Memories...

Nothing too exciting happened in my life today! Since I don't have anything new to blog about I thought that I would go through some of my old pictures & write something about the one or two of them that I think the twins might have a good time looking at later on in life. After all, I did start this blog as a sort of scrapbook for them!

Ben's Big Boo-boo

While I was growing up so much time was spent traveling to skating competitions that we didn't really have the chance to take many "family vacations." As soon as I quit skating my sister and I jumped on every opportunity that we had to get our parents to take us on a trip. Our 1st family vacation was to Belize; I will talk about that one in a later post! Our most recent family vacation was to the Dominican Republic over Christmas 2011.

Every time we take a family trip, my mother and sister get all stressed out and want everything to be perfect, because "It is going to be our last trip as a family." They said this in Belize, last summer in Orlando, last year in Turks & Caicos, the year before in Jamaica, and of course they repeated it daily on our adventure to the Dominican.... Needless to say, we have yet to see our last family vacation, but that doesn't keep them from obsessing over the fact that it just might be our last trip together every time we book a flight! I have come up with a little theory about stressing & obsessing over things that "might be." I have noticed that the more energy that you put into trying to make something perfect, the less energy you actually have to enjoy the event that is suppose to be so amazing! Seriously, think about it: take a wedding for example - most people want their wedding day to be amazing & put an incredible amount of time, energy, and money into trying to make it just right. By the time they get to that day, they hardly enjoy any of it, because they are so busy focusing on every little detail that didn't go exactly as planned (the flowers aren't exactly right, someone didn't show up, someone didn't RSVP and did show up, it rained, it snowed.....). This is EXACTLY what happens when my family goes on a trip together.

So, we all head to the airport for an international flight with two 2 year olds, two girls under 10, a very fragile 80+ year old man, my mother, my sister, Brian, myself & way too much luggage!  1st problem: 2 of our bags weigh too much! So, instead of paying the extra fees, since they are ridiculous,  we open up all 14 pieces of luggage & start shifting weight around. 45 minutes later, we can finally go to the gate. We are all carrying extra carry-on pieces now to make up for the pounds that we had to remove from our checked luggage. As if carrying enough diapers & wipes to make it through flight wasn't enough....

The rest of the trip doesn't get much better from there. Ben screamed for over an hour during the last part of the flight. A very rude lady behind us kept complaining very loudly, which made me want to cry & neither one of the twins so much as shut their eyes once for the entire 9 hours of travel time. By the time we landed, I was praying to be arrested at customs & sent back to the US or held as a prisoner  alone for the next 10 days! That didn't happen; what did happen was:

1. They messed up our rooms & Mom spent the first 24 hours of the trip crying while my sister argued with the management to give us at least 1 of the 3 rooms that we were promised. My sister won that battle (as she usually does) & my parents got a poolside suite for the remainder of the trip. Unfortunately, it was a long walk from the other 2 rooms, which meant that our "last family vacation" was ruined because we were not right next to each other as planned.

2. The pool was freezing, the staff at the hotel was rude, and there wasn't much for kids to do at the resort. Again, not what was planned.

3. A few days into our trip my dad got sick and had to stay in the room for the remainder of the "last vacation."

4. Benjamin slipped in the pool & split his chin open. This was the highlight of the trip! There was a doctor on staff at the resort, so I put a towel over his bleeding wound and headed for the medical suite. I was shocked to find out that the doctor who staffed the place had just graduated from medical school 6 months prior to our encounter. He was working there because he was unable to get a spot in a residency program. (that did give me an idea of something to do if I don't match next week, but that's a whole other story). I asked if he had anything to clean the wound with, he said "no", any suture - "no." When I asked if he had any super glue, he freaked out and had a car take us to the hospital. At the hospital, there was only 1 person who spoke English and that isn't the person we got to stitch Benjamin up. We got a dermatologist who couldn't understand one word that we said. They didn't have Dermabond or Mastasol, they didn't even consider using dissolving suture (in the US we would usually use that on the face of a child) & they didn't have any topical lidocaine cream. It took 3 people to hold Ben down just to get the injections. After an hour of holding down a screaming baby, we left with 4 stitches costing us over $600....
The funny thing about this little boo-boo is that when we got home, Ben laid perfectly still & didn't shed a tear while I cut the stitches out in our living room. Another little funny is that every time Ben so much as stubs his toe he starts to wail "I wanna go to the hospital, I need to go to the doctor." Seriously, I hear that at least 4 times a day! I would rather repeat the 1st 2 years of medical school than take that kid to the hospital again!

In my opinion, the trip was a blast. Even if it was our "last family trip," I came home with some amazing memories & pictures. My mother & sister hated every minute of it & never want to go on a family vacation together again! Some of the cool parts of this disastrous vacation were:

1. Santa came to see the kids on Christmas

2. Ben & Molly actually remember this trip & talk about it all of the time. They tell me every week that they want to go on an airplane to the beach:

3. The twins actually started to understand who their "family" was on this vacation. They constantly ask where their cousins, and Aunt Christa & Uncle Robert are. I think family is really important & I am glad that they had this "one last family trip" to spend some time with their family!

4. I learned a little something about medicine on our adventure....be grateful for all of the advantages that we have in the US, as far as medical care is concerned & if I don't get into residency - I can apply to work at a resort in the Caribbean!


That's enough for tonight. I have to be up early tomorrow for my cardiology rotation. More later....

Web-links mentioned in this post:

1.  The resort that we stayed in on our last family vacation.