Here's the winner story of #SHcontest, by toysandtears!
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Catherine's P.O.V.
"Mommy, can we go on holiday? We're on summer holiday!" my adorable daughter, Jasmine, asked, tugging on my shirt.
"Holiday!" Roy piped up from her older sister's side.
"Holiday? Where do you girls want to go?" I asked them, peering over the magazine I was currently engrossed in.
"I don't know, I just want to go on holiday," Jasmine replied truthfully.
"Holiday!" Roy once again exclaimed.
"I'll talk to daddy about it, okay?" Jasmine nodded her head and ran off, dragging Roy along with her.
I went up to our room, where Tyler was supposedly working at. The door was closed, so I opened it up and the first thing I saw was my strong husband being tackled on the floor, by my two delicate daughters. Magazines were scattered all over the floor, and Tyler's phone laid on the side of the floor.
"Please bring us on holiday! Mommy said we could!" begged Jasmine, who was sitting on Tyler's Hand.
"Holiday! Holiday! Holiday!" Roy was yelling, while pacing around her dad, stepping on multiple magazines.
"Ouch- get off my hand Jasmine!" Tyler exclaimed and rolled away from Roy and Jasmine.
Jasmine and Roy both gave a few giggles, and ran away to their rooms, dodging the mess on the floor. Tyler stood up, massaging his hand and sighing. I went over to him and grabbed his hand in mine, and gave him a little peck on the cheek.
"Maybe we should just go on a short holiday you know? We haven't gone on a family holiday since last year and I'm sure the girls will have lots of fun." I suggested to him.
"So many places, where to go?" I laughed at his childness and flopped onto our big bed and Tyler jumped next to me. I started browsing some holiday locations, hoping to find a place suitable for our family to go to.
About 20 minutes in, Jasmine and Roy barged into my room holding up a crumpled piece of paper.
"Mommy! We have some holiday places!" Jasmine exclaimed, waving the paper in my face. Roy stood next to Jasmine, grinning widely. I eyed the piece of paper and saw some words messily scribbled on it.
summer holday!
1. Jasmine land
1. Princes land
2. hapy land
3. Budapest
I skimmed through the list but the last name caught me by surprise.
"Budapest?" I looked at the name, shocked. "How do you girls know about Budapest?"
"We saw a picture of it in the living room, and Roy said that it looked very pretty," Jasmine replied.
Jasmine ran to the living room and came back a few seconds later with a picture frame in her little hands.
"Look mommy! This picture says Bu - du - pest on it!" she said, struggling with the words.
The picture frame contained a picture that was taken years ago when Tyler, Hayden, his girlfriend at that time, my twin brothers, Max and Jake, and I went to Budapest. We were all sitting on the shore of a beach. I really loved the photo so I decided to frame it.
"Alright kids, I'll see what I can do," I exclaimed.
After a short talk with Tyler, we booked tickets and hotels to spend a week in Budapest. Because I had visited Budapest before, I knew just which hotel I wanted to stay in, and which places I wanted my daughters to see.
As I was walking to Jasmine and Roy's room to tell them the news, I saw them frantically stuffing random items into their suitcases.
"Good news, we're going to Budapest! But girls, why are you guys packing? We won't be off until a few more days!" I said, letting out a laugh.
~ON THE AIRPLANE~
"Tickets, please?" the flight attendant led Tyler, my daughters and I to our seats.
"Mom! Can I watch Aladdin on the plane TV?" Jasmine asked excitedly, pointing at the small TV on her seat.
"I want to watch Frozen!" exclaimed Roy.
"Girls, girls, settle down and mommy will help you choose your movies," I told them quietly.
"Help me first!" Jasmine said loudly.
"No! help me first!" Roy yelled.
"Shhh!" Tyler and I frantically tried to shush them.
This was going to be a long flight.
It was impossible for me to get a long nap during the flight. Jasmine and Roy kept me awake for over half of the long flight, leaving me exhausted as we left the plane. They were quite noisy, which ended up with a few people giving me some glares, but once they got to sleep, I managed to have a short nap until Roy woke up crying.
We landed at around 10 in the morning at the Budapest airport. We went and collected our luggage, then called a taxi, which took us to our hotel. The hotel I booked was the exact same one that I had went to last time I came to Budapest. The service was great, and it wasn't far from many of the places I wanted to visit.
"Are we there yet?" Jasmine yawned in the taxi.
"No, it's going to be a long ride, I suggest you get a little map or look at the scenery," I told my two daughters.
"I'm guessing we don't have a tour guide this time, you did way too much research," Tyler whispered to me.
"It's only fair that our daughters get to experience all the beautiful things that we got to see last time we came here," I responded, pecking his cheek.
"You're an amazing mom, you know that right?" Tyler planted a kiss on my lips.
"Look! Mommy and daddy are kissing!" whispered Jasmine to Roy. They both erupted into giggles, breaking Tyler and I apart.
