Special Delivery

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,

crystal-1b3-copy-flatfullwidth


Comments

Special Delivery — 10 Comments

  1. My sister in law lives out of town, but the rest all live in Missouri. Her name is Kelly too, and she usually makes it here at least once a year. We went to see her this summer too. Sometimes we will go see her when we are on our way to another state. Spending time with them is always so much fun, she has two great kids.

    I love the Moose, how cute. Sometimes its fun to get attention when you don’t really expect it. I have a question, did it cost you more to mail him home than the moose was worth?! I’m mean he looks huge.

  2. Yes Kelly!

    It probably did cost more than he was worth. We sent him parcel post, so that helped a bit, though it still seemed expensive. But there was no way we could leave him – we all got pretty attached to him by the end of that first day. We laughed every time we looked at him. It was such an amazing thing because both Sir Beads and I remembered being starry-eyed kids, just wishing to win the big prize at a fair or a carnival, and of course it never happened. It was so ironic to finally have it happen when we really weren’t hoping for it. 🙂

  3. No body lives far a way to visit. Terry probably wouldn’t go anyway. I probably wouldn’t either. We are such homebodies. And, when you have a week off work, you need to kick back. You especially don’t want to spend a week in the car with Terry’s road rage ~lol~ You don’t want to drive with him in the car either.

    That was the only bad thing you will ever hear me say about Terry~ He swears when he drives….a lot!

    I have two big stuffed animals I can’t part with. One is a bear that I dress in baby clothes size 18 month. The other is a tiger. And I have a smaller leopard that Corey gave me when he was little. Guess I’m a big kid. I love moose and would probably keep the big one you won forever.
    xx, Carol

  4. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I enjoyed reading it.

    I would have loved to see you pushing a moose around the amusement park sans kids. What a riot!!

    Whatever happened to your moose?

  5. I loved that story, Crystal! The moose is cute, but that little baby girl is just precious! Go Sir Beads, for having such great aim! … How funny that the moose got to ride in the stroller, and then had to be shipped home! 😀

    When Jamie was about 10, he also got really lucky at a carnival game, and he won a huge red dog (think Clifford)…probably the same size as your moose. You should have seen the look on the faces of the two brawny guys next to us, who were also trying to win a prize. Hysterical!

    Have a great weekend, Sweetie!

    xoxo Paulette 😉

  6. I can really relate to this since my family lived in Indiana and hubby’s family lived in TN for part of the time and Ohio the rest of the time.
    One time we went to King’s Island and as soon as we got there my son, then 5 or 6, begged to go to the top of the Effle Tower. We said when it was getting dark so we could see the lights. Constantly he was begging us to go to the top. Finally we went to the top. Well, the poor kid was so scared when he got to the top. He wouldn’t go to the edge, he clung to the side as if his life depended on it. We still tease him about it!

  7. Haha that is a cute story! And love the picture of the Moose and your daughter! Is the moose still a part of your family??

  8. Not anymore, amandasue.
    Can you believe it was 1980 when we got him? Eventually he started to fall apart. Those carnival prize stuffed toys were not made as well as a toy you’d buy in a store.
    Luckily, we have the picture to remind us of the fun we had! 🙂

  9. Haha! I can just imagine the looks you got with that moose! For years my mom had a GIANT stuffed tiger in the guest bedroom closet that we kids liked to pull out and climb all over. I think my dad won it for her at some point. It was a very sad day for all of us kids when my mom decided it was time to get rid of that tiger, but we were moving and she didn’t want to lug it along with us…

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