Snow finally arrived a few days ago. The children have been snowboarding, sledding, and tubing. We used to go sledding together as a family, but now that so many of the older children have work and activities, they go with friends or just a few of the kids will go together. Yesterday, Katie went sledding with a couple of friends in the morning. Steve went snowboarding with friends in the morning and afternoon. Joe and Madelyn walked down to the nearby park and sledded after lunch. Paige and Allie were picked up by a friend's mom and taking to a nearby tubing park. It's a little sad that we didn't all go together, but schedules just didn't fuse together well.
One of the things I'm hoping to do this year is to carve out time for us to all spend time together. It probably won't happen frequently, but it's something that's important to me. Our children have a huge age spread. The older children will be in their own homes in the near future. I'd like to have the younger children have memories of fun times together as an entire family while it's still possible.
Mike and I spent some time planning a family vacation for this summer. It's our 25th anniversary this year and we had originally thought about going to Europe, but decided that we would rather take a family vacation in the summer and a couple of weekend trips for the two of us.
Our Mountaineer car seat 9, but it's a very tight squeeze. Katie and Amy stated that they would be willing to drive one of their cars too, so we will be able to travel in comfort. The extra truck space will also be good. We're going to visit Virginia Beach. The route to Virginia Beach will be through Ohio and Pennsylvania. We'll head home through Tennessee and Kentucky. Mountains and an ocean should meet everyone's desires.
Mike and I will be headed to Chicago the last week of February for our first get-away. There is a letterbox event that I'd like to attend being held at a Chicago pizza restaurant. The pizza will keep Mike happy and the letterboxing will be fun for me. We're going to see a couple of shows and visit some museums while we're there. The day we get home will be out actual 25th anniversary.
The other trip that we are planning as a couple is in the fall. We've wanted to take the Canada color tour 24 hour train trip for several years. The longest train trip that I've ever taken was a 20 minutes Amtrack trip. This should be a completely new experience and the colors will be phenomenal.
Our plans aren't exotic or globe-trotting, but I think they will be fun and a little outside the norm for our family.
2 comments:
We're planning a Chicago getaway for our 25th wedding anniversary just a couple of weeks after you!
hi there, I just fell upon your blog, and had so many things in common with you! I too am Karen and I also have seven children, well for another week anyways, as number eight is arriving on Thursday!! I have 6 year old twin boys, 4 year old girl -will be 5 in a few weeks, newly turned 4 year old boy and 26 month old triplets (boy and two girls). I am a teacher, but I do not homeschool. I am excited to read more of your blog and learn more about how you do it all everyday as sometimes I struggle!
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