It's Official

We finally bought plane tickets for the kids' trip this summer. Within the past few days, we (I) came up with the scheme of sending them first to stay with Grandma Donna. She is, to put it mildly, ecstatic. They will spend three full days with her and then take the 12 hour drive to my parents'. They are both very excited. Jesse can't wait to meet Donna's dogs (kids) who are a male and female jack russell terriers. She will keep them very busy as she lives near a large city (to remain unnamed) with lots of stuff to do.

Even though it's nerve wracking as a parent to send your kids off on a plane cross country, I'm really excited for them. They will not only build lots of self confidence from this trip, but this will be one of those trips that sticks in their memory forever.

We paid the extra $40 each way ($80 roundtrip for those of you counting) for the airlines to assist the kids during their trip. Even though Nate will be 14 and is considered a young adult, we figured that they will need the extra assurance that someone will be there to take them to their next gate. The extra 80 bucks also allows one person to get a gate pass, allowing us to pass through security and escort them directly to the gate. The same goes for the receiving end. It makes me think of the old days when you walked off the plane and got immediate gratification from whatever loved one was picking you up. Now you have to maneuver your way to the baggage claim before getting to have that long awaited hug. I guess one positive is that you get a chance to use the potty before becoming engrossed in conversation and what not.

Now that we have the kids' trip squared away, it's time to concentrate on making plans for Ron and I. We will have three full weekends (count 'em...3!) without the kidlings. We are more than seriously thinking of booking the trip to NYC (and looking forward to yummy donuts!). Bearette, if you're ok with it, I'd love to have any insider tips on visiting the city. We already know of a few things that we definitely want to do, but would love to get some first-hand advice.

Another possibility we were talking about is a "hike in and camp" trip. I've always wanted to try this as the only camping I've ever done is in State & National Parks, KOA (which is not really camping, and various private RV parks (ditto). What I would really love to do, is take one of those 3 day river rafting/camping trips. But since Ron is deathly afraid of bodies of water, I'll have to wait til I can talk one of the kids into going with me.

The third thing we've been wanting to do for quite some time, is visit a family friend in Cincinnati. She used to be really good friends with Ron's adopted mom and lived with them for a few years. It will be fun to visit and catch up with her. If anyone knows of any fun stuff to do in the Cincinnati area that is preferably not kid friendly, let me know. Since most of our trips involve finding stuff that's fun for both us and the kids, we'd like to fill our time with all those activities that would most likely receive a "this is sooooooo boring and sooooo stupid" rating from the kids.

FUN! FUN! FUN!