Family Vacay Flashbacks

So next Friday Matt and I are leaving on 10 day trip --- are we taking a plane? No. Are we going to some exotic locale? Nope. We are heading on a driving/road (read: Meagan mostly sleeping) trip across the Southeast. Plans are to make it to 'Bama the first day, land in Savannah for 2 nights(totally hitting up Paula Deen's restaurant!!), Hilton Head for 4 nights, and then back around again swinging into H-town the following Sunday.

I am still trying to convince Matt that there just HAS to be a casino between here and there where I can try my hand at a few rounds of blackjack, but so far he isn't buying. Apparently a trip to the beach is a present enough for me. Touche. But I wouldn't mind throwing down a chip or 10. I'm just sayin'.

I think this little trek is prep for the trips we will almost certainly take with our kids. Both of us grew up with these type of "road" trips. Because I always traveled so extensively with soccer, our "fancy" family vacays were few and far between. And Matt's family pretty much traveled in the same style - rolling in the "Good Times Van" - don't ask. I didn't name it.

Or have a part in the name, if you know what I mean.

So after hitting up fancy dancy little resorts all over the Carribean and Mexico in recent years, we decided to travel this year in full-out family style -taking pictures at rest stops, eating at greasy spoon diners (and probably a Waffle House or 5), and then just RELAXING. Can't wait.

Completely brings back memories of trips from when I was little - when my parents would just wake us up one morning and tell us to pack our bags and throw us in the car. We didn't have a plan or reservations, EVER! But just a dream to drive till we hit -- well, actually I don't think we ever had an ultimate destination in mind.

(DUDE YOU TOTALLY CROSSED MY LINE OF DEMARCATION - GET OFF MY LINE - MOMMMMMMMMMMM, DAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD, BLAINE IS ON MY SIDE..)

There are rumors of that skid marks still remain across a lonely little highway in Alabama where my dad had just HAD IT UP TO HERE with us kids. For about a second. And then my version goes like this: he took one look into my innocent big eyes and just couldn't be mad anymore :)

I think the next trip included more entertainment for us - including the ever-revered Gameboys with Tetris and Dr. Mario. But then we quickly figured out that we could link those bad boys up and still get in fights. Poor parents. They never had a chance. sigh.

But I do have the fondest memories from those trips - like the time we piled out of the car to go into the finest Waffle House in Dalhart, TX only to sprint back to the car to grab our full fleece blankets to BRING INTO THE RESTAURANT. Classy.

Or when we fished every pond/stream/lake/spring/river/outhouse in CO and didn't catch one darn thing - until we landed upon a stock fishing pond on our way out of town. Cost my dad a pretty penny that day - but man, we had some beautiful rainbow trout.

Or the time we watched this most amazing wall cloud form in Kansas after visiting my dad's grandparent's graves. On one hand, I was convinced we were going to be taken out by a tornado at any second, but on the other I was just enraptured by the beauty of it. And so was my dad. He was meant to be a storm chaser in another life.

It was a great way to show the kids the country - and get them out of the Plano bubble we grew up in. So, Matt and I decided appropriately it might be a good way to kick off our family venture. Expect lots of pictures! I have been blog & facebook picture happy lately - but it's been so fun to capture those memories again.

To be honest, after the hurricane and losing soooo many pictures and special memories, many of them taken during the first 2 years of our marriage, I just got disillusioned with the whole picture thing. But I am back on the bandwagon full force. So, if you run across me anytime soon - I will most likely take your picture. And then post it. Be prepared.