"Are we there now?" Jasmine yawned again.
"No, Jasmine! It's been two minutes since you asked that same question!" Tyler chuckled quietly.
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"Welcome to Mariott Hotel, we hope you are having an amazing holiday!"
The staff at the hotel greeted us as we walked in. I glanced around the lobby, aside from some new furniture, the lobby hasn't changed much since I was last here.
Just as I was walking to the reception to book my room, someone accidentally bumped into me.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking at where I was going," a man profusely apologized to me.
He strangely sounded familiar, like I had met him before. I looked up and was met by a familiar face. I racked my brains, trying to remember when I had seen this face before. He let out a cough and cleared his throat. Startled at the sound, I let out a little squeak.
"Sorry, it's just that you look like someone I had met before, but I can't seem to place where I had seen you before," I straightened my posture and looked at the man.
"Hopefully you will remember soon," he replied jokingly. "I hope you are having a good holiday! Here, have this," he placed a small box in my hands and walked away.
As I opened the box, I saw a little string bracelet and a note from the manager of the hotel. A smile formed on my face as I realized that the man I had just bumped into, was the same guy who sent me my breakfast on Christmas the last time I was here. Except, he was now promoted as the manager of the hotel when he was only a poor worker a decade ago.
Everyone was extremely tired, so we all got in our beds to sleep.
After a long night of sleep, I was woken up by a loud crash in my hotel room. Startled, I sat up to find the hotel light knocked over. My two daughters were all the way on the other side of the hotel room, with guilt written all over their faces.
"Now, how did that happen?" I asked my girls, exasperated.
"Don't go too hard on them, love," Tyler spoke up from beside me. "Jasmine, Roy, go get changed quickly. And, be careful not to knock anything else over!"
"It wasn't me!" Roy yelled out, stamping her foot.
"Yes, it was!" Jasmine accused her sister.
"No, it wasn't! It was your fault!" Roy screamed even louder.
"Calm yourselves or we won't be going anywhere today," I ordered.
"Always the bossy one," Tyler chuckled while rolling his eyes.
When everyone was changed and ready to go, we decided to leave to our first destination. I wanted to go to was Museum of Fine Arts. The last time I was in Budapest, the Museum of Fine Arts was closed so we had to leave that out.
"Mommy! There's a creepy painting of someone not wearing clothes," Jasmine complained to me, just as we entered the museum.
"She's ugly," Roy commented.
"Just take your eyes off the painting, girls," Tyler joined in, laughing.
"Daddy! There's another naked painting. Does this museum only have naked people? They're so ugly," Jasmine complained to Tyler, as Jasmine turned away from the first painting.
"Let's go to another part of the museum," he mouthed to me. I replied with a short nod, and grabbed Roy's hand and led her away, while Jasmine held onto her dad.
A few exhausting hours later, Tyler and I were finally able to get Jasmine and Roy out the museum. There were cries of protests since they were enjoying the kid's section, and Tyler and I had to bribe them to get out the museum just as it closed.
As the week went on, we visited tons of different attractions in Budapest. Some I had already been to before, some I have never visited. We visited from Castles to Museums, from Statues to rivers. My daughters loved all the free time they got to explore the unfamiliar area.
Soon, the week came to an end and it was our last day in Budapest. Tyler was off somewhere and he was organizing a "surprise". The girls and I spent most of the day in a big playground which kept them preoccupied for many hours.
As the night rolled in, the girls and I made our way back to the hotel but we were stopped by a guard at the door. He introduced himself and told that he was ordered by Tyler to bring us to a special restaurant in the hotel.
He led me to a very familiar restaurant, I remember having a delightful lunch in this restaurant a few days ago. I was ushered into a small room at the back of the restaurant, and I laid my eyes on two specially arranged tables.
Tyler had arranged a candlelight dinner for the entire family!
Delicious food was served throughout the entire night. I was having a delightful night, and from the squeals of joy from my two daughters, I knew they were too.
"You know, I'm really glad we decided to revisit Budapest. This country is amazing," Tyler said quietly once we got our desserts.
"Not as amazing as you," I responded.
The end.
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I hope you guy liked this short story of Cat and Tyler as much as I did!
Thank you all for keeping up with this contest and especially my lovely participants: toysandtears, SajalShahoodLv, AlexandrinaV, CarolinElizabeth2003, ItsAvaRose, and last but not least, giannaguti. Check all of their short stories in their profiles and my Reading List.
Don't forget to check out our winner's profile toysandtears and give it a sweet follow.
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IMPORTANT
There's a thought wandering in my mind these days about a European charliegotcaught GIVEAWAY...
Should I do it?
Where are my European (aged 13+) readers? Comment here if you are interested in the giveaway.
More details about it (and IF it will actually happen) later this year!
Love you all! Have a nice summer!