Family Vacation

Nick and Jackie Stokes along with their 13 month old daughter Jasmine were on a plane to Texas, they were going to visit Nick's parents. Everyone was excited about the visit but no one was more excited than Nick. Although Nick liked living in Vegas, he missed his parents, he also missed the ranch house he grew up in, and he always loved coming home for a visit.

When the plane landed Jackie grabbed Jasmine, the car seat, her purse, and the diaper bag while Nick grabbed all of their luggage. When they got off the plane they hurried to find his parents. They found Roger and Jill without any problems and Jill immediately took Jasmine from Jackie's arms.

"Hi Sweetheart, Grandma loves you and she misses you so much." she said,

Roger added "I didn't think it was possible, but you got even cuter since the last time we saw you."

Nick grinned at his wife, his parents had not said one word to him or Jackie, they were too busy fussing over the baby.

"Hi mom, hi dad, love you too." Nick finally said with a grin on his face.

"Oh sorry dear." His mother said as she immediately gave him a hug, Roger did the same. Then they both hugged Jackie.

The family drove home. When they got to the house it was 1:30 in the afternoon.

Once Nick and Jackie got all settled Jill had a suggestion "It is such a nice day outside, why don't we all go for a picnic?"

The family all agreed so Jill and Jackie quickly packed a picnic lunch. Before they left Roger put the leash on their dog Baxter, and grabbed the dog's tennis ball. Roger figured this would be a good chance to get the dog some exercise.

When Jasmine saw Baxter she started flapping her arms in excitement. "Eeeef, Eeeef" She babbled. The adults looked at one another; none of them had any idea what she was trying to say.

Finally Jackie understood what her daughter meant. "No sweetie, that isn't Chief, that's Baxter. Can you say Baxter?" Jackie asked her. The baby just looked at her.

Nick chuckled and said "I think you should take that as a no."

After that they all walked to a nearby park. When they finished eating their lunch Roger played fetch with Baxter. Jasmine was awestruck by this. She giggled when the dog would run after the ball, and she would clap when the dog would bring the ball back and drop it at Roger's feet.

"Here you throw it." Roger said with a smile as he handed the tennis ball to Jasmine.

Jasmine raised her arm like she was going to throw it but instead of throwing it she just dropped it on the ground. The ball rolled a very short distance and came to a stop. The dog looked at the ball as if he was confused.

Roger chuckled, "here, let grandpa help." He said picking up the tennis ball, he grabbed Jasmine's hand and together they threw the ball.

Jasmine squealed in delight. They played fetch for about 20 minutes and then Roger noticed that Baxter looked like he was getting tired.

"Alright kiddo, I think we better give the doggy a break." He said taking the ball from the baby.

The baby was clearly not ready to quit because she gave her grandpa a sad look and reached for the ball.

"No sweetie, the dog's tired." He said to her again.

Jasmine did not seem to care, she continued to scowl at her grandfather.

Nick stood up "Come on Jazz, we'll go swing instead." He said as he walked over and picked up his little girl.

He walked over to the swing and sat down. He slowly started to pump his legs so the swing would go higher, but not too high of course. The baby giggled, clearly she loved just sitting on her daddy's lap swinging back and forth. They swung for about 15 minutes, and then it was starting to get a little chilly outside so everyone decided that they should head home. When they got home Jasmine went down for her nap. She slept for a couple hours, while she slept, the adults made dinner, they were having hamburgers, hotdogs, Jill's famous homemade potato salad and Roger's homemade French fries. That evening the family sat around the dinner table, Jasmine was sitting on Nick's lap. Everyone was enjoying their meal, and each others company.

Suddenly Jill tapped Jackie on the shoulder and whispered to her "watch your daughter, but don't say anything."

Jackie glanced at Jasmine just in time to see her pick up a fry off of Nick's plate and throw it on the ground near Baxter who was sitting by Nick's feet. The baby giggled as the dog quickly gobbled up the fry. The baby fed the dog another fry, and then another, until there were no more fries on Nick's plate. Nick was in a deep conversation about football with his dad and was oblivious to what was going on. Finally he reached down to grab a fry from his plate and was shocked to discover that they were gone.

"Hey where did my French fries go?" he asked bewildered.

His wife and his mother burst out laughing.

"Your daughter fed them to the dog." Jackie said.

Nick looked at his daughter "Jasmine, you little stinker." He said but he couldn't help but let a small smile cross his lips.

Baxter, realizing he wasn't going to get anymore fries got up and wandered into a different room.

"Bye-bye." Jasmine said waving to Baxter as he left the room.

"Yeah bye-bye, I hope you enjoyed my French fries." Nick mumbled, which once again caused Jill and Jackie to burst out laughing.

About an hour later everyone was gathered in the living room. Roger was busy working on a crossword puzzle, Jill and Jackie were talking about parenting, and Nick was playfully hiding from Jasmine behind a chair. The baby cautiously looked behind the chair for her father. Nick quickly crawled out from behind it

"I'm going to get you." He told Jasmine with a huge grin on his face.

The baby screamed and ran as quickly as she could to her mother.

"Mama, mama." Jasmine said as she lifted her arms so Jackie would pick her up.

