I try to be a good mom. I really do. I try to do fun stuff and not sweat the small stuff and teach and lead and all that good stuff. I think I do pretty good most of the time. My kids are basically amazing and make up for all my shortcomings in glowing ways.

I decided it would be cool to take my kids on a quick ‘spring break’ vacation. This may be our last chance to get away all together before my oldest son leaves on his mission. We didn’t have a lot of time, and I didn’t want to spend a fortune, so I thought up the ‘brilliant’ idea of going to Roswell to check out the alien stuff and then to Carlsbad to see some amazing caves. I have to admit, I was more prepared for this trip than I normally am. I booked a rental car (bigger and no miles on my car), mapped out the route, and even planned ‘interesting’ stops along the way. I was feeling very cool.

We planned to leave around nine on Monday morning because that is when I “assumed” the car rental place opened. I was a bit late getting to the rental place because I had to wait for my ride. No problem. Still going to work. I got to the rental place “not named but forever avoided” and the car they had for me was NOT the car I had reserved. The ‘agent’ had the nerve to get up in my business and tell me off. Guess who didn’t rent a car? Yep….I walked out.

Now the problem was….do I just take my car? I called around and couldn’t find any other rental with the car size I needed. Poo. Back home I went to talk with the kids. My kids are amazing troopers. We brainstormed and decided the original trip (9+ hours each way) was not going to work in our car. Let’s go somewhere closer….like Magic Mountain! Yes! We all agreed and got in the car.

On the way, thanks to cell phones, we booked a hotel, and checked with a friend in California to see if it was spring break there. Yes, it was. We might end up with lines, but no worries! We got to our hotel and settled in. We decided we would hit the park the minute it opened. I got online to check the hours. Guess what I found?? Magic Mountain was not open during the week until the next week. yeah. We rallied around a nice seafood meal and decided we would slum it and hit Disney or Cali Adventure. Apparently, I last visited those parks at the turn of the century. Tickets to get in are….$80 per person. holy crap in a handbag! I was feeling pathetic, but told the kids we could go. Their words were, “I don’t think I could have $80 worth of fun at those places in one day. Let’s not do it.” Yeah, they are amazing.

We spent the night in the pool, weight room, watching tv, and finally sleeping. In the morning, we rallied again and decided to hit Hollywood. My friend had suggested some cool museums down town. Our spirits were still high so we headed to Hollywood. We ended up touring the Hollywood Wax museum, Ripley’s believe it or not, and the World Record museum. It was actually a lot of fun. My kids got along, behaved, and seemed genuinely interested in everything. Well, Ben wasn’t keen on the Wax museum, but that was just because I accidentally led him down the “Horror corridor” first. Bad mom. We skiddaddled out quick!

After our museuming, we just headed home. We were going to make our traditional stop at the huge dino rest stop but….mom was apparently asleep at the wheel and missed the turn.

When we were about 2 hours out, we thought about hitting our own amusement park in Phoenix, but it was too late.

Our trip was just one glitch after another, Some people might have thrown their hands up and cried but not us. We enjoyed our time together. We were crammed in our car, every seat taken, and nobody fussed or whined at all! Well, Teddy did fuss a bit…. but he is just 4 months old, give the guy credit….cause I said so.

Photo Credit: http://cathykennedystories.blogspot.com/2011/03/five-questions-friday-meme.html