Well, I have only done one family vacation and it was a family reunion and two other weekend type stuff with the kids and nothing with DH and I alone. I would not go on a long vacation alone with DH but I would go away for a few nights. I will have to plan something the next year...lol...not that planning means anything. I am just so burned out and really need something and I need it away from kids.
If we have the money to go on a vacation, we always make it family time. In 15 years of marriage, we have done that twice. It is a time to collect ourselves as a family away from everyone else. As homeschoolers, we tend to assume that being in the same place at the same time every day means we are always having "family" time. But I have found that it isn't until we are literally removed from our daily routine and weekly schedules that we come together and see each other for who we are and how we each belong to each other. Wouldn't trade those precious few times for anything. Now, Dh and I share a birthday, so usually either our birthday or anniversary we make a day of it and stay overnight somewhere or someone takes the kids overnight...or we farm them out to friends' families. :lol: My MIL usually has them overnight at least once a month. My kids are older, but we still like the house to ourselves.
So far only our honeymoon to Cozumel. We have already decided that for our 10th anniversary we are going away for a week to Colorado just the two of us for this amazing zipline adventure I found online. We are gonna take the Druango/Silverton train to the Animas River, do the zipline adventure all day and the spend the rest of the week off roading, white water rafting and just being crazy in love. We['ve been married 7 1/2 years so we got a couple years left to save the money and we have to book this trip a year in advance to get reservations. We do take family vacations each year. We've gone to float the river, camped at several lakes in Arkansas, rented a cabin in the Smoky Mountains, drove to Minnesota and next July we are all going to spend a week in Colorado Springs and Estes Park. I can't wait! We had the money so we put it back in savings to be sure we can afford it when the time comes.
Oh and I love having a teenager because now dh and I can have date night on a regular basis! Last night we went out to dinner and then went out for drinks, played pool and ended the night out back by a fire. It was such a great time!
As I mentioned once before, I did pay for my wife to take a week's vacation in St. Lucia - because she really needed a break. We couldn't afford a family vacation, and we have no extended family to help us. She went alone and loved it while I stayed home and did all the usual running around. It allowed her to recharge her batteries. Basically, we do what we can so everyone can have a break from daily routine - even if we cannot do it together.
I'll have to tell my husband about that! lol. He did offer to have me go away alone for a weekend if I wanted to. I think I will take him up on it on his next vacation.
I think we ALL need to tell our husbands that, and then we can all meet together WITHOUT KIDS on a beach in the Bahamas!!! You know, like those books. What were the names of them....? SISTER CHICS!!!
I may be strange, but I have no urge to take a vacation without my kids. We don't take expensive vacations to exotic places, but we do manage family getaways and camping trips fairly often and I love the family time. We spent the night of our tenth anniversary in a cool themed suite place in our town, but other than that we haven't spent a night away from the kids. My husband is needing something like that again so I think I need to plan a night for our anniversary again this year, number 12. But it will be either in our town or a nearby town while Grandparents stay at our house.
The only vacation dh and I have taken in our 11.5 years of marriage without the kids was a week last month to New England (and we only went because FIL offered his frequent flyer miles so we could have a late anniversary trip). I have to say though it was tough without the kids. I cried the first 4 days because I missed them, especially when I talked to them on the phone each night. Other than that, we did a 2 night weekend away for our 9th anniversary, and then our honeymoon...which really wasn't a honeymoon since it was a 2 day stay at a local place. We opt for family vacations and even then it's usually camping close by because we don't have the funds to go to all the places we want.
Me neither. We never even got a honeymoon...we were too poor, and still are! :lol: We have been married for 10 years this last August. We have date nights here and there and we have taken 3-4 day family trips (nothing out of state though or far away), but nothing 'big'. We always joke that when we win the lottery, then we'll take our vacation! HA!
AngeC325 I don't think it strange at all. My DH and I spend every night well almost every night together when the kids are off to bed. I don't see the need to getaway just the two of us. And frankly we had so much us time before kids, seven years, that we love hanging out with our little people. A family vacation other then camping would be nice though!
We took one short vacation (3 days, 2 nights) without the kids last year to celebrate our tenth, but that's the only trip we've gone on without them. We do get babysitters once or twice a month, though. It's worth it to us to work that into our budget.
In January, my husband and I went on our very first vacation alone in 21 years. It was our 25th anniversary and we only went away for a few days.
See we've never had any time where it was just the two of us. Never. We both already had a child coming into our relationship. A few years ago I was wanting another baby. Dh didn't and said the reason was he was almost 40, happy with the kids and family life we have and just wanted to enjoy what we had and was looking forward to the day when it would be just the two of us for once. Now I am SO happy that he told me that and I am SO happy we didn't have another. I love my girls dearly and they are my entire life but I also love when I get to take off the mommy hat and be my husband's hot wife. In fact we did date night last Saturday and we get to do it again on Friday night after dinner with the kids and my mom!
It's really interesting to get different takes on it. Coming into a relationship with kids has to make it harder to have that alone time. Enjoy your date night We had a couple years alone before kids and even then we liked things like going to the zoo and science centers and traditional kids stuff, LOL. We were talking about going to Salt Lake City for a weekend without the kids, but we decided we would do things we would wish we were sharing with them anyway so we might as well take them
I hear you! We spent one night in a hotel this summer instead of camping and while veryone enjoys camping you should have heard how excited the kids were about staying in a hotel. We have been lucky enough to be able to take some awesome road trips with our kids and we all love it. I am longing for the beach right now. We usually get there once a year but didn't make it this year. It's a 14 hour drive from here so not super easy to fit in the schedule or budget.
Oh I know! My kids LOVE staying in a hotel! No matter how much we camp the hotel is just somehow more special. They will get a real treat next summer. I told them we will be staying in hotels everynight for a week in Colorado!
How fun! A week in Colorado sounds awesome, and getting to stay in hotels teh whole time is icing on the cake.
Oh, we went to Sandy Cove this summer for their Homeschool Week. We've always camped, because of the cost difference. But this was going to be our "last" year. We came into a little bit of money, and Carl asked if we wanted to up-grade to the lodge. I was in a delema. If I DIDN'T, I'd be wishing we did. If I DID, I'd feel guilty about spending the money (the little bit we got didn't come NEAR covering the difference!!!). So finally, I decided we'd do it, and I'd try REALLY HARD not to feel guilty. AND GUESS WHAT!!! I DIDN'T!!! Oh, I SO loved staying in the lodge!!! Before we were so rushed to get to the campsite, get dinner made and cleaned up and then back to the lodge for whatever was going on next. This year, all I had to do during meal times was to STAND IN LINE!!! And I didn't even have to pick up my dirty plate; they had their kitchen staff do that! Oh, gosh, was I SPOILED!!!
