The Start of a Great Family Tradition

Tomorrow we will start a new tradition with Drake as we set out on our first family vacation. We are not going far and will not even be gone a whole week, but we are getting away from the daily grind and have some will have some quality time as a family. My parents will also be going on vacation with us and my sisters and their boyfriends will be coming and going, so it will be one big party!
Note: I so wish I could share pictures of all these vacations but I'm still living in the stone age and my printer does not have a scanner on it and these pictures were taken the old fashioned way, on cameras with film.


When I was growing up family vacations were a way of life. Every summer we would take off for a week of relaxing, bonding, and exploring. We spent many summers in Hilton Head Island where we would ride bikes, eat ice cream, swim in the ocean and go to sing-alongs under a big old tree. We went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we way under packed for lunch and had 1 Lunchable for me and my 2 sisters to share as we were driving along the curviest roads ever. We went to the Black Hills and Branson and Colorado. We made several visits to Orlando where we always had to eat at the same seafood buffet because it was the best food ever and experienced our first Hurricane in Hurricane Floyd. We went so many places and experienced so many things together as a family. To this day, when we are all together eating supper around the table, the conversation usually turns to our favorite memories from vacations. They are special and sacred and I so hope to build these same awesome memories for my son, so that many years from now we will be sitting around eating supper talking about the great times we had together as a family on vacation.

Now that I got all the sappiness over I can tell you that I'm also taking a vacation from blogging, but don't worry because I have found some pretty awesome guest bloggers to take my spot in the next week. Please show them some love and leave some comments for them so they might come back again. I'm also going to be unplugging from my cell phone, not checking e-mails, reading blogs or surfing Facebook. How will I ever survive?!? Or the better question is what will I do to fill my time?!? I guess I will just have to read, swim, bike, and chase after my little man to stay busy...sounds rough, doesn't it?

Have a great week and I will "see" you all soon!