Everyone hopes to go on a vacation and share in family memories. Saving enough money to pay for a week away from the confines and demands of work and home is what families plan a year in advance for. The vision of what that vacation will be, sets a high bar to achieve. The dreams for fun in the sun and the time when the whole family is gathered together with smiles and no grumbling is a fallacy.

It is meant to be a time away. A time to relax and unwind. Regroup and maybe reevaluate what got you to the time and place you find yourself at as you and the family check into your hotel. 

As wives and moms, if we haven’t planned the trip down to a tee, we no doubt take on the role and responsibility of ensuring that everyone will have a good time or smile through gritted teeth while doing it if our lives depend on it. Planning trips takes a lot of effort and working to get everyone on board and can be a challenge. 

Thanks to the timeshare industry, our big annual trip was planned a year ago. To get where we want to go, it requires a year of advance planning. But no one can predict what will happen in that year to change plans or make things more challenging.

Everything was in motion and planned, but then my son tore 2 ligaments and a tendon in his ankle.  To make matters worse, he wasn’t able to get the surgery until 2 and a half weeks before our scheduled trip.  Three days before the flight, his stitches were removed. That isn’t to say he had been in bed and working to rehabilitate the foot to be able to put pressure on it.  My husband also had an incident with high blood pressure that could have sent him to the hospital, and four days before our trip, I was at a Cardiovascular doctor undergoing an EKG and scheduling an Echo, Ultrasound, and stress test for my heart with the need to wear a monitor.  

But hell, if I’m going to cancel a 2-week family vacation because of the inconvenience of having to rent a walker and push him everywhere, take a blood pressure cuff, and wear a heart monitor.

The first day of travel was long and arduous. The airlines are great about offering wheelchair assistance. Just be sure you call at least 48 hours ahead of time and have the party in need of the wheelchair on the list so the attendant is waiting at the gate.

Our first leg out of Phoenix, we barely made the plane with three minutes to spare before the gate closed.  I hadn’t accounted for two freeway closures at three a.m., and security, wanting to undress the boot of my son, had warned and wand him down like the next threat.  The TSA person kept saying he had metal on him.  No doubt because he had a pin in his ankle due to the surgery.  Frustrated, the man tossed my son’s container of stuff, sending his air bud flying through the air with no ability to recover it.

The stewardess wouldn’t allow my son’s crutches to be in the overhead compartment, and when we landed in Dallas, they couldn’t recall where they were placed. Trying to maintain the eye roll and a tongue lashing, it wasn’t like the crutches were tossed off the plane after the doors closed and the cross-check was done.  When retrieved, there were thirty minutes to get to the next flight that had changed terminals three times, making us have to take a tram to the next location.  I didn’t account for waiting for an elevator to take us anywhere to the next gate.  Let’s just say running with an 189lb, 24-year-old man in a wheelchair while the rest of the other party, with a toddler in toe, huffs it to the next gate was definitely a Home Alone moment. Stopping on a dime is easy with an airport wheelchair.  Simply release the hand lever, but sure as heck, prepare the party in the chair because they might just go flying. 

We made it to our next plane, the last to board.  Everyone was situated and ready to taxi off as we were all heaving and sweating in the process.  My son was situated and grumbling that his foot hurt after the bag was stowed in the overhead bin where the pain pills were.  Luckily, I managed to give him some pills since we ended up sitting at the gate, in the plane, for an hour and half before they told us all to get off the plane and not go far. At least I was able to get the pain meds while we sat. We would have another hour to wait outside the gate before we proceeded to our final destination. 

Finally, everyone was loaded into the rental van. With my son’s foot in the air over the piles of luggage, we made our way. Two hours later, we finally got to our home for the next two weeks.

            Breathing the fresh air and closing my eyes at the thought of what the next few weeks will bring to the family was a short respite.

            Rather than looking at the beautiful view and the green that surrounded us, I encountered grumbling and complaining. Rightfully so, because one party had a foot that was swollen after a long and arduous day.  But I was prepared.  Pain med. Ice pack and foot elevated, I set him up to relax and unwind. Fast forward to the following day, I did some red-light therapy. Yes, I packed the machine and paid $100 bucks for being nine pounds over the weight limit. But who cares, I wanted to make sure every convenience was met for any pain he may endure. 

            As I tell my son to enjoy the moment and push past the limits his mind wants to place him in, I am having to tell myself the same thing as he tells me to book him a flight home. Yeah, like that will happen.

            Instead, I choose to focus on what is blessed and great so far about this trip.  Spending two weeks waking up with our two-year-old granddaughter coming into our bed asking her Nonna to have snuggle time and feed her the morning bottle of milk.  Watching the rest of the family enjoy the sights of the resort as they walk the area and head down to the beach. 

            As I close my eyes this is what family vacations mean.  There is always going to be bickering in the family, and not everyone is going to be happy. We always will have a struggle we may have to power through, but at the end of the day, it is a memory that is being made that you can look back on and recall the good and the bad.

Stay tuned for next month, when I highlight all the great food to eat and places to visit for a family vacation at Hilton Head Island. 

This was written by our contributing writer, Shannon Hrimnak.