I heard this funny quote once…
“THERE IS REALLY NO VACATION
IN “FAMILY VACATION”, LETS JUST CALL THEM A FAMILY TRIP.”
I am very fanatical about the importance of family
vacations. Family vacations need not be
far away, extravagant or expensive but they must happen. I feel there must be a vacation once a year
that is just your immediate family-no relatives or friends allowed (grandma’s
and grandpa’s are OK once in a while).
This allows your family to really have an opportunity to focus on each
other with no other relationships
competing for time or attention.
Family vacations are sacred to me.
They are a most precious time
together. They provide opportunities not
available in our daily routines. Each
family member is “forced” to spend time together, experience things together
and create lasting memories which bond them together and strengthen their
relationships.
Usually as soon as our yearly family vacation is over I
start planning the next one. It takes
months to plan a GREAT vacation and months to save $ for one. I always start with creating a budget and
have learned that you will have heavenly help keeping within your budget if you
ask for it.
One of the best parts of our family vacations is the first
Family Night after we have returned. We
call it the TRIP RE-CAP. We watch all the
pictures of our trip on the computer or T.V. then we do an activity entitled
“Our Favorites.” Each
family member is given a handout and writes their name on it then they list all
their favorites of the trip. Here are
two examples. (the handout varies each
trip depending on the activities we did)
ALASKA
CRUISE TRIP FAVORITES-May 31-June 7, 2014
Favorite city
______________________________________
Favorite onboard activity ________________________________________________________
Favorite animal encounter
__________________________________________________________
Favorite meal on ship
___________________________________
Favorite meal off ship
_________________________________________________
Favorite thing about the cruise ship
_____________________________________________________________
Funniest moment
_________________________________________________________________
Favorite excursion
__________________________________________________
Favorite food item on ship
______________________________________
Most memorable moment
_____________________________________________________________________
Worst thing about the trip
_______________________________________________________
Best thing you learned
________________________________________________________________
What you will remember most about this trip
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FAVORITES
ABOUT OUR FAMILY CHURCH HISTORY TRIP 2009
Kirtland/
Niagra Area
Favorite site:
Something I learned that strengthened my
testimony:
Best thing about this area:
Best meal:
Worst thing about this area:
Palmyra/Fayette/Harmony
Favorite site:
Something I learned that strengthened my
testimony:
Best Meal:
Worst thing about this area:
Sandusky/Cedar
Point
Favorite roller coaster:
Worst thing about this park:
Best thing about this park:
Nauvoo
Favorite Site:
Something I learned that strengthened my
testimony:
Best thing about this area:
Favorite
Meal:
Worst Meal:
Worst thing about this area:
Whole
Trip
Favorite Hotel:
Favorite place overall:
Best Meal overall:
Best activity overall:
Funniest thing that happened:
Best thing about being on this trip:
What you will best remember about this trip:
Share your feelings about our pioneer ancestors
and Joseph Smith and how most of all your testimony was strengthened of
them.
Then we go around and each person reads their answers. It is a great laugh and brings back all the
memories and fun we just had. These
pages are then added to the trip scrapbook containing all the pictures of that
particular trip. It is looked at often and
each time it is brought out those memories come flooding back and our bonds are
strengthened by precious memories. It is also an awesome way to journal the
experience.
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This trip re-cap is also a wonderful insight into the things
that your children really enjoy. It’s so
fun to learn that usually they all have a different favorite and that each one
of them learn different things on the trip (I try to make sure that each trip
is filled with learning activities) .
It gives each child an opportunity to feel valued as they share their opinion and we all listen. Doing this activity also gets the kids more invested in the trip as they
are thinking right from the beginning what activities or moments will be on the
“trip re-cap favorites” page.
I also always do a GOOD ATTITUDE CONTEST . I keep a notebook with me constantly
(everyone else will surely just use their cell phone) and we start from the
very beginning of the trip and I give each child, myself and husband, points
for displays of good attitudes, positive comments, extra helpfulness, kind and
patient words and compromise. Family
vacations must be full of all these things to be a positive experience and
there really is no better opportunity to put these great life skills into
practice-with the people who we are supposed to love and cherish the most. At the end of each vacation day I total up
the points and whoever is in the lead gets to pick our restaurant for dinner,
get an extra icecream scoop, get a candy bar at the gas station or some other
small reward. It works like magic and
makes a big difference. When we are
hiking “too far” I remind them of the points and attitudes change quickly, when
someone wants a certain bed in the hotel that another one wants I remind them
of the points and compromise is quickly reached. No one can contest the points given but each
family member can recommend that points be given to a certain someone.
