Trip, not quite a vacation

So we planned a week-long trip to Lake Tahoe a few months ago. Sofia has been talking about her "vacation in Lake Tahoe" for about a month now. She was telling a man that worked at Trader Joe's the other day all about our trip and proceeded to tell him that he had a "vacation shirt" on. I had to laugh; I was amazed that she recognized a Hawaiian shirt and associated that type of shirt with vacations. Awesome. So here we are after weeks of preparing. It sure does take a ton of planning (and a minivan) to get a family of five up to the mountains. You should have seen the car, full of stuff, kids, and equipped with DVD players, thankfully. We made it up after one quick stop at In-n-Out (Brian had to have it) and a few movies. The kids were thrilled to see our "vacation house" and were running around screaming. The house is about 4 times the size of our own, so you could only imagine the excitement.
The "trip" began without a hitch, as we joined our friends Daniela and Roberto (and the rest of La Famiglia Italiana) at the pool near their condo in Incline Village. Seriously, there were about twelve people there, all related and grew up in my neighborhood. They are extremely welcoming and the kids love to play together. And we love that the kids names are as follows: Chiara, Giovanna, Santino, Giovanni, Rosella, and of course, Sofia, Luca, and Silvio. We definitely felt right at home. The kids had a blast and Brian and I took turns in the pool with Sofia and Luca. The next day, we ventured to the beach because Sofia was constantly asking about "the Lake Tahoe" and could not stop talking about swimming in the lake. We packed our four bags, tent, sand toys, and swim gear and headed out. This was a disaster. The Nug did not like the heat and I could not seem to find an inch of space without sand, so we had to hold him. Sofia did not like the "messy, wet sand" and thought the water was too cold (um, did I mention that she is a bit particular?). Luca was of course, having a great time. Within a half hour Brian wanted to leave, and I felt exactly the same. Okay, so check the beach off the list. As we drove by the Truckee River everyday, we saw so many people floating down the river in their inner tubes or boats. We wanted to be on one of those rafts, but we could not go with three small children. At that point we felt a bit defeated. Thankfully our dear friend Prospero was coming up to join us for a few days. The kids love their "padrino" (Italian for godfather) and were jumping up and down as soon as he arrived. We were grateful to have another set of hands to help us. At least we weren't outnumbered. We headed out for a pony ride that afternoon and the kids loved it. They were in awe of the horses, as they had never been that close to a horse before. The next day we went to the local pond and had a great time. Sofia called it "the small Lake Tahoe." It was much more manageable with much less sand. Brian, Prospero, Sofia, and Luca even took a ride on a wood raft that was there and the kids weren't even tempted to jump off. I happily sat with Silvio in the shade of a tree on the grass. He sat there sweetly and played with ball and a horse. It was a successful activity. Okay, we felt like we could do this vacation thing. Then later that night we ate bad chicken and the next morning Brian and I were hit with an awful bout of food poisoning. Brian had it worse than me and spent the morning in the bathroom. It was terrible. When he was actually able to talk midday, he simply said, "I just want to go home." So we spent the next two hours hurriedly packing and cleaning. And we were out of there.
A mom at Sofia school once said when speaking of her upcoming vacation that when you travel with your family it is more like a trip then a vacation. I laughed. Now, that definitely rings true. It was nice to get away, but it was also very hard. It took weeks of planning and days of packing just to simply get our family out of our home. With three small children, I think I appreciate home and all of the comforts that come with it. We had some great moments, but it was definitely more of a "trip" than a vacation. Sofia and Luca had a great time, so I would call it a success. And we got some great pictures!