I have never taken a vacation with my whole family.
There is a 20-year age difference between the older three children and our younger sister. Because of the age difference, our parents have never vacationed with all four of their offspring at the same time.
Until last week.
With my brother and dad on motorcycles and my mom, sisters and me in the chase car, we headed south.
We also had a stow-away.
Our 20-month-old nephew, Lil Roy, was with us. Lil Roy is not his real name, but it’s the name we gave him for the trip. We named him in honor of a cousin who brought adventure and excitement to our family vacations 40 years ago.
My siblings and I revert to approximately age 12 when we get together. Being on a family vacation just egged us on.
Which is why, when my brother added the letter “D” to Lil Roy’s name and he became “Lil Roid”, we laughed until we cried. (Nothing is funnier than hemorrhoids when you are 12.) And Lil Roid didn’t care what we called him because he was too busy basking in the attention of six adults who adored him.
We drove 20 miles out of the way to a museum that was closed. We toured a garden that was probably pretty a month ago. We turned too soon and made the motorcycles drive a mile on loose gravel. My sister tossed a pebble at a frog to make it hop and hit it right on the head.
Memories. A perfect family vacation.
At suppertime Mom heated and served several cans of Dinty Moore beef stew, which was a highlight of our camping trips when we were kids.
Just like it did 40 years ago, it tasted like salt and flavorless vegetables. It was perfect.
And, just like we did when we were 11 and 12, my sister and I climbed into our respective twin beds – and started to giggle. Our brother “shhhhhed!” us loudly from the other room.
We laughed harder.
He double “shhhhhhed!” us. We laughed even harder.
I returned home with aching sides from all of the laughing and, finally, the memory of a trip with my whole family. It was a perfect family vacation.