[statelady01]

Cast of Characters:

Me, Maureen, age 35
DD, Katie, age 12
DD, Emily, age 7

The beginnings of our most magical adventure (at least I hope!) go back to a few days before Christmas. My MIL Beverly and I were scheming to plan a most terrifically awesome Christmas and 40th birthday gift for my DH Kevan. On Christmas morning, he would awaken to discover he would be cruising Alaska with me, my BIL Aaron and our son Matthew in July. He’s wanted to see Alaska since he was a kid and we figured turning 40 was a good enough reason to go. We are also celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary this year so there’s another. If I sit here long enough I can probably come up with more. When it comes to travel, I would celebrate cleaning my bathroom or balancing my checkbook if it meant I got to go somewhere.


One night right before Christmas Eve, my MIL Beverly and I headed up to Books A Million to plan Alaska armed with a latte and my laptop. She was giving Kevan his portion of the trip for his birthday, so she wanted to be in on the research and planning. We were surfing the net and pouring through Fodor’s guides when Beverly said, “You know, Matt and Aaron are getting a really nice trip somewhere with you and Kevan to Alaska- what about Kevin, Katie and Emily? Where would they like to go?” I agreed with her, but I couldn’t think of a destination that would really make the remaining three happy so I began to think of that in parts. What would make Kevin happiest? What about Katie? Emily? So we began to brainstorm.


Kevin, our eldest son is a train fanatic so we hit the Amtrak website and checked out on a weekend ride later in the summer. It was inexpensive and would be perfect for him. It would also make a great Dad and son trip. Perfect. Don’t you love it when stuff comes together like that?


That left Katie and Emily. And right away, I knew the answer. DCL. Both of the girls have asked several times to go aboard through the years and I have never taken them on a Mom-Daughter adventure- it all seemed to work. MIL offered to help with most of the cost, since she was doing the same for the others in the family. How could I say no?


We booked the Amtrak tickets and then I hit the Disney travel agents site. I priced it up and using the Kids Sail Free Offer, got a great rate for the three of us. As much as I ached to be in a verandah (that sounds so dramatic but you get the idea- I really wanted to have one…) it was just too much- more than we wanted to spend. So I booked the three of us in a Category 12 guarantee and decided to hope for the best- perhaps the cruising powers that be would move us up but if not, it was all good. In this day and age, we all were extremely blessed to be going anywhere on vacation. We paid the deposit right then and there and would do the rest a bit later. My heart was racing as we did it too. I book cruises a lot but rarely for myself! It was thrilling. I would soon be back aboard the Wonder and this time with my precious girls all to myself.


We left Books A Million with Alaska guidebooks, a few magazines and a whole bunch of travel memories in the making.. for the entire family!


It’s a little sad that our big family vacation this year is sort of broken up and we aren’t all traveling together at the same time- but it does have some pros-- it allows everyone to do what they like. And even more, it gives some of the numerous Austin children more one on one time with one or both of their parents. That’s a special thing when you have four siblings. The only person in the Austin family who did not open up a trip on Christmas morning was Connor. He was clueless as to what was in the packages he opened up Christmas morning. Actually, forget that. He was most impressed with wrapping paper and tried to eat it several times. Isn’t that a sign of genius?


We are actually ending up getting some nice family time together this summer- we’ll be spending a few days in the Ozark Mountains in a cabin after we move back to Arkansas in June. Now Connor can say he went somewhere at least. Actually, what he would say would sound something like “ goo goo bla abl Mama Dada.” But you get the idea.


I woke up Christmas Eve Day thinking I had better find a nice roll of duct tape for my mouth. The reason for this being I might need it to cover my mouth until Christmas morning- so as not to reveal some wonderful surprises.


Coming Up Next: Trips Revealed and the Anticipation begins!!