When a vacation is a vacation

 When you go on vacation with your kids it doesn’t always feel like a vacation, and it usually isn’t all that relaxing. Last week the Officer and I took the girls on a week-long beach vacation, and it actually felt like an awesome, relaxing vacation! Here were our keys for success, so that maybe next time we plan a vacation with the kids we can remember these things….

1.  change your expectations. Prepare yourself that vacation with kids is going to be different than vacation without kids. Even though the kids were up at 7am every day, it still was an awesome restful vacation, because we knew we were going to be getting up early with kids…. it also meant nice long mornings on the beach, which was not something I ever did before kids. We wanted the girls to have a great time, and we genuinely enjoyed watching them have fun. We hung out on the beach, went on walks, flew a kite, went to ice cream, spent hours in the pool, and just had so much fun

      2. Invite both sets of Grandparents. My parents and the Officer’s parents both joined us on this vacation, and it was great. The girls loved playing with their Grandparents, and it was nice to have the extra help. Two mornings while we were there one of the Grandmas stayed home while Lettie took a morning nap, and the Officer and I brought the big girls to the beach. One evening my parents babysat so the Officer and I could go out on a nice date. The Officer’s brother and his family came too, so the girls had both playmates and babysitters…. Perfect

jumping the waves with Gram

      3.  Have a Lettie baby…. Not sure how you get this, but a nice little beach bum like Lettie made for a relaxing vacation for this Mama. Belle and Bug are old enough to enjoy playing on the beach without much help, but a one-year-old on the beach can be tricky… not Lettie. I sat under the umbrella on the beach for hours each day and Lettie just sat in a little chair next to me holding a shovel or eating her lunch. I got to stay relaxing in my chair with the claim that “I was watching the baby”.  It was wonderful.

   

lounging and enjoying some drinks on the beach

I just can't get enough of this kid

      4. Be a team- We might not always be on the same page, but for this vacation the Officer and I were definitely on the same page. We had a great system down for getting the whole crew out of the house with lunches packed and getting all our gear set up at the beach each day. We took turns relaxing and playing with the kids. He spent an afternoon golfing with his brother, and a few days later I spent a morning alone on the beach with my sister-in-law (the guys got all the kids packed and sunscreened and brought them to the beach a few hours later- I definitely think I got the better end of this deal). It helped that this vacation was our last time together before the Officer leaves for 6 months of training, so we didn’t take any minute of family time for granted.

love

      5. Rotate meal prep. My family has been doing this on vacation for years and it works so well. We had 4 families in our house this week, so we each were in charge of dinner and dishes one night, and then we had 2 nights of leftovers. It is definitely relaxing to only have to worry about dinner one night in the whole week. I, of course, kept it simple with a taco night, and then spent the rest of the week enjoying everyone else’s cooking.

the girls loved playing with their cousins and building castles on the beach

      6.  Have perfect weather. Okay can’t plan this one, but it worked out so well for us this year. We stayed in a really small house with 7 kids and 6 adults, and at the beginning of the week the forecast did not look promising. I was nervous we were all going to be crammed in a tiny living room all week, but that didn’t happen. It only rained one afternoon during naptime, and the rest of the week was sunny.

There it is…. Things to remember next time we go on a family vacation!