grade when my husband expressed concern that I was exposing my pregnant body to this serious illness. I'm tough, I insisted. I'll be fine. And then I got it...or something that looked and felt a lot like it. And I was bedridden. And suddenly our spring break plans - the ones we'd be talking about, looking forward to, studying and researching about all semester - were in jeopardy. We broke this news to the kids in the late afternoon on Saturday, just hours before we were supposed to pull out of the driveway on our adventure. Mom's just too sick to travel. We can't go tomorrow. We'll see how the next few days go and then maybe...

I won't say there weren't tears and disappointed faces in those first few moments. But there were also words of encouragement and support. "It's OK, Mom," and gentle pats on my arm. And in the days that followed I watched my children bear a great disappointment with grace. I listened as they played happily outside, making their own fun in our backyard. I heard their laughter as Joey cracked jokes at the dinner table. They nursed me, bringing me water, checking to see if I wanted a popsicle, and they entertained themselves as Joey tried to juggle all the responsibilities of mom and dad. More than once I heard him exclaim, "Is this what you do to your mom all the time???" as someone announced for the millionth time that day that they were STARVING.

By Monday I was beginning to rally so we decided to try to leave early Tuesday morning in an effort to salvage what was left of our Spring Break. From my command post on my bed, I gave orders to the kids who brought me piles of clothes to pack, baskets of laundry to fold, and handled all the chores of cleaning and preparing the house for the trip. Joey left on a mission to get our van running again...did I mention the battery had died the week before?...and thankfully it was just a simple fix.

Tuesday morning we were up at 4 and finally pulled out of the driveway at 6:30. Tuesday - National Zoo, Wednesday - Hershey, Thursday - Washington D.C., Friday - Gettsyburg and home. It was a busy 4 days. Some of it was really fun...some of it was not. Imagine that 90 million people all decide to go to your spring break destination and then get in front of you in every line. There was a low point on Thursday when we'd been walking for 2 hours without stopping and hadn't gotten to see ANYTHING. National Archives? Line down the street. Ford's Theater? All shows sold out for the day. White House? I'm sorry, we're closing off this area. You'll have to go around, say the Secret Service. By the time we trudged to the top of the hill to see the Washington Monument, we were here...

This picture actually provided some much needed levity after what had been a frustrating day. It was our own little "Weekend at Bernie's" and our two little rolling corpses brought smiles to quite a few other tourists.

This is kind of how our vacation went...the ying and the yang of exhaustion, sickness (Joey and I were both sick by now), and things not going the way we'd planned juxtaposed with moments of pure sweetness and joy born from just being together. Our pre-teen snuggling into her dad's shoulder unexpectedly, Eli's unbridled excitement over being at the zoo...begging to see "just 3 more animals PLEASE!" when everyone else has wilted, Google randomly talking in the middle of Joey's morning prayers and sending us all into hysterics, the seriousness with which they sampled chocolate and tried to learn to be palateers, Lily making friends at the hotel pool, Finn holding my hand as we made the trek from the Lincoln Memorial back to Union Station. Their attitudes. Watching them rally when they were exhausted beyond measure, encouraging me when I felt like laying down where I stood, their patience to handle having to wait and disappointment when our plans just didn't work out, Lily pushing the stroller with 2 kids in it to give her dad a break. They chose their attitude, chose to be thankful and happy, regardless of whether they were at home, being turned away at Ford's Theater, or sampling chocolate. It was a great reminder that happiness is a choice and that although this year may not go down in the books as our best spring break ever, it was still special just because we were together.