how we vacation

We don't attempt to "see all the sites." We utilize the "included activities" everyday - this place had a couple of nice pools that we alternated between, a putt-putt course, arcade, board games, and two nice playgrounds. We don't eat out very much. In fact, this time, we cooked every meal in our condo except for when mom came in town and bought our lunch and dinner and then one meal when we met a friend for lunch. We relax as often as we can. We play board games together. We cuddle a lot. We go to bed early and wake up early. Keith and I had long quiet times with the Lord every morning - that's unheard of during regular life - but it's what makes a good vacation great for us. We did go to an indoor water park that was on the property a couple of days with the kids this time. But, even in the water park, you could find all of us taking time to rest on the lounge chairs. We just move slow during our vacations - which is a beautiful thing. We didn't come back feeling like we needed to "recover" from vacation. We actually felt rested and ready to tackle normal life again.

How do you vacation? Or, a better question is, do you vacation at all? I'm thankful for my husband's leading in this area, which he inherited from his parents. Vacations are important. You don't have to spend lots of money. The main thing is that you get away from all the normal demands of life to focus on your immediate family. We find this especially important for our family because the kids have to share us so much of the time. And they do so with giving hearts. But, they need to be reminded that they are special to us and vacation gives us the time to speak that into their hearts without any other interruptions.