ARRGGH!!

I hate sudden suprises, unknown fees, and hidden arrangements. It makes me crazy. Especially when I find out about these things a week or so before I am about to take a trip.

Situation #1 - We owe more money to our resort because Dylan will be 5 when we travel. Children under 5 are free and he was under 5 when the reservations were made. But when the person who made the reservations for us was giving ages she gave them at time of reservation, not time of trip. I tried to tell her, but she just waved me off. Now, if this wasn't an international trip maybe we could get away with not paying. But, he has a freakin' passport with his date of birth listed right on it. No way can we get around paying this extra couple hundred dollars. Now, I know part of this is my fault for trusting someone else to make reservations for me, but geeze, at least attempt to give the company accurate information. By the way, I did call the company and clarify. We definitely owe the money and the policy has not changed recently to exclude 5 year olds. It was clearly a problem that created by the person who made the reservation.

Situation #2 - We did not purchase a ticket for Brady on the airplane. He is under two and can fly for free in our laps, right? That is what everyone told us. Nope, wrong. That only applies to flights within the USA. International flights require a ticket for children of any age no matter where they will be sitting. Now, the ticket in a small percentage of the adult fee, but still. I find this out one week before we leave. I mean, when I made the reservations online, I put in that there would be 4 people, 2 adults, 2 children and the ages of the children. Wouldn't you think this would have come up at some point during that transaction? Nope.

This is almost more stress than I think this trip is going to be worth. Plus all the packing and planning for what about this and how am I going to keep Brady and Dylan happy on the plane ride. WHAT WERE WE THINKING??? This had better be fun or I don't know what the heck I am going to do.

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

Okay, so I said I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to decorate for Christmas because we weren't going to be home. But Jason convinced me to decorate the outside and the downstairs so that the kids have a feeling of Christmas. We did decide not to put up a tree this year, but at least the house looks a little festive.

Dylan helped me outside and inside. He was a good helper and had a good time. I guess just letting him enjoy putting up the decorations made it all worth it.

Brady is already trying to tear stuff down, so that will be my challenge for the next few weeks.

I have a little work to do before we leave for Christmas, but the major thing I have to do is to dig out all of our summer stuff again. Christmas at the beach should be interesting to say the least.