Familyness

Vacation or Hell

"Mom, your kid keeps kicking my seat."  Ari complains.

"Your sister has a name, Arianna." I turn around to find Bri "Sabrina stop kicking Ari's seat.  You're going to hurt your feet." She reluctantly stops, but just as I'm about to turn back around, Lewis calls out for me.

"Momma!  I bowd!"

This time, Brad reacts.

"We'll be there in 5 minutes, buddy.  Play with your toys."

Finally, after what feels like days of being in the car with my annoying ass family, we get to our cabin.  Brad slowly drives up the long, snow covered driveway, carefully avoiding the Christmas like trees all over the yard.

I get out of the car to look around "Wow, it's beautiful here.  Look at all the snow."

"Yeah, sure, it's amazing."  Luke mocks me climbing out of the car "Can we go inside now?  I'm freezing."

"Well maybe if you wore real pants like I told you too..."

"Luke!  Help me carry this."  Brad interrupts me as he unloads the trunk "You guys brought enough for us to move in."

I walk over to the kids, picking up Lewis and holding Bri's hand so they don't run off into the snow and get all wet and messy.  Of course, they don't like this, so I just take them inside.

"Let's go find where our bedroom is!"  I suggest exciting them.  We're keeping both of them in our room because God only knows what they would destroy if they were alone somewhere.  I find the room and open the door, letting them run inside to explore it.

"WOW!  Bri yells running to the bed "It big!"

Brad walks up behind me, standing in the doorway with his arms wrapped around my waist. 

"At least these two like it.  The other two are trying to set up the Xbox already."

"Dammit I told them not to bring that."  I turn towards the living room.  Once I get there, I see them hitting each other with controllers, and turn around to leave the room. 

A few hours later, everyone but me and Brad are sleeping.  We're sitting in the living room, glued to the TV, and watching the weather report in horror. 

"We can not get snowed in here, Brad!"  I complain "This is all because of your dumb idea!  Now we're stuck listening to them complain all week." 

"It's 3 inches of snow, that's nothing here.  They get feet all the time."  His expression changes quickly when he realizes that he heard the reporter wrong.

"Oh shit."

"3 feet, Brad!  Clean out your freaking ears.  We're going to be trapped in here."

"Well, the whole idea of this vacation is family bonding, so this will help."  He gets up, walking around looking at things "We brought some games with, and we can all cook dinner together or something.  Bri and Lewis will love the snow, we'll be fine."

"Yeah,"  I half agree with him, trying to convince myself "Well, be fine." 

"DAD!"  Ari and Luke pound on our door the next morning "This isn't funny!!  You brought us here just to trap us in some dumb cabin!!"

Brad looks over at me, hoping I'll defend him on this one, but quickly realizes he has nobody on his side. 

"We should never listen to you again."  Ari says "Every vacation we go on your do something dumb."

He gets out of bed, opening the door revealing our two very angry children.

"I cannot control mother nature.  I cannot even control your mother.  This is not my fault."

"Sorry guys,"  I add after he walks away "We'll find something to do.  You can play in the snow, or play the board games we brought with.  It'll be fun."

I get up with everyone, making breakfast as I watch the kids entertain themselves.  Bri and Lewis have no problem, but Ari and Luke, who do not have good phone service, look like they might just die of boredom.

"I'm gonna go get the movies and stuff we brought from the car."  Brad announces "Luke, can you help?"

Luke follows Brad over to the door, where they face another problem.  The door handle won't turn at all, and the windows are full of ice.

"How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

"I don't know, dad.  Why don't you think of another genius idea?"  Luke replies smartly "You wanna break down the door?"

"Lucas!  Don't talk to your father like that."  I walk over towards them "I know this isn't the vacation you guys wanted, and maybe it wasn't his best idea, but he thought of it so that we could all be together!  Now go get my hair dryer and bring it out here.  We'll have to thaw out the door."

He walks back out a few minutes later, carrying both my hair dryer and Ariannas.  We point them towards the door, hoping that by some miracle we're able to get out of here.

"Try opening the door now."  Brad tells Luke.  He grabs the handle, and it turns, but the door still refuses to open.  He pulls on it a little, hoping that will help and nothing happens.

"Plan B."  Brad announces "You get the bottom of the door and I get the top.  Luke and Ari, you guys dry up the water around here before it starts to freeze again.

"You know, we could also turn the heat way up."  I suggest "That should help."  He glares over at me, waiting for me to do it myself.  Ari takes the hint and walks over to do it for me.

"This seems to be working."  He says after a while "But my arm is getting tired."

"Yeah, mine too."  I agree.  We put the hair dryers down and decide to chance it again and open the door.  Brad turns the handle, hoping it'll work. 

"What the hell we do now?"  Bri blurts out as the door opens.  I try to yell at her for swearing, but the mountain of snow I'm facing has me speechless. 

We're trapped.