April 24
Three hours later we finally made it out of New York City!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, on top of the grandmothers gabbing away, the non-stop "Where Mickey" mantra, we also had the Jess chant,
"We there yet, we there yet?" going full tilt.
Add to the mix,
"Mom, I got to pee!" by the Derek and Eric duo.
The ever popular,
"Daddy, he's touching me," coming from Cristina. Add a generous helping of Alex telling Chris to stop sweating on him.
Topped off by a helping of everyone yelling at Alex to put his shoes back on because his feet stunk; and pleading for Jose to stop farting!
To say that I was having a little doubt about the success of us, as a blended family, was putting it mildly.
I would need to write a book by itself to recount everything that happened to our family on that ride to Florida, so I will just leave it at this;
Thirty-four hours after we left Malden, Mass. we arrived in front of the house we had rented for the week.
The kids were excited about jumping into the swimming pool we had requested. They had been talking about it for weeks and the whole way down here!
As soon as we pulled up, all the kids bailed out, towels in tow, towards the back yard, only to find ...a backyard! Empty, no pool!
The guy in charge of the house rental just happened to be there and this is when I lost it!
I told him in no uncertain terms that he had exactly 10 minutes to find me house with a pool or he wasn't going to have to worry about me getting to him; because I was going to unleash the demon hounds, ah, disappointed kids on him!
Ten minutes later, we had a different house and the kids were in the pool!
Ah, nothing like the power of persuasion!
A lot of other wild, amazing things happened on that vacation, but the most amazing?
That after a day together in Florida the kids were hanging out, acting like brothers and sisters!
Mel and I were ready to kill each other, but the kids were getting along just fine!
The sound of Eric saying,
"Why you staring at me, it was Alex who farted; brought me back from my thoughts as he looked back at me from the couch.
"Oh it's nothing, just zoning out!" I laughed.
I took one last look at my crazy brood and got a little misty eyed.
Everyone had told us that this would never work. Our marriage, our family wouldn't work. His kids would hate me, my kids would hate him! We would just wind up divorced because of the added pressures.
But you know what?
It didn't happen! Through all the ups and downs, the hard times, the good times, none of it mattered.
Because the best thing that did come out of it all, was how incredibly close our kids were!
The older ones protected the little ones and the younger ones looked up to the older ones!
That trip, as crazy as we were for taking it, was so worth it!
Everyone asks me years later how we ever did it. I tell them it was a little bit of luck and a huge testament to how good and loving our kids were.
But, honestly, I know that deep down inside it was actually Stockholm syndrome that set in, from the thirty four hours the kids were held hostage by us and the grandmothers!
Cops are so sneaky!
