Spring Break

Many months ago, Nick and I had the conversation regarding, "Do we go away for April break or not?"

We had not done anything BIG for our 10 year anniversary back in September with the thought that we would do a family vacation this year, but flying anywhere on school vacation week just seemed so expensive that it never happened for February break and then come April when we started talking about it, we kept going back to the thought that April break is usually SO nice around here, that why do we want to go away during that time... so no vacation was booked and we were looking forward to enjoying the week off from school in Spring weather loving being outside... maybe getting some yard work done, but most importantly, just being together outside and loving it! For at least the past 3 April breaks, the weather has been amazing... 80's and sunny. I didn't think that we would get that lucky again (seeing as there is still spots of snow on the ground) but I was totally psyching myself up for 60's and sunny.

Well this year we learned a lesson that I won't soon forget.... ALWAYS GO AWAY FOR SPRING VACATION!! Instead of 60's and sunny, we had 40's and snowy. It was an awful week of weather. Totally depressing... and unlike February break when it is cold, there are winter sports and outside activities to do in that weather, there was NOTHING to do in this weather, but to be inside and be pissed off at the people who were smart enough to go south for the week.

Every day of spring vacation, starting around 7am Colin would begin asking to go outside. With frost on the grass, rain pouring down or hail falling from the sky, we would have to think of reason after reason to explain to our 3 y.o. why he couldn't play outside. With nothing really planned for the week, the days were spent with nothing to do and trying to be creative with whatever we could.

Around Tuesday of spring break, Nick started to convince me that we should just leave immediately and go start our spring break... maybe drive to Virgina or Washington DC... but I panicked not having time to plan those trips and seeing as we haven't been on a family vacation, I didn't want to "waste" that trip with a vacation where we didn't really know what we were doing.

I think hourly, I would check weather.com to see if some miracle had come upon us and the weather got better... no such luck till Friday of vacation when we had a cold, but sunny day. We made the most of it!!

The funny part of it is that although I had what I thought was a horrible vacation week, as I was prepping for school on Sunday night... I realized how much I was dreading going back into the crazy routine we call life and thus started to really appreciate the week we had just had - even if the week was kind of boring and a bit depressing, it was still OUR week... not filled with making lunches, setting alarms, doing homework and chasing our tails keeping up with all that is going on. Then I realized that although Nick and I complained plenty about the week, the kids never did. I think they thought the week was great... I guess it's good to get a little perspective!