STS Template Challenge

This month at Stuff to Scrap Nibbles Skribbles has an awesome template challenge.  It’s all about journaling this month.  Now, that’s something that I really haven’t done a lot with on my layouts.  But while I was getting Monday’s post ready I was inspired to actually do a layout for this challenge.  Once I got started I realized I had a lot to say!  LOL.  I told you that if I got the layout done before we went on vacation I would post it.  I figure most of you won’t be able to read the story in the journaling so I’ll post it below the layout.  Last year’s vacation was a true testament to Murphy’s Law.  I’m praying this year’s vacation will be much less eventful. 

Journaling reads:

We had looked forward to this vacation all summer. The reservations had been made since March. We were finally going to get away as a family and relax! It took all day to drive from Texas to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We had traveled in two vehicles because one wasn’t big enough to hold all 6 of us and everything we had to take for a week away. Come on, Rachel’s stuff alone filled most of the back of the minivan.

When we arrived at the resort we were all tired and hungry. Soon we discovered that we had a problem . . . a BIG problem. Daddy had accidently put August on our request instead of July! We didn’t check the confirmation very carefully now did we? Thank goodness RCI stepped in to help us find another place. But, there was another problem. This was Friday and the room wouldn’t be ready until Sunday. There was a huge convention in town for the weekend so all the hotels were full too.

We finally found a motel to stay at for a couple of nights but now we were all dead tired.

We ate and got settled in for the night. We all went swimming the next day and were making the best of things. Family came to visit. Can we say CROWDED into one tiny little room? We went to a science museum which the kids enjoyed, then we swam some more. Great! Making the best of things right?

That night Nana woke us up around 3:00 a.m. because there was water pouring through the ceiling! WHAT!? Management moved us but it was a mess. Apparently the room above destroyed the shower and took off as water went everywhere. NICE.

We felt very lucky to get to check out the next morning and move to the resort.

Nope, that didn’t go smoothly either. They double booked our condo. But when they heard the story behind this trip so far they put us up in the “emergency condo.” It was nice! We had room to spread out, a kitchen to cook in, nice showers, a beautiful view of the lake. Awesome! We relaxed and finally felt like we were on vacation. However...

One day later in the week we went to Magic Springs. We were having lots of fun when I decided to let Daddy go ride some “big rides” while we played in the water park area. After about an hour I got a little worried that he wasn’t back yet. So we started back to look for Daddy. Two not so happy to have to leave the water kids and a worried Mommy. When we found Daddy I knew something was not right. Just one look at his face told me that. He had lost all the keys (as in vehicle, house, etc) and his cell phone. He went back to the ride but they weren’t there. He filled out a form so if they were located and turned in we would be contacted.

By this time we were all pretty tired and Daddy was stressed out. We had no way to get back to the condo because I hadn’t brought my set of keys. Thank goodness I had brought my cell phone! We called Nana to bring my set of keys. Daddy’s keys and cell phone were never returned but we figured the cell phone was shattered into tiny little fragments after falling from the top of the roller coaster. It was time for Daddy to get a new phone anyway. The keys were another story. We only had one copy of the car key - MINE. I worried for the rest of the trip about having the key in our hands every time we locked the car door. Despite all this we had a great vacation.

We made it back home without any other problems. The keys were replaceable (though the car key was expensive), the cell phone was replaced, and we learned a lot of valuable travel lessons. NEVER let Daddy keep his cell phone and keys while on roller coasters and double check our reservations!

I wonder what this year’s vacation will hold?