Jackie laughed as she picked her up. Nick crawled closer to Jasmine, and Jasmine buried her face in Jackie's shirt.

"What's wrong peanut, is daddy going to get you?" Jackie asked with a chuckle.

Nick sat in the middle of the floor.

"Alright, come here baby girl, daddy will be nice now." He said.

Jasmine looked tentatively at her father, and then she looked at her mom.

"Do you want to go see daddy?" Jackie asked as she gave the baby a kiss on the head and set her down on the floor.

Jasmine walked about half way between Jackie and Nick.

"Dada" she said.

"Yeah, come here sweetie, it's alright." Nick said.

She finally decided it was safe and went and sat on Nick's lap. Nick couldn't help but smile .

"See it's ok." He said as he kissed the baby on the top of her head.

A few minutes later Jackie stood up.

"You guys want to see something adorable, watch this." She said as she walked over to a radio that was in the corner of the living room.

She turned on the radio and almost immediately Jasmine started moving to the music.

Jackie went and picked her up and started swaying her back and forth. The baby thought this was great fun, evident by the cute smile on her face. With her free hand Jackie motioned to her husband to join them. Nick smiled, got up, and went over to them, he placed one hand on Jasmine's back and with his other hand grabbed Jackie's free hand, and the three of them danced to the music.

"Hey mom and dad, look at this, not only do I get to dance with one pretty lady, I get to dance with two." Nick said beaming.

His mom and dad laughed.

Jackie smirked at him and asked "which one of us is prettier?"

Nick looked from his wife to his daughter, smiled and said "Sorry Jackie."

Everyone in the room, including Jackie herself agreed with him.

A little while later Jasmine fell asleep and not long after that the adults also went to bed.

The next day Roger insisted that Jasmine take her first real horse ride with him. Jackie, however, was not too thrilled about the idea.

"I don't know Roger, what if the horse gets spooked, and knocks you both off?"

"Don't worry Jackie, we'll ride Betsy, she is the most gentle, easy going horse you'll ever find."

"I don't think I like this idea." Jackie said.

"Come on, she'll love it." Roger insisted, so reluctantly Jackie agreed. Roger climbed on the horse and grabbed the reigns, then Nick handed him the baby.

"Please be careful." Jackie begged.

Her father in law just smiled at her.

The horse started moving forward slowly; Jackie was about ready to have a heart attack.

"Ok that's enough Nicky, go grab her."

"Honey relax, my dad wouldn't have her up there with him if he thought it was even remotely dangerous, he wouldn't let her get hurt."

"Of course he wouldn't intentionally let her get hurt, but accidents happen." Jackie said.

"Just relax." Nick said wrapping one arm around her waist.

"She's scared, go get her down." Jackie said to her husband.

Nick arched his eyebrow at her, then he looked at the baby, who was giggling like crazy, she was clearly anything but scared.

Roger and the baby rode the horse around in a big circle twice and then they rode back to where Nick and Jackie were standing.

"Hey Jackie, can I take her barrel racing?" Roger asked with a smirk.

"Oh my God no." Jackie exclaimed and Roger laughed.

Nick got the baby down from the horse and then his father got off as well. Roger took his granddaughter from his son's arms.

"This here is Betsy, can you say Betsy?" Roger asked Jasmine as he begin to pet the horses' nose.

"Dada" Jasmine said.

"Nope, not dada, Betsy." Roger said.

"Dada" Jasmine repeated.

"Betsy." Roger said again.

"DADA" Jasmine screamed at him.

Roger laughed "Alright, alright, you win, you can call her dada if you want."

Everyone laughed.

After that Nick, Jackie and Jasmine walked with Roger to the pasture, he took the saddle off of Betsy, gave the horse one more pat on the nose and then everyone walked back to the house to wash up for dinner.

After dinner the family once again settled into the living room. Roger was reading the newspaper when he felt something on his foot. He glanced over the newspaper and saw Jasmine busily untying his shoes.

He smiled as he said in a pretend gruff voice "Hey who untied my shoes?"

The baby looked up at him, grinned and said "dada."

Roger laughed and said "No, I don't think it was dada, I think it was you."

He then looked across the living room at his son and said "Hey Poncho, your daughter is trying to frame you over here."

Nick smiled, then squinted at his daughter and said jokingly "That carries a sentence of twenty minutes of solitary confinement in your crib young lady."

To everyone's surprise the baby looked at Nick, giggled and said "Uh-oh."

Nick burst out laughing. After he was able to catch his breath Nick looked at his little girl and said "You know Jazz, during my career as a CSI, I have told a lot of people they have to do time, and not one of them has ever looked at me, giggled, and said uh-oh. You are definitely the first."

Jasmine went to bed shortly after that and after watching some T.V the rest of the family did too.

The remainder of the vacation flew by and before any of them knew it they were saying their goodbyes to one another at the airport. Nick's parents promised to come for a visit soon.

As they were sitting on the plane to go back to Vegas, Jackie noticed her husband was smiling.

"What are you smiling at?" Jackie asked.

"I was just thinking about the last few days, it was a fun trip wasn't it?" He said.

Jackie returned the smile "Yes it was" she agreed.

The end! I hope you enjoyed it! I would love your thoughts!