Family Vacation!
Vacation; that magical word that everyone loves to dream about, but few really get to take advantage of, especially with today’s economy. Gasoline prices are still high enough that some families will settle for traveling to a spot within their own state. Others will simply not go anywhere.
Well, we are going somewhere. We’re going on vacation. Not just a little two or three day jaunt to one of our state of Missouri’s landmark cities, but on a real, honest-to-goodness road trip! Oh, we’ve been on family trips before - Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia; but never the whole family. This time it’ll be all six of us! Together! All six of us…in one minivan…oh, boy, it’s gonna be a long trip.
So, we leave Tuesday, and I have to go down my checklist. I have the power inverter purchased, AAA trip packet ordered (I can’t forget to pick that up Monday,) hotel reservations, house rented, a few choice dinner reservations made…what else? Oh, I CAN”T forget to mow the lawn before we leave. It’s already too long, and even if I mow it, by the time we get back, it’ll be a jungle! I still need to buy a new video camera, and new sunglasses, and snacks for in the car, and order the trip packet from AAA (wait, I already did that.) Boy, I love planning trips. It’s so relaxing (not!)
The rest, like packing, will probably not get done until at least Sunday. There’s nothing like waiting until the last moment! What did I say about relaxing? Oh, I guess I can do that when we get there, which will take, let’s see, a total of eighteen hours in the car. Eighteen hours!? Holy cow! What about when we get there? Will it be all that relaxing? Or will we be spending all of our time trying to go everywhere and see everything we can while we’re there? All I want to do is relax! I want to sleep late, read, be lazy, and not worry about anything except getting to our dinner reservations on time! Wait. Stop. Breathe slowly and calm down. Everything will be fine.
Let’s remember why we’re going on this vacation. It’s not just to get away from work and do something different, where we can de-stress and not worry about having to do anything. It’s about spending time with our family; time that we never get at home. It’s about talking, and laughing, and sharing, and experiencing together. And it’s about making amends. Life can be pretty rough on people. Emotions, feelings, friends, distractions, and countless other obligations have a way of wriggling in between us as members of our families, and pushing us farther apart. Vacations are just one tool that families can use to push all of that back out and become close again, like a family should be.
Yes, everything will be fine. I am just so glad that all six of us are able to take this trip. Family is best when they’re all there. I can’t wait to make some new memories!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e865e0ce-6fa7-465e-84b9-b86a27b438d8)
Well, we are going somewhere. We’re going on vacation. Not just a little two or three day jaunt to one of our state of Missouri’s landmark cities, but on a real, honest-to-goodness road trip! Oh, we’ve been on family trips before - Colorado, Minnesota, Georgia; but never the whole family. This time it’ll be all six of us! Together! All six of us…in one minivan…oh, boy, it’s gonna be a long trip.
So, we leave Tuesday, and I have to go down my checklist. I have the power inverter purchased, AAA trip packet ordered (I can’t forget to pick that up Monday,) hotel reservations, house rented, a few choice dinner reservations made…what else? Oh, I CAN”T forget to mow the lawn before we leave. It’s already too long, and even if I mow it, by the time we get back, it’ll be a jungle! I still need to buy a new video camera, and new sunglasses, and snacks for in the car, and order the trip packet from AAA (wait, I already did that.) Boy, I love planning trips. It’s so relaxing (not!)
The rest, like packing, will probably not get done until at least Sunday. There’s nothing like waiting until the last moment! What did I say about relaxing? Oh, I guess I can do that when we get there, which will take, let’s see, a total of eighteen hours in the car. Eighteen hours!? Holy cow! What about when we get there? Will it be all that relaxing? Or will we be spending all of our time trying to go everywhere and see everything we can while we’re there? All I want to do is relax! I want to sleep late, read, be lazy, and not worry about anything except getting to our dinner reservations on time! Wait. Stop. Breathe slowly and calm down. Everything will be fine.
Let’s remember why we’re going on this vacation. It’s not just to get away from work and do something different, where we can de-stress and not worry about having to do anything. It’s about spending time with our family; time that we never get at home. It’s about talking, and laughing, and sharing, and experiencing together. And it’s about making amends. Life can be pretty rough on people. Emotions, feelings, friends, distractions, and countless other obligations have a way of wriggling in between us as members of our families, and pushing us farther apart. Vacations are just one tool that families can use to push all of that back out and become close again, like a family should be.
Yes, everything will be fine. I am just so glad that all six of us are able to take this trip. Family is best when they’re all there. I can’t wait to make some new memories!
Comments
Post a Comment