Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

The Kids on the Luggage Cart

This past weekend we took our first “real” family vacation together.  We went to Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington, NC and stayed at the Marriott in continuation of Fefe’s birthday celebration.  Don’t get me wrong, we’ve gone on family vacations before but it’s always been to visit friends or family.  This is the first time we’ve gone to a destination specifically for the purpose of visiting an event or attraction at that location.  With that being said, this trip was absolutely wonderful, we enjoyed many different activities and in general had a great time.  I’m not going to go into detail regarding all aspects of the trip in this post, maybe at a later date.  Rather, I’ll share with you the experiences during our time spent in the hotel.

If you’ve ever stayed in a hotel as a kid, then you already know of the fun to be had.  If not, then I would suggest you finish reading this post, go book a room at your local hotel, and follow the information below as an apology to your inner child.  Somehow it is engrained in children’s minds that when you’re at a hotel you get to do certain things that you’re not allowed to do at home.  My theory on how they know this: at birth when the baby is taken away for screenings and such, they are actually injecting a kid version bucket list – “Things To Do Before You Grow Up”.  Now that Dr. Keith has offered his expert opinion, we’ll get back to the story.

Nighty Nite

There are certain Rules of Engagement that are outlined in the Hotel Geneva Convention that should be followed once the battle for fun begins.  First up is staying up late, during our stay Ty was a valiant warrior.  He outlasted Tre every night, but still fell victim to the sleepies before midnight each day, he tried but score 1 for the hotel.  The next rule: Bed Jumping, whenever there are two beds in the hotel room you are obligated to jump back and forth between them (see video below).  The hotel put up a good fight, even going as far as bouncing Ty into the wall after one of his super jumps.  But in the end, the kids were victorious, as a little bump on the head wasn’t enough to slow Ty down, score 1 for the kids.  A personal favorite of mines is riding the luggage cart.  This event didn’t go over too well as Tre wouldn’t stay on the cart long enough to get it moving.  You could see Ty’s growing frustration with his teammates lackluster performance, score 1 for the hotel.  Lastly, is the coveted pillow fight, in which the only way to win is to cause feathers to fly.  Although a 15 min pillow fight ensued, no feathers were observed, score 1 for the hotel. 

Sensing that his team was loosing the battle, Tre decided it was about time to break the Rules of Engagement and fight dirty.  While I was sleeping, someone who shall remain nameless gave Tre Cheetos.  Tre took those Cheeto commercials to a whole new level.  When I woke up, the white bed sheets and pillow cases were covered in orange.  I mean it was everywhere, had it been red you would have thought someone had been murdered in that bed.  Score 1 for the kids.  After his Cheeto fiasco, he decided to take it one step further and unleash one of the stinkiest diapers known to man.  This dirty diaper was so ferocious and humongous that it seeped out of his diaper and got smeared all over the chair that he was sitting in.  I tried to get it all up, but decided just flipping the seat cushion over was a better idea; again score 1 for the kids.  When we went to the pool, Tre decided to bring an apple empanada along with him.  He must have been hiding it in his diaper or something, like the babies on that show Rugrats.  Anyways, so we’re at the pool and the next thing you know Tre has a mouth full of empanada and the pool is full of floating pieces of apple and pie crust.  Fefe attempted to retrieve the pieces of food to no avail; hopefully none of the other guests swallowed any pool water tainted with Tre’s undigested snack.  Score 1 for the kids.

When it was all said and done, that hotel room & surrounding areas took a beating.  The kids enjoyed themselves and Ty even went as far to suggest that we stay in a hotel every weekend when we’re bored.  This trip brought back many memories of my own childhood and I’m glad we were able to take it.  One word of advice: if you plan on visiting Wrightsville beach in Wilmington and stay at the Marriott, avoid room 204 at all costs.