March 29, 2024

Summer vacation is on the calendar

Summer traditionally means vacation for many people.

Once school is dismissed, families try to squeeze in ballgames, dance recitals, community celebrations, class reunions, family reunions, swimming lessons, tennis and golf clinics and of course, some sort of vacation.

Everyone has a different idea of how to spend those precious, glorious, hard-earned hours they’ve worked an entire year to obtain.

Some choose to simply stay home and relax, which in my book is never a bad idea.

Some choose to pack up the family car and head off for quality time away from home with the kids, maybe visiting family or possibly enjoying a destination vacation.

That’s the option my parents always chose — packing three kids into the backseat of the car and traveling from state to state, using the opportunity to visit relatives and distant friends.

When we were raising our own family, Mick always insisted we leave home for vacation — anywhere. He seemed to think if we stayed home, I’d put him to work which, in all honesty, is precisely what would have happened.

So we would pack up the tent or camper, maneuver the tricycles and/or bicycles in one way or another to fit them amongst the luggage and coolers, load up the kids and dogs, and off we’d go all smiles and ready for a week of excitement.

That usually lasted about 30 minutes. Just long enough for one of the kids to announce they needed to go to the bathroom, or they were hungry, or the dog had farted, which we could figure out for ourselves without the announcement.

We had many, many mishaps along the way over the years, and each one continues to provide us with plenty of laughs.

But as our little kiddos grew to independent adults who take vacations of their own, we are still part of the equation when it comes to their time away from home. Why? Because we’ve now become the go-to babysitters for our menagerie of furry grand-babies.

Already this summer, we’ve brought Carson’s cat Holly home to stay with us for a week while he went to Nashville with some friends.

We’ve kept Avery’s two dogs while she and her boyfriend spent a weekend in St. Louis and will host the pups again before fall when they travel to the southeastern coast for 10 days.

So somewhere in there, we’re trying to plan our own little get-away.

Like last year, Avery is planning to return the favor when she’ll keep Belle the Bloodhound while we are away. As she always says, “Belle is a delightful guest.” With Belle’s anxiety issues, we are concerned it would be difficult for her not being in her own familiar surroundings. Plus, you can’t get a quieter or more agreeable houseguest than Belle.

This will also be the first year we will take our soon to be 1-year-old Golden Retriever, Willow, further than a weekend camping trip to Lake Red Rock.

We’ve tentatively arranged for the time off. We’ve ordered a few destination catalogs from a couple of states we’d like to visit.

I guess now it’s a matter of actually deciding where we want to land during our travels. The only thing I’m sure of — it will not be at home.

Contact Dana King at
dking@shawmedia.com