Reality Check

This summer I was DEFINITELY reminded that life is NOT rainbows and roses.
Of course, I already knew this.
I am a mom of 3 young girls.  My life is full of drama and crying and fighting and tears.  And that's all before 10 am!  And I wouldn't change it for the world...

In July, we took a family vacation - driving all the way from Missouri to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  All those LONG hours in the car alone helped us remember that life is not unicorns and fairy tales and everything turning out "happily ever after."  BUT, we did have some sweet memories along the way.  We bought a pop-up camper just days before heading out, and were sooooo glad we did.  EVERY night on our way to the beach, we hit RAIN.  We would have been absolutely miserable in tents.  Not to mention the HEAT.  Let me just say how thankful this pregnant mama was for AIR CONDITIONING.

Go ahead, call me spoiled...

Moving on though to the best "reality check" of all on our trip.
As my husband and I were planning the vacation, we looked up family-friendly things to do in Myrtle Beach, figuring we might want to do something besides play in the ocean and build sandcastles on the beach.  I assure you, however, that our 3 girls would have been perfectly content doing nothing else.

We as adults needed a slight change of activity and decided that a dolphin cruise would be a fun outing.

We called and reserved a spot for a sunset boat tour.
We arrived and WAITED in line and barely got on the boat.
By the time we boarded, there were NO seats left.  So we stood - with all 3 girls (ages 20 months, 3.5 years, and 5.5 years) - and leaned on the railing.  Of course the girls couldn't see anything, so they wanted to be held.  My arms could only stand it for so long.  Praise Jesus, a gentlemen saw our situation and graciously offered his seat for me (6 months pregnant mind you) and 2 of our girls.  My husband had somehow managed to rock the youngest to sleep and was hugging her to his chest.

And so we rode and rode and rode out to the ocean.
No dolphins along the way.
That's okay, I told myself, we'll see them when we get out onto the open waters.
And I was going to be soooo sad becuase my phone had died and I had no way of taking pictures to capture the amazing moment.

Well, the open waters were particularly choppy that evening.
The captain tried to keep going, but we had to turn back.
Without seeing a single dolphin.
Or the sunset really.

We did get rain checks and were invited to return another time to try again.
We took the tickets, not sure if we would actually use them.
We honestly debated selling them on-line...

BUT, we decided to give it ONE more go.
We figured it couldn't hurt and chose a morning tour for our second trip.  We got up, checked out of our hotel, and made our way back to the boat dock, planning to enjoy a lovely boat ride and PRAYING hard we would see some dolphins this time around before we started heading on our way back home.

We arrived earlier this time, knowing we would want a seat on the boat for sure.
We even scouted out the best place - where we could see on both sides and increase our chances of a dolphin sighting.

We truly enjoyed the ride out to the ocean.  The breeze helped cool us off, as our seats were in the direct sunlight.  After what seemed like a LONG time and just as my girls were about to proclaim this another failure, we finally spotted a shrimp boat.  The captain assured us that dolphins typically follow behind the shrimp boats, hunting for food.

Indeed!  I jumped up with joy and shouted, "There's one!" as I saw the fin on a dolphin's back.
We raced to the edge of the boat and looked over the railing. We snapped pictures of the dolphins as they would barely pop up above the water.  I was thrilled, but expected to see MORE of the actual dolphin - not just a back fin.  My oldest daughter announced with awe, "This is so cool!"  And with delight, I agreed and confirmed "it was all worth it now, right?"

WRONG!!!!!

We proceeded to sit and watch the shrimp boat, and dolphin fins.
We bobbed up and down, up and down, up and down.
I get car sick.
I also get boat sick.
And so I started to feel nauseous.  I hurriedly left my husband with all 3 girls and ran to the bathroom, only to find the door closed.  I quickly looked around and found a trash can.  Just in time.  I puked 4 times.  Lovely.  Once my stomach was empty, I sat down on the bench and rested my head on a table.  I knew I needed to go back to my husband and girls, but I was in no shape to move or be of any parenting help.  So I sat.

And we continued to bob.
I prayed we would leave.
I begged God to help the captain realize we had seen enough dolphin fins and were ready to make our way back.  After envisioning something QUITE DIFFERENT in my head, I was more than ready to be DONE with boats and dolphin tours FOREVER.

I finally made my way back out to my family.  I found my 3 year old sprawled out on the deck, sleeping.  God bless her.  My youngest was screaming bloody murder because she wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Daddy and only wanted me, but I wasn't in any position to hold her yet.  So that left me helping my 5 year old, moaning and starting to cry, get over to the side rail.  We didn't make it in time.  She threw up at our feet.   And then again 2 more times at the rail, which I couldn't lift her up high enough to puke in the water instead of at our feet yet again.

When she was emptied out (thank goodness I didn't let her have the snacks she so desperately wanted as we boarded the boat), we sat back down and rested.  When I was strong enough, I traded with my husband and relieved him of the raging mad "baby."  He took our oldest and laid down with her, next to our 3 year old, on a bench seat.  Within minutes, our youngest was snoozing contentendly on my chest.  All was well again.

AND we started to turn back towards the river that had lead us to the ocean.
We were going to shore!
I couldn't have been happier, and more relieved.

When we landed and got off the boat, my oldest informed me she NEVER wanted to do that again.  I promised her we wouldn't.

As we made our way to Chick-fil-A for lunch (a real treat since we had planned on eating whatever was packed in our cooler), I thanked God we had survived that nightmare.  I reflected once more on how life isn't rainbows and roses.  I had a good dose of a reality that morning...

Playing at Chick-fil-A and forgetting the terrors of the dolphin tour

Even though the dolphin tour itself was NOT all I dreamed or imagined, the experience is one for the books.  We certainly have some memories.

And after our girls got sick driving through the windy, curvy, hilly mountain roads the NEXT day, as we cleaned up puke one more time, I told my husband, without question, we are going someplace FLAT and DRY for our family vacation next year!

After all, my girls had just as much fun exploring in the woods as they did playing on the beach.