I love this picture. It makes me laugh. It was one of those unplanned, funny pictures that just happened on a family vacation to Texas four years ago. We call it Dingwall.
We took my mom on vacation with us that year. We had just lost Dad and thought it would be fun to take her to play in the gulf surf, smell bluebonnets, and see the Hourmo (Alamo) as Deputy Barney called it then.
I journaled everything that happened on that vacation. I love to look through our pictures and read the journal, reliving it in a mini vacation with a handsome man, Grams, a three-year-old and a six-year-old..
“Daddy wears pink barbie panties.” And “I do a great impression of a hot dog…” top my list of hilarious punch-drunk moments, as we tried to entertain the kids (or maybe them–us) while criss-crossing that huge state. Oh, and of course, the fart game. It seems, we can’t go anywhere without playing THAT game. (Can I get an Amen?) We were gone a week. It was a glorious time.
Vacations are a big deal to me. Like playing music, something happens in my soul and makes me a better person, if I vacate once in a while.
Ben wasn’t totally sold on yearly vacations when we first married. The cost is probably what concerned him most. But, I think you can do anything with a plan. And we PLAN to take at least two a year (one with kids and one without). Some years we stay in cabins, some years in motels, and some years, a simple tent. We do what we can afford, pay cash and have a plan.
A few months after vacation, you forget how bad the mattress was, how Keekat got lost, found and thrown in jail, and how the kids got sick on the rollar coaster. Leaving you only priceless memories.
This year we are taking the kids to the Black Hills of South Dakota. With stops at Wall Drug, the Badlands, Reptile Gardens, Mount Rushmore, the Needles for hiking, trout fishing and gold panning various streams, and riding the Alpine slide down a moutain at Keystone, only after inhaling a buffalo burger at the cafe on the peak. At night we will rest our weary heads in a cabin with a full kitchen, covered porch with a grill and the part the kids will remember…an inground swimming pool.
I hope they learn as much on our trip as they did in school.
And God, please grant us one more hilarious dingwall-type photo for our vacation scrapbook.
Simply,
Sandhill Sis
Tags: black hills vacation, family vacation, simple vacation, south dakota vacation, summer vacation
We are doing the Black Hills this year too ….. in our RV
wish me luck ( 1 week with 5 boys and me in an RV? i must be nuts! ) I got to do some research and find out campgrounds ahead of time… I like to have a plan ( I might be a bit ocd ? ) we are taking the fishing poles and the bikes and hopefully will make alot of good memories!
You guys are crazy, crazy, crazy! But the memories will be over the top awesome. I’ll send you some links that I like….Hope you have fun.
Sis
Wow…….we are planning on at Black Hills vacation also……..!! Now if we could just talk the cows into not giving milk for a week, we would be set!!! Not sure South Dakota is ready for you and some of your friends all in one summer!!! This sounds fun!!!
I think we should all rent an RV, with one big vehicle following….like our ‘burb. Then we can trade off drivers and kids and get there without killin’ one another.
What do you think?
OR, you can go it alone!!
“Beee Fuuuuun” Remember how Brooksie used to say that and run his hand around in a backwards “come here”????
Amen!
[...] they probably aren’t dreaming anymore, about anything. Esspecially, working their dream job, cash free vacations, retirement, or paying for their kids college. At that point, getting by is all they can think of. [...]
[...] try to take a couple every year. One with the kids and one without. This year we took MiMi, Ben’s mom, with us and chose the Black Hills of [...]