Because This is How We Do It.

How do you plan weekend getaways? This is how we do it. We fix the car, go shopping for snow gear, pack clothes, pack food, and arrange our stay all in ONE day. Did I mention that we often decide whether or not to go on the same day we do everything else? This IS as fun as it sounds. Those of you who plan family outings 2 years ahead may gasp, right about here.

For as long as we've been married, we have been really bad at planning things ahead of time. Maybe its the uncertain nature about my husband's job or the anticipation of something else coming up in the future that might force us to cancel our trip. I am not sure why we do it like that, but we just do. Only eight years ago, it was quite easy. Everything we needed used to fit in one gym bag and we were on our way in less than an hour. Usually. Now, with three little ones tagging along, an impromptu trip preparation is just not as fun as it used to be.

This particular trip was decided on the same morning. On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon we decided to go down to the coast. I quickly packed up extra clothing and threw whatever food we had in the cooler. We were on our way to the coast and were supposed to arrive in an hour and a half. BUT not before my husband stops by and gives this lady and estimate on her projects. Because you see, the house was on the way to the coast and the appointment not like this trip, was made a head of time.

The appointment took longer than he planned, and the lady while spotting my bouncing off the car kids, kindly suggested we drive down to the park that was close by. It turned out that this nameless park was perfect for my kids. Nestled in the middle of this upper-middle class neighborhood, it had two big playgrounds, a paved road that led around a huge pond and lots of beautiful blossoming trees.

With the weather in the high 60s and sunshine that actually delivered warmth, this was a perfect place to be. Kids were exploring and I, just sat on the bench and received pleasure from watching them navigate through a new to them playground. Notice the rubber boots. These were planned to be worn at the beach, of coarse.



Some of you may have guessed the end of my story already. I'll validate your suspicion and say that we did not make it to the beach that day because when we all got into the car to go get Peter, the car would not start. This happens about once a week to us. The car does not start for about 20 minutes and then it miraculously does. Just like that. It is truly puzzling. When we loaded everbody for a two hour trip, we just hoped that today would not be that day. Very educated reasoning, I know.

Me trying to start up the car while Peter was hitting certain car parts with a metal rod.
photo taken by Abby

While we sat there like this and contemplated whether to call towing or not, one nice mane offered us a ride home. He must have assumed we lived in the neighborhood because if he knew that we lived 40 minutes away, he would have to be SUPER nice to do that.
Anyhow, the car started just as we were about to call towing and we buckled up ourselves for a trip home.

We ended up doing things outdoors around house the rest of the day. We even managed to hit another playground by our house. It was wonderful and rare!for the five of us to be together for an entire day, outdoors. Though things didn't turned out the way we had in mind, we were together as a family--happy, healthy and well and that's all that mattered to all of us.