Hey!
Before I will describe the drama of family trips to you I guess it might come in handy if I told you something about my family. So, my parents are divorced. My mum has had a boyfriend for about 6 years now and my dad has had a couple relationships but he is currently single. My step-dad has three kids and my mum has two kids, my little brother and my. So, in order of age, we have my step-dad, my mum, my step-sis Larissa, me, my little stepbrother Dylan, my little brother Marco and my little stepsister Elise. This amount of people can, of course, not fit in just one car, so when we go on a family-trip, my grandparents come along.
Now, let's tell the story then. Today we went to the Apenheul, which is a zoo in the Netherlands that almost only has monkeys. It takes about an hour drive from my home to get there, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but with my family, it is.
To be honest, I don't think my granddad should be able to drive his car on the highway. He has forgotten a few rules and mainly depends on his GPS, which shouldn't be a extremely big problem, of he would just take our advice. Sometimes he only realises he is taking an exit just before the exit ends and if you drive behind him, you end up taking that exit. He also is kind of afraid to go past other cars, because he is determined to not cross the speed limit, even if it is just one kilometer per hour.
So, when you have survived the journey to your destination, which we luckily have, you get the problem with the whiny kids and the dilemma with which direction to go. Because we are in a group of 9 people, everyone thinks we should take a different route. And, unfortunately, some of us (especially the young ones) are very determined to get things their way, so if we decide to do something different, hell breaks loose.
Then after deciding which way we should go and where we are going to make a stop (a.k.a. which playgrounds are we going to avoid and which playgrounds are we going to let the monsters free in) we are off to watch the animals. And only on days like these you realise how hard it is to keep a group of 9 together. Especially when it also is extremely busy in the zoo itself. But I have learned to just go with it. For example, my older step-sis, my stepbrother and I decided to take a seat on a bench in front of the enclosure our family was looking at, when suddenly a stampede of people arrived and stopped right in front of us. After a couple of minutes and a few pictures taken the people left. But in the meantime, our family had walked further. The best thing you can do then is just stay put and wait for someone to get you. So after 10 minutes, or family realised we were gone and came back to pick us up.
After surviving the day at the zoo and losing and finding each other a couple more times, we still are not save: we still have the ride back to our house. This time, my step-dad decided not to follow my granddad and drive us home without their 'help'. And I'm happy he did, because our grandparents forgot to take the exit we had to take. Which meant they were only home half an hour after we arrived.
Luckily, we all had a wonderful day and nobody got hurt (which also has happened to us before). I know this definitely won't be our last family trip and so, not the last time I will fear for my life because of my granddad's driving skills, so this will most probably not be the last post about family trips.
I hope that my granddad's driving skills or our chaotic family at least entertained you!
See you next time!
Before I will describe the drama of family trips to you I guess it might come in handy if I told you something about my family. So, my parents are divorced. My mum has had a boyfriend for about 6 years now and my dad has had a couple relationships but he is currently single. My step-dad has three kids and my mum has two kids, my little brother and my. So, in order of age, we have my step-dad, my mum, my step-sis Larissa, me, my little stepbrother Dylan, my little brother Marco and my little stepsister Elise. This amount of people can, of course, not fit in just one car, so when we go on a family-trip, my grandparents come along.
Now, let's tell the story then. Today we went to the Apenheul, which is a zoo in the Netherlands that almost only has monkeys. It takes about an hour drive from my home to get there, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but with my family, it is.
To be honest, I don't think my granddad should be able to drive his car on the highway. He has forgotten a few rules and mainly depends on his GPS, which shouldn't be a extremely big problem, of he would just take our advice. Sometimes he only realises he is taking an exit just before the exit ends and if you drive behind him, you end up taking that exit. He also is kind of afraid to go past other cars, because he is determined to not cross the speed limit, even if it is just one kilometer per hour.
So, when you have survived the journey to your destination, which we luckily have, you get the problem with the whiny kids and the dilemma with which direction to go. Because we are in a group of 9 people, everyone thinks we should take a different route. And, unfortunately, some of us (especially the young ones) are very determined to get things their way, so if we decide to do something different, hell breaks loose.
Then after deciding which way we should go and where we are going to make a stop (a.k.a. which playgrounds are we going to avoid and which playgrounds are we going to let the monsters free in) we are off to watch the animals. And only on days like these you realise how hard it is to keep a group of 9 together. Especially when it also is extremely busy in the zoo itself. But I have learned to just go with it. For example, my older step-sis, my stepbrother and I decided to take a seat on a bench in front of the enclosure our family was looking at, when suddenly a stampede of people arrived and stopped right in front of us. After a couple of minutes and a few pictures taken the people left. But in the meantime, our family had walked further. The best thing you can do then is just stay put and wait for someone to get you. So after 10 minutes, or family realised we were gone and came back to pick us up.
After surviving the day at the zoo and losing and finding each other a couple more times, we still are not save: we still have the ride back to our house. This time, my step-dad decided not to follow my granddad and drive us home without their 'help'. And I'm happy he did, because our grandparents forgot to take the exit we had to take. Which meant they were only home half an hour after we arrived.
Luckily, we all had a wonderful day and nobody got hurt (which also has happened to us before). I know this definitely won't be our last family trip and so, not the last time I will fear for my life because of my granddad's driving skills, so this will most probably not be the last post about family trips.
I hope that my granddad's driving skills or our chaotic family at least entertained you!
See you next time!