Two Days

Two days. That is it. No more sun; no more fun. Summer vacation's done. Of course that is what it would be if we were normal people. Yes, we officially start back to the books on Wednesday, but the first two days of school for the boys are an exchange day camp with another county. They will go to a different county for the day to learn and play with 4-H members from there and then they will be here the other day with members from the other county. Next week I think #1 has a day camp 4 out of 5 days! Then we head to WV to help clean out Grandma's house. The boys will do their school work on the ride up and back, but likely won't do any while they are there. And then we have a huge "field trip" planned for the last week of July and first week of August. We are Going West, Young Man. Yes, that's right. We are taking a family vacation to the western part of the states. We will go through NC, WV, KY, OH, IN, IL, IO, MN, SD, WY, MT, NE, KS, and MO. I think I got them all. The big stops are Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Cody, WY, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons Parks, and Hannibal, MO, home of Mark Twain. There will be several other stops in-between, but those are the biggies. The boys will do school work during the rides, so really they will have lots of "book time" before it is over, but the main instruction will be to learn by seeing and doing. We were planning the trip with another family, but the woman's father is in poor health, and she is afraid to go now. So we asked the in-laws if they want to go. We already had reservations at a couple of spots--that's another story-- and didn't want to waste them if we could help it. Father-in-Law has always wanted to see Yellowstone, so it was good for all of us. Of course, all of this comes with the objective to save as much money as possible and yet have a memorable and fun time. So I have been using my coupons to buy prepackaged microwave food. I never knew there was so much available! I have found rice and pasta dishes, canned meats and fruits, and plan to stop every few days at a grocery for bread and fresh veg/fruit. We hope to only eat out once a day. We will see how it goes. We are thinking eat out for lunch while we travel, since that meal is less expensive, and then stop at a hotel about dinner time. Throw something in a hotel microwave, let the kids swim, and have a relaxing evening in. I asked the boys yesterday what could we do about souvenirs since we want to make it inexpensive. (And I had the ulterior motive of not allowing more junk in my house!) They came up with some good ideas...find a yellow rock (Yellowstone) or take a picture of a guy going really fast (Mount RUSH more). That lead us to the decision to make a movie. Now that movie making is so much easier, it won't have to be 30 hours of someone's vacation, but can be highlighted into a nice keepsake. So that is the plan as long as the boys get to take turns filming; that was the deal according to them. So we will spend the next two days trying to enjoy the last rays of summer before we hit the books. What a life!