The Griswalds On Vacation

Let me interrupt this post for just a moment to share with you something my sweet husband brought home for me last night.



I love him.

Thank you, Shannon. You have my heart, and I love you.:)

Now on with today's post.

This past week as I was taking care of some last minute details for my trip, I was reminded of a trip we made with the boys several years ago.

As a family, we have been able to take a few vacations over the years. We have been to places like the beach, Rock City, New Orleans, and camping to name a few. But one year sticks out in our son Daniel's mind more than all the rest. As I've said before what a boy remembers from an experience is quite different than what a girl would remember.

In July 2002, we went to visit some friends in Oklahoma. We had a wonderful time hanging out with them . As we were heading home, we decided to stop in Arkansas to spend a day at a popular lake town along our way. But, since it was the July Fourth holiday, there were not many hotel rooms available.

In other words, beggars can't be choosers.

We had to take what we could get. So, we called around until we could find a room. We were thrilled that we found somewhere to stay......then we arrived.



When we pulled up, we were a little alarmed concerned. It wasn't what we had envisioned, but yet it seemed like something on an episode of COPS vaguely familiar. But, since we didn't have a choice, we went ahead to check in........

I'm not sure but I think Cousin Eddie and his family ran the place.



We walked into the check in area and were greeted by a pig.....No, I do not mean a sloppy, heavy person.

I mean a pig. An actual oinking pig.



Cousin Eddie's wife The nice lady behind the counter and her pig gave us the keys to our "room". She said to let her know if we needed anything. At this point I was tempted to ask her for an escape route, but being the polite Southern girl that I am, I held my tongue.

When we entered our shoebox room, the first thing Daniel said was, "This room is tiny!" He then starts giggling (uncontrollably). Once he composed himself, he noticed there was no bathtub, only a shower stall. This was very upsetting to him, because he was accustomed to lengthy bath times. You know so he could play with his ducks and boats and such.

However, the devastation of not having a bathtub was soon replaced by his interest in what he saw hanging on the shoebox wall.

A fly-swatter!......

Now, you may have the same question as we did. "What do you need a fly-swatter in a shoebox your hotel room for?"....

We soon found out.

It was for swatting flies.

Lots of them.

Daniel thought this was the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life. We couldn't even unpack for killing swatting at flies.

Lots of them.

Due to the enormous amount of insect activity in our room, we decided to hang out at the pool.....

It was fun laying out in the sun on the freshly mowed astro-turf. The kids had a great time. It was so nice for Shannon and me to get a break from all the fly-swatting. (We felt like we had just been through batting practice during spring training with the Chicago Cubs.)

Here's a couple of shots of the kids enjoying themselves at the pool.




Notice that we have the pool to ourselves. I guess all the other guests were worn out from killing flies too, or they had asked for the escape route.

After all the time spent playing outside, we were exhausted. So we went back to our shoebox room to try to get some sleep. Luckily, it was later in the evening, so all the flies had either left or been killed successfully swatted earlier in the day.

There was only one bed for Shannon and me, and a fold out bed for the boys. In a normal size shoebox room this would have been fine. Unfortunately for us, when we opened up the kid's bed, there was no floor space left to walk on. After we got the boys tucked in, Shannon remembered something he needed to get out of the car. So, he had to step over the boy's bed and try not to smash their heads as he made his way out the door.

The next morning we were up and out of there before the flies returned at daybreak. We gave our key back to Cousin Eddie and his wife the people (and pig) at the desk and hit the road. We were glad to be headed back to Crazyville.

Six years later, that trip is still one of Daniel's favorite memories.(Like me, he doesn't get out much.) I guess it's not often in a boy's life that he can say he stayed in a shoebox at a hotel with a pig and a fly-swatter.:)