Catching Up: Sometimes A Trip to Paradise Should Just be a Trip Home

I hate to admit this, but Jonathan and I spent basically the whole summer fighting over spending the last two weeks before school in Hawaii.  We bought tickets for the trip in early June.  Like, we had some wicked fights.  Granted, when the fights were the worst, I was also sleep deprived, but the fact remained there was nothing I wanted to do less than traveling over 6 time zones AGAIN with an infant, even if it was to a tropical paradise.  I begged him to cancel.  I came up with deals, negotiations, even threats, but Jonathan would not budge.  He fought back with equal passion, assuring me that once we were there, we would have a fabulous time...

About five hours before our plane was to leave, Jonathan finally gave in.  I was particularly impassioned at this point. He admitted he was exhausted too.  And although he still wanted to go, he also thought that rescheduling our trip wouldn't be horrible.  We decided that we could spend our last two weeks of summer in Boston hanging out as a family AT HOME (finally).  So, Jonathan called and canceled our plane tickets.  I felt relieved and also a bit sad.  I do love Hawaii, of course, but getting Sawyer back on a schedule that allowed me to sleep seemed like just the vacation I needed.  AND, there was the promise of still being on vacation, but at home, a stay-cation, if you will.

As soon as Jonathan was off the phone with the airline he heaved a sigh of relief.  He sat back in our big arm chair, and that's when I saw it happen. His brow furrowed slightly.  The whites of his eyes became veiny and bloodshot.  And I actually saw a little part of his soul float sadly away from his body.  In the matter of seconds, Jonathan went into school mode.  It was like a switch was flipped.  He said, "This is great actually, I'll have an opportunity over the next two weeks to do some getting ready for school."  I immediately panicked!  I am so stupid.  I should have known that it would be impossible for Jonathan to relax being in such close proximity to school.  When I was giving up Hawaii, I was really giving up Jonathan's undivided attention, and I realized I wasn't ready for that.

I went nuts.  I demanded that he call the airline and get our tickets back.  Jonathan looked at me with true concern.  "You are unstable, Amanda," he declared.  Hello, I know that!  I didn't care.  I melted into a ball of pity on the floor.  Jonathan was amused and dialed the airline.  When he explained the situation the representative said that she would check to see if our tickets were still available.  They weren't...In just five minutes they were gone.  Horror!  Devastation!  He hung up and I called back instantly.  I demanded to talk to a manager.  I was on hold for about 15 seconds when the representative came back on and said, "Oh! I found your tickets." mmmm.....

So we packed.  And headed to Hawaii.  Sure we had three layovers.  Sure we dropped Sawyer on his head and had to call the paramedics at the airport.  Sure Sawyer didn't sleep for most of the trip.  But we were still determined to have a good time.

And we mostly did enjoy ourselves.  But the truth that we had refused to believe is that the beach life is not congruous with an infant's needs.  We could only go to the beach for an hour or two before Sawyer had enough.  Of course, this was exacerbated by his and our jetlag.  Sawyer didn't sleep for our whole trip.  I didn't feel like I was on vacation.  I felt like I was barely hanging on to my sanity.  And so did Jonathan.  So, we called once again, and changed our tickets to come home early. Happily.

Another lesson in parenting:  Kids change the meaning of vacations.

Sawyer:  Nap?  Surf's up and so am I!

This is one of the rare times that we got Sawyer to sleep on the beach.  We arrived at 7 am!  Jonathan devised this awesome beach set up.

This is Toni and Richard.  We rent a room in their condo when we go to Hawaii.