It's Time for an Adventure.

While we keep ourselves plenty busy over here with trips to the YMCA, play time in the pool, reading, drawing, creating, blah blah blah... this is stuff that we can and actually do pretty much all year round. Roxy will be starting 1st grade soon (which is like real school now) and Riley will be just beginning his school journey with Pre-K. I really want this summer to be memorable for my kids, and not just a break from the hectic school year.

It's time for an adventure.

Creating adventures is definitely a much harder thing to accomplish when funds are lacking, but I am sure going to give it my best.

You may or may not know this, but every year us Deneweth's make a long trek up to the Outer Banks, NC all squished in our silver minivan (it's a 14 hour drive NOT including potty breaks, stretch your legs breaks, gas stops and stopping for grub) to spend a week long vacation with my parents, my sisters, my brother in law, my nephews and Sunshine. This is usually the conclusion to our summer as school starts immediately after we return.

This year, I'm going to put a little boogie in it and be a brave Mama. My plan is to drive up (without the help of my better half) with 4 children (still squished in the silver minivan) two weeks early to my old stomping grounds... good ole Southern Maryland. I need to spend some time with people I don't usually get to see, I need to show my children a land that isn't Florida, a place that wasn't created for tourists and hopefully squeeze in some big adventure days in DC museums, the zoo and such.

After the 2 weeks, I'll drive down to the OBX for our annual family vacay and reunite with my better half while he makes his trek up via Greyhound. We are both in for a little adventure.

I moved to Florida 13 years ago. I haven't been home in forever, it seems and I am feeling the urge to reconnect. I have so many family members who don't know my children (except for the pictures I post on Facebook), I have best friends who I rarely ever get to see (and best friend's kids who are my kids' ages that I've never met). But most of all, in a strange way, I kind of want my kids to experience the place where Mommy grew up. They always ask about Maryland, like it's some exotic place where lucky children who live there get to play with snow in the winter. While there obviously won't be any snow on our trip, I hope they get a chance to experience this exotic place called Maryland and file it away in their brains as this summer's adventure.

So... I've got 2 and a half weeks to prepare myself mentally, to pack and to plan out how to squeeze the whole experience I've envisioned in two short weeks.

Am I crazy? I guess we will find out in T minus 17 days.

<3, Tabi :D