Family Vacations

We always made sure we had a little get-away as a family.  Whether it was up north camping or driving a trailer behind us to camp in Walt Disney World, we took time to make vacation memories.  Most were inexpensive, and the Disney camping trip we saved for over a year and literally ate rice and hamburger and such as our main courses for quite awhile to get the money together!

Our ideas for vacation were to bond as a family.  I know a lot of people take their children's buddies with them on vacation, but we never did.  We made it an investment in the lives of our children to make it so they would bond with each other and have some down time together just enjoying each other.

Even to this day, with our children older, we make it a point to have our family vacation stay our family vacation.  Although with Gary's travel we've been able to slip a weekend in here or there and get away with one child and let them bring a buddy, when we take our family vacation it's just our little family.  

My larger family often vacations at the same time and bonds together as a larger unit, but even then we may just take one or two children and go as an extra vacation if at all.  We prefer to use our family vacation time to just take time out with each other.

I believe that is another reason our children have remained so close is that they have consistently had these relaxing fun times together.

Challenge:  Consider protecting your family vacation times by keeping it to your family.  Plan fun games and outings to really bond and make your vacations worth the investment!