Family Vacation in 7 Months

At the beginning of every year, we try to sit down with our kids and plan a vacation. In the past 4 years, we've had some special memories made with 2020 = Oregon Coast, 2021 = Utah National Parks, 2022 = Bear Lake, 2023 = Redwoods National Park. This year, because of my surgery, we wanted to take a more conservative approach to planning our vacations so we decided to stay home all summer. 

BUT.... then I had an itch that needed scratched in the form of seeing where P!NK was at on her Summer Carnival tour! I was excited to find that she will be nearby in Washington and Montana only to be discouraged to see tickets were over $200 each. I continued to click around Ticketmaster in hopes to find something, anything that was affordable, when I found Las Vegas = $100 a ticket! SOLD!! I yelled upstairs for Matt and begged him to let me take Arrowlyn to see our favorite musician ever! Begged is an exaggeration --- I didn't even really have to ask. I said "Pink is in Vegas." He said "Go for it!" He was supportive and encouraged me to buy the tickets and he'd make sure we got there! 

Then we decided to just make it a family vacation and we told the kids about it tonight (Minus the P!NK concert because that's a surprise for Arrow on her birthday on the 23rd.)

I wanted to document how we do Family Vacations though.

 If we have time in advance to discuss the vacation plans, it goes a little something like this....

Research, Financial contracts with the kids, and goals. 

This time, I created a little brochure to hand to them that announced where we are going. 

Sometimes I will YouTube research videos, especially if it's a national park or checkout books from the library. It's our goal as parents to include our children with decisions and empower them to be apart of the planning but also remind them that not everything is free ... some things cost us financially but also mentally and spiritually. This is a trip that we especially wanted our kids to be aware of some the spiritual dangers that come from Sin City.

 

This is also the contract that we sign. It's dual purpose - it motivates them to earn money prior to the vacation and reminds them that while we take care of their needs, they will be required to support themselves for their wants. We discuss goals for purchases. For example, I always look for stickers when I'm traveling. I like to put them on my roof box. So when the kids feel like they have things they want, we can remind them of those souvenir goals and they won't overspend on stuff they aren't really motivated by.  For Arrowlyn, it's usually stuffed animals. For Zeplin, it is rocks, fossils and occasionally a shirt. 

 

I'm so excited for this trip. I think Arrowlyn is going to lose her mind when she opens her birthday present and learns about the concert. We are staying in Excalibur for this trip so Matt is planning to take Zeplin to the Tournament of Kings while Arrowlyn and I are at the concert. It's going to be so fun! I can't wait!