Hello Fall

Our weekend away was a success! We had spectacular weather and really enjoyed time together as a family.
It amazes me, though, at how The Kid needs to be stimulated at all times of the day. Naturally, the car ride was torture for him. Granted, our car is a small-ish vehicle. Pretty soon, it will be unbearable to take family trips in it. But, he forgot his PSP and his iPod died halfway through. Then, just outside of the city, the car broke down. It was an easy enough fix once we got to an auto parts store, but it set our travel time back by about an hour and a half. I wish I sound sound bytes of the sighs and grunts coming from the back seat. We are such mean parents, forcing him to sit in a car for 3 hours!
As soon as we got up north, I was barraged with questions of, "What are we going to do now?" Before we were even finished with one activity, he was asking that same question again. Do kids nowadays not know how to enjoy down time? Needless to say, The Husband and I didn't relax much. What ever happened to sitting by the pool?! Seriously, he didn't want to hang out by the pool! He would go, jump in, swim around for 5 minutes then say, "Okay lets go, what are we going to do now?"
As soon as we got back to our hotel room, the TV went on and stayed on pretty much all night because he can't sleep without it (I would think the TV would keep him up with all the flashing? And he sleeps fine at our house, and we don't have TV).
Don't get me wrong, we had a great time. I haven't seen The Kid smile that much in a looooog time. But are your kids like this? Do they constantly need to be stimulated by something? I can't stand it!
Overall, we only had three teenage meltdowns. One one the way there (see above), one one the way home (the car was too hot, too uncomfortable, too long of a ride etc.) and one at dinner one night. We went to my favorite restaurant in the area, lucked out with no wait, ordered drinks and then The Kid said, "I'm homesick." It was the first night we were there. We had been in the state all of 6 hours. The Husband and I just stared at him. Then The Husband, who tends to be a little hard on The Kid (who is very spoiled on his mother's side) launched into a "do you know how much money we are spending on you this weekend? we just got here! that is ungrateful!" tirade until The Kid's eyes filled with tears. Moments later, they stepped outside where The Kid admitted that particular restaurant reminded him of a place his grandfather used to take him back home. He hasn't seen or talked to his grandfather in two years as his grandparents are going through an extremely messy divorce. He misses him, but is angry and so won't admit that he misses him. What I don't understand about the situation is that we take him to the actual restaurant Grandpa used to take him once a month, and have been for years. He's never said a word or been bothered by going there. Then we go to a completely different restaurant in a completely different state and he freaks out? Oh the hormones. That night, we ended up leaving the restaurant, getting take out and heading back to the hotel. We ate on the floor while watching the History Channel.
The Kid told me he had a great time and everything he did that weekend was awesome. The Husband and I set rules not to talk about money or anything that stresses us out and just have fun. And so we did. It was a great end to the summer and put us all in a good place to move forward into fall. Boy, am I ready for the change in season.