I once had a dentist who said:

“If you marry someone whose family lives in another state, you’ll spend all of your vacation money and all of your vacation time going to visit them.”

I did and we did!

For most of our married years we made the trek from New England to Ohio during the summer. Every July, we’d set out on the 750-mile drive, first as a young couple, then as parents with an infant, then with two preschoolers, next with teenagers, and finally with young adults who could actually help with the driving!

These car trips were sometimes a little nerve-wracking but the fun and laughs far outweighed the hassles. The vacations themselves have left us with dozens of happy memories and lots of amusing stories. Can I share one of those with you? 😉

We always stayed with hubby’s parents but his brothers and their families lived nearby and we saw them, too. One year, hubby’s brother suggested we all go to Cincinnati to visit a large amusement park called King’s Island. At the time, my kids were 5 yrs. and 1-1/2 yrs. The younger one was too small to walk the grounds the whole afternoon so she was in a stroller. The parking lot was huge and almost totally full the day we were there, so we had quite a long walk from our car to the gate.

After we finally entered the park, there was large area with carnival games off to the left of us. You know the type – knock over the milk bottles and win a prize. A jovial guy in one of the game galleries was calling and gesturing to Sir Beads to try his luck. On a lark, he agreed and knocked everything over in his first try. We were all smiling… but then our mouths dropped open as the game guy handed hubby his prize.

It was a GIANT stuffed moose! The kids were so delighted. The parents (us!) were in shock. We slowly realized that because our car was so far away – we were going to have to lug that fella around with us for the rest of the day! We tried to carry him. We took turns. We tried to balance him on the stroller but his weight made it hard to push the carriage.

Eventually, we carried our daughter and let the moose ride in the stroller. It seemed easier. You should have seen the looks we got as we pushed a stroller with a moose in it throughout the park. Hilarious!

The final giggle came when the vacation was all over. We were packing to return to the east coast and realized that we couldn’t fit Mr. Moose into our compact car along with the 4 of us, our suitcases and all the baby paraphernalia we had brought along for a 10-day stay with hubby’s folks.

What did we do? Luckily, hubby’s Mom had recently bought a new refrigerator and we used that box, with only minor adjustments, to mail him home!

Hugs,