My husband ended up in the hospital during our family vacation in Italy. We had to change our plans, but still made the best of it.

• Our family went on vacation with my 70-year-old mom in Italy.
• We intended on going to an amusement park, but when my husband got sick, our plans changed.

My family recently returned from a vacation with my mom, and to say things didn't quite go as planned would be an understatement.

The original plan for our vacation was a three-night stop in Arezzo, a beautiful town in Tuscany. After Arezzo, we would drive up to Lake Garda to make a long-awaited (at least for my 5-year-old daughter) visit to Gardaland, Italy's equivalent to Disneyland. After three nights at Gardaland, we would head back to Arezzo for another two nights before heading back home. Simple as that. But that's not what happened.

Our vacation started off great with sightseeing, a beautiful hotel, and yummy food. The kids (our 5-year-old daughter and 7-month-old son) were behaving beautifully and my mom, husband, and I were enjoying the historical sights. It was just wonderful — until after two nights, when all of a sudden, my husband started experiencing intense stomach pains.

His health was the priority

I insisted he go to the emergency room and, after an exam, he was diagnosed with diverticulitis and was told he should be admitted immediately for more testing and treatment.

The priority was my husband getting better, but this now meant having to tell my daughter that we would not be going to Gardaland. This also meant having to rearrange our entire trip and forget about all the money that was lost on our tickets.

Thankfully, my daughter handled the news beautifully. We refocused our vacation on keeping the kids happy, entertained, and distracted.

I promised my daughter that even though we wouldn't be going to Gardaland, we would still be able to have an adventure on our vacation while we waited for Daddy to get better. Since we weren't sure how long he would be in the hospital, I extended our stay at the hotel for another six nights just to be safe. I told my daughter we would play in the jacuzzi bathtub, watch cartoons, eat McDonald's in bed, and just have a generally fun time together.

At the same time, I was doing my absolute best to remain calm. I was five hours away from home with my two young kids and my 70-year-old mother, who has arthritis. While my mom helps with the kids in more ways than you can imagine, her arthritis understandably limits what she can do. We were in an unfamiliar city where we didn't know anyone, so initially, I was a bit concerned.

We still managed to have a good time

But I'm proud of how everything was handled, and after three nights at the hospital, my husband was released, and we were able to continue our vacation together before heading back home.

Though our trip didn't go as planned, obviously, we had fun anyway. We enjoyed being with one another and connecting in the hotel room, even if it wasn't exactly an amusement park. I took the kids out for plenty of walks, visited bookstores, and, yes, I bought them a lot of new toys, crayons, and sticker books, because, quite frankly, I wanted to make sure they had enough to do.

We managed to have fun on our less-than-traditional vacation, even with the unplanned hospital stay and worrying about my husband. Most nights, we would order in and make a picnic on the bed instead of going out since I wanted the kids to settle down early. My daughter had fun exploring the hotel, and both kids charmed everyone on staff. My mom was a big help emotionally since we were all concerned about my husband and keeping the kids happy.

While this might not have been the vacation we were hoping for, all's well that ends well, and I'm happy to say that it did.