The Best Family Trip Ever

After leaving the Crater of Diamonds State Park, we had a long drive ahead of us. We were heading to San Antonio, Texas to see the Alamo. We weren’t messing around on this trip.

It was on this leg after we’d just filled our gas tank and bellies that my 14-year old son commented that this was the best family trip ever. Wow! It’s not that we weren’t having a good time, but we’d just started and so far we hadn’t experienced much more than the rubber hitting the road and playing in the mud. Let’s not forget that this is the child that had experienced the unfortunate ‘accident’, thanks to Vincent, our dog.

Perplexed, my husband asked him what he was enjoying so far. His answer? We had chosen to take this trip. Makes sense. This past January we celebrated our 4th year on the road with my husband’s job. Though we’ve been to some really cool places, and experienced some incredible adventures, we hadn’t chosen to go to those places. It’s true, we could have chosen NOT to go, but that’s not really much of a choice since it would have meant that my husband would not have any work.

So, I guess my son was right. We had chosen to go on this trip and this was probably the first REAL trip that the kids actually planned details right along with me. We had a family conference, discussed where they wanted to go and built our trip around their wants. After all, leaving a home we loved, family and friends and our beautiful but neurotic Siamese cat behind hasn’t been all fun and games for them. It was about time they had a say in something.

So when my 14-year old told me he loved this trip, I was feeling pretty good, especially since we hadn’t even gotten to the ‘good stuff’ yet!