NYC Bound!

I love to travel.  I love the planning, the travel itself, and the reliving it again and again through pictures and memories.  It is exhilarating to me.  As much as I love it, it would seem that I have been a lot of places, but that is just not true.  Money is an issue.  Babysitting is an issue.  A husband with travel anxiety is an issue.  I want to see the world, but it is hard.

And I want to inspire my children to see the world.  They have only been a handful of places.  None of them have ever flown.  Because of the huge expense of six plane tickets, the logistics of getting 4 children through the airport, and the possibility that one child would freak out and it would spread to the others, I thought it would be best to take them on trips separately.  The 13^th birthday seemed like an excellent time.  Bonnie is old enough and mature enough to be safe and behave properly and young enough to still have fun with a parent.

I have been planning this birthday gift for months now.  It has been a hard secret to keep.  We are taking a 3-day/2-night trip to New York City.  Just Bonnie and me.  On one hand I’m terrified because I am going to a place I have never been and I am solely in charge of the safety and well-being of a child.  On the other hand, being terrified is not a good excuse to stick your head in the sand and refuse to live an adventurous life.  We’ll be fine.

For her gift, I got her an I heart NY t-shirt, a Frommer’s 2013 guide to NYC, and I printed out the plane tickets with our names on them.  I wrapped them all in the same box in that order.  When she saw the tickets, she screamed and ran and hugged me.  It was a sweet moment.  That was the video that got erased yesterday that broke my heart.

The only thing I have done is booked the flights and ground transport to and from the hotel.  Because planning trips is so much fun for me, I am going to let her help every step of the way.  We aren't going until early October when the weather will be a little cooler, so we have plenty of time.  We looked at hotels tonight online. 

As expected, we’ve had a bit of jealousy, especially from Luke.  The odd thing is that I think of all our children, he will enjoy traveling the least.  He is a homebody.  He hates for Matt and me to go on vacation because when he is staying with his grandparents, he misses his home.  He even gets an upset stomach before leaving home for a day or two. 

Before we decided to go ahead with the trip, we assured ourselves that unless a catastrophic event occurs between now and then, we will plan a special trip for each of our children for their 13^th birthdays.  It is sometimes frustrating to anticipate that at the moment one child is happiest, the others will be jealous.  On one hand I think, “Suck it up. That is life”.   But even more than them sucking it up and accepting that life is not always equal, I want them to learn to be truly happy for each other.  That is a big life lesson to learn, and it not only helps you act graciously, it gives you inner peace and joy. 

Here are some photos of Sunday.

               June 1st is National Doughnut Day.  Bonnie gets doughnuts instead of a cake.