You gotta love family vacations! The Bakers definitely LOVE family vacations…at least mom and dad do. The kids are a bit harder to convince. I am the first to admit we take a lot of trips, but in my defense, not nearly as many as I'd like to take! Did I mention we had three, yes THREE family reunions over the summer? And might I add that none of those had to do with "my side of the family" so to speak. I hate saying that because it sounds so segregating, like "this is MY family, that is HIS family, that is HER family" and with a blended family that is easy to do, but I prefer not to. We have a lot of family, and it is all OUR family, and thats that. But I am just pointing out in the only jargon I know, that we have been to all of these functions, and have yet to attend a reunion in association with my roots, my siblings, my homies….however you want to put it. And, well…its time!
My parents are these amazing people who are seriously larger than life. They live part of the year in Germany, restoring their old villa (yes it is literally, by definition, a German Villa) Part of the year in the Caribbean, where my dad has been finishing his third (that is not a typo, his THIRD) doctoral degree, and part of their time just traveling to obscure places of the world, like Jordan, Egypt, Cambodia to name a few, and a very small part of their year is spent in my part of the world where they live as Grandma and Grandpa Howard. They are amazing people with an impressive life, and they have five highly functioning adult children who love to travel just as much as they do. Knowing a little about my parents and the type of family culture I grew up with, is it any wonder I have just a little gypsy in me?
My siblings and I finally decided that since we never know where mom and dad will be, nor for how long, (but that's ok, mom and dad don't know any better than we do!)…we were ready to have an annual family gathering, with or without them (sorry mom and dad! You are missed!) We now have a Howard Reunion (at least with siblings...) every labor day weekend, and seeing as that begins tomorrow, I am making preparations to get out of town! Again! YAY!
So, we had to let our kids know that we would be leaving thursday night and they would need to make arrangements accordingly. In all honesty, they are rarely excited to leave friends, and they are not fans of missing school. I am happy that they are such responsible students, but seriously…is that normal?! It's actually a bit comical. When we started reminding them that they would need to turn in assignments and talk to their teachers, and so forth, it was like we were headed to work camps in Siberia. I mean, really?! So first Katelyn begins to cry because she will miss the home football game, then the other teenagers join in with their qualms. Even Avrie, our ten year old, shed a few tears because she had planned a friday activity with her friends. But the kicker was when our little eight year old, Olivia comes in and starts to cry, "No! I had plans!" By this point, I was laughing out loud! I am used to this behavior in my teenagers, and my fifth grader may be approaching this stage of struggle for independence, but now my third grader?…this was funny! I could have been sad or offended, but no. I was simply amused. Somehow they missed the memo that said, "Any plans made by a child, is not finalized until approved with a parent, and even then we reserve our right to veto." I think they got that message loud and clear this time around, but a child's memory seems to be selective and I guess we'll know for sure, next time we leave town.
We will have a great trip! I will say, my little ones weren't too happy about the "treats" I bought (fruit leather, organic whole grain fig bars, and so forth) but that's the fun of having a mother with Hoshimoto's disease…but thats an entirely new post. My kids are awesome and we always have a lot of fun. They have already shifted gears for the most part and are getting pretty excited about the trip. I will update my blog when we get back in town, and I'm sure I will have lots to share with you! Happy Trails!
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