I just had the worst vacation that a person could ever experience! Since my daughters were born I felt that I haven’t been able to give my son all the attention that he deserves. So, my wife and I decided to surprise him with a trip to Disneyland. We planned this a full year in advance so that everything would be ready to go, we even were able to keep it a complete secret from him until we arrived at the park.

 

You know you can plan all you want but when you put those plans are the hands of an 8-year-old it won’t ever go as planned. We brought my son to the front of the park so he could see the Disneyland Marquee and to let him put two and two together for himself, he didn’t, so we decided to come out and tell him. “Xander! We are taking you to Disneyland!” He didn’t care, the most we got out of him was an “oh”.

 

Well for the past year I have been walking around the house with a tape measure checking my son’s height until that wonderful moment when he can ride every ride. He can now, but refused to go on any rides. On rare occasions, after very loud fights in the Happiest Place on Earth, we could talk him into going on some rides. My favorite was Splash Mountain where, while mid-ride, he decided to try to leave the vehicle. The photo that was taken is a photo of my wife holding her arms around him so he didn’t fall out of the cart we were in. We paid extra to go Trick-or-Treating in the park but he refused to wear his Halloween costume and refused to trick-or-treat. So we left that night early. If you don’t trick-or-treat or go on rides then there wasn’t anything else to do in the park. My wife was in tears with how much of our expectations were crushed.

 

On the drive home from our trip, within the first hour, my cigarette lighter fuse went out. Now I don’t smoke so that shouldn’t be an issue right? Wrong. That was how we were charging all of our devises so my son was loudly bored the whole trip home. On top of that my son got car sick and threw up all over the back of my car, and my check engine light turned on. The day after we got home I had to pay $600 to fix my car from the long drive to and from California.

 

In my opinion it was the worst vacation ever, but when I asked my son how he felt about the trip he said that he loved it and that his favorite part of the trip was when we played Black Sheep. I had no clue what he was talking about until I realized that Black Sheep was the name of a board game that we had played the night that we had arrived at my brother-in-laws house. After all of that time and money we had spent to give him a great childhood experience, he was happier about a $30 game and playing it with family. That is something that we all should remember. It is not the big expensive flashy trips that children love. It is merely the time that we spend with them, that is what matters the world to them. My son taught me something that I should have known from the start and I will always remember our vacation that way.