Hello all. Hope everyone is doing well and being the best version of you that you can be on any given day. So as the title says “What a vacation!” So those of you that don’t know I am from Southwestern Ontario Canada about an hour from the Windsor/Detroit boarder. Last year about this time my wife and I decided that we were going to take our 3 kids up north a little ways to the cottages that the wife’s family have been going to for at least the past 20 years or so now. So it has kind of become a tradition for all the kids on my wife’s side of the family. My wife’s mom and stepdad have been taking all the grandchildren in shifts up there for a week. Now there are 11 grandchildren on that side of the family so the split it into two weeks. However as the kids have gotten older it and as they have gotten older it has gotten harder and harder for them to keep the tradition up. So as a family last year all of the adults sat down and had a discussion about how to keep this tradition alive for the kids and decided that this year all the adults that could afford to bring their own kids up and stay for a week would do that and the grandparents would pick up the slack and bring what was left. So that is exactly what happened. It was a complete great idea at the time of course so we all booked our cottages and put our down payments down on cottages. Ended up being three our of the 5 kids got cottages plus the wife’s parents. Left a total of 5 kids that the grandparents had to figure out. So it was set and was figured out from there. So as the day slowly got closer everything started going wrong with us. Money got really tight with about a month to go before we were to go on vacation. Along with me having a pretty serious relapse that gave me some pretty crappy mobility issues and walking was pretty well impossible for the terrain that we were heading into. As the days drew closer I was slowly getting more worried about everything. Then with about a week to go before we were to leave (on Aug 3rd) out dog sitter backed out on us. We had no idea what we were going to do. We tried finding a replacement sitter and couldn’t. Didn’t want to put her in a kennel as she has never been caged up in her life and couldn’t do that to her. So in the end we brought her with us. Which in turn costed us more money. So from there the day arrived and it was time to leave. Car was packed kids are in the car dog is in the car. I look at my wife and said to her “I’m not ready for this at all!” Now I was not in a very good place mentally at all. I was scared and worried and about a million what if’s were running through my head. But I will never forget what she said to me. In the calmest voice she said “We love you. You got this. We are here for you.” So as I stood there one hand on the door handle of the car I took a deep breath and got in. We were off on this great family adventure. Now a 6 hour drive with 3 kids is bad enough but a 6 hour drive with 3 kids and a dog sucks. Not that it was a bad drive. Just an annoying one is all. But we got there. Now with that said we got about 3/4 of the way there and I am running through my list of everything we had to bring and checking the list off in my head mentally as I always do so I know what I have to get at the store still when I go shopping for groceries and what not. I get to the medication list and panic sets in. I forgot to pack my Copaxon. No idea how but I did. So I tell my wife and she was like well we aren’t turning around cause we are too far. I agreed with her. She says if you are that worried about it to call the Doctor on Tuesday (our Monday was a holiday here). I said to her ok true. So Tuesday came and went and I forgot to call. Actually the whole week came and went and I forgot to call. Oh well. However I am home and taking it again now. So we get there. I look around and it is rock everywhere. But beautiful. It was like I don’t even know how to explain it. It took my breath away. But then realization set in. How in gods name am I suppose to get around here. It is going to take me forever to take a 2 minute walk to the beach. Yeah I could take the long way around and get there. But I can throw a stone from my porch to the beach. However me being a super stubborn SOB was like I can do this. I can go the short way. That don’t look to hard. You know what I mean. The mental pump yourself up conversation you have with yourself when you are about to do something really stupid and there is about a zero chance of coming out unhurt on the other side of the decision. So I tell my wife I have to do this at least once so that I can say I was able to do it and check it off my list. She agreed but not before I promised to wait till after she has a chance to scout out an easier path for me. So a little disappointed I agreed with her. In the end if it wasn’t for my wife and sister in law helping me get down and being there just in case I don’t think I could have done it on my own. So they deserve a big compliment of thanks. Because of them I got down unhurt and got to do something I might never get the chance to do again. From that point on I took the car down to the beach. However before all that we had to go into town to get groceries and drinks and what not. We had brought enough for dinner and snacks and breakfast the next morning but that was about all. So we head into town the wife and I. We got maybe 5 minutes up the road what do we see as we are rounding the bend but a bear walking across the road and off into the bush on the other side. I look at my wife and she looked at me. I said to her that in itself made the whole trip worth while. From that point on our vacation was amazing. Got to spend time with my oldest boy out on a kayak trip we took together. Was well needed time before he heads off to college in Sept. Got to spend some time with the middle boy and my daughter watching a couple movies and tv shows and hanging out on the beach. Got some needed alone time with my wife just sitting out on the couch just being together. Got some time with other family. Also got some aline time. All in all was one of my best vacations ever and so very happy everything went well. We were on our way home just yesterday and there were many times my wife and I looked at each other and said “Can we just go back?” But we didn’t go. But already have the week booked for next year. I hope however reads this all the way finds something in my story about my vacation at a point were I really wasn’t looking forward to turned out to be exactly what I needed when I needed it most. I hope that you can pull something from it and maybe that little extra push to say to yourself “I can do this!” Have a great day and always remember this saying beautiful it is so true. Happens can always be found. If one only remembers to tun on the light. Have an amazing day everyone.