Vacation!!!! by: Wally Ben

Well, since my mom has been doing such a terrible job keeping up with the blob, I thought it was time I stepped in. Especially because we just did vacation last week, and I just have to talk about it.

See, my mom and dad talked about vacation and I got very worried. I didn’t know what vacation was, and every time they talked about it they said, “Pray for us, we’re going on vacation to the Outerbanks and we have to drive 18 hours to get there.” I thought vacation was scary and that I just couldn’t wait till that terrible vacation time would be over and done with.

See, mom and dad, they know I don’t like the car. Whenever we drive, mom rides in the back and makes it better though, with funny face shows and toy games and bottles of water and funny noises and peek a boo. But I do fine, as long as she keeps going and going with the show. So I thought, what’s the big deal? Just do an 18 hour show, and we’ll be fine.

We started the drive with a 3-hour show, and mom got very tired. We stopped at good ole Smittys for dinner, at least that’s what the Joes and Liz’s called it. The sign just said Smith’s Diner and no one in the restaurant wore sleeves! After my family passed me around the table from person to person, I told them I was ready to get back in the car and get this over with.

When I woke up after an hour of sleep and cried from 9-10 (I just wanted to stand and get out of the straps already!), my mom and dad thought they might be “in for it,” whatever that means. They circled the lot at an unscheduled coffee stop—Mama D—to see if I might stop crying, but no fuzzy dice. Once we got back on the road, though, I decided to give up, since crying is just not all it’s cracked up to be. I slept a restless sleep until 6AM, and my mom and dad were happy. I like starting vacation with happy parents. (Oh, and I did even better on the ride home, since I was used to it, so I just slept from 7:30-6.)

Which reminds me, I meant to tell you, vacation is not something bad! It is so much fun! We got to walk on the beach early in the morning, try mango and peach for the first time, and hang out with Aunties Lizes and Uncles Joes and Gramps and Mama D, and some fun people called the Gills.

My favorite was the beach. We played on a blanket under an umbrella until I just couldn’t stand it any more and had to crawl over to the sand. (Oh yeah, I really crawl now, no more army drag, and I sit up, and on vacation I pulled myself up to stand. I’ve only been doing that for a week now, but I do it like I’ve been pulling myself up forever. No big deal. But if you see me do any of those things, you could say, “What a big boy,” and then I might smile for you.) Then I liked to play in the sand. I grabbed it, and held it, and dropped it, and mom and dad even dug a hole and buried me to my waist, and I tasted it. Usually when I tasted it, mom and dad would take me to the ocean to swim.

The ocean is like the pool, except louder and whooshier and if you sat in the wet sand it said, I’m gonna get you!, and it came up and got you and splashed your feet and your legs and diaper and sometimes only a little and sometimes a lot until it almost knocked you over up to your belly, but then your mom and dad get you so you don’t fall, so it’s not really scary but fun.

Vacation was so much fun that the last two days I decided to wake up at 5AM to get the most day possible. Mom and Dad just took me on our beach walk very early those days, and the first time they walked out of the house and realized we were locked out! But mom said it was her favorite of all the mornings even so, because we went to the beach and there were lots of other people who had the same idea as me! And we thought we missed the sunrise because it was so light out and it looked like it might be behind some clouds. Just when my mom was saying, “Look, all these losers got up so early on purpose only to miss it,” we saw an orange glow just above the water. And then the glow turned into a big bright orange ball in only a minute, and it was so pretty that I even pointed, which I’ve never done before. And I think if you’re going to point at something for the first time ever, then it should be one of the most incredible things your mom has ever seen, and it should be during an unexpected adventure. Then it was funny to eat by the pool under a towel, and see my dad throw rocks at the upstairs living room windows at 7AM so we could get the attention of anyone who might be up. So it was really a fun morning that my mom and dad said they will remember forever.

I think I might not remember this vacation much longer, but I have a lot of pictures and so if I ask my mom and dad they might tell me about it. We’re supposed to go to Gulf Shores with my other side of the family in September, and my mom said that might be even more fun because we can do some of the same things, and be cleaning pelicans.