Lessons From The Road

Who can guess the city? It might help to enlarge the picture...

Our family with the wonderful Fr. Tom Mullelly at Princeton - our hearts are deeply grateful for his influence in our lives!

This year, we planned in advance to have our son to miss the last 4 days of first grade. Why would we do such a thing? Our family had the opportunity to take a wonderful 10-day trip to the northeast, and it was too good for even this rule-following mom and dad to pass up! We squeezed in Princeton reunions, visits with both sides of our family, a wedding, and a trip to the town where we began our marriage and where our first child was born. All in all, it was an amazing vacation and we feel extremely blessed to have been able to see so many loved ones in such a short period of time! We rented an awesome mini-van and logged 25+ hours of driving to and from various cities, slept in 5 different sets of beds at various hotels and homes, and drank countless cups of good ole’ Dunkin Donuts coffee 🙂

We learned many lessons from our first trip of the summer, but the one that I would like to share with all of you this morning is this: When planning a family vacation, know what you are trying to accomplish and set your expectations accordingly. Are you trying to relax and re-connect as a family unit? A visit to Disney World might not be the trip to take this year. Are you hoping to have a fun-filled, adventure-packed vacation? Well, Disney World might just be the perfect trip for your family!

Crazy vanilla ice cream cones at your aunt's coffee shop and a visit with great-grandparents - what could be better?

A couple of related lessons:

A visit to Sacred Heart parish brought back so many wonderful memories - Fr. Connelly, on the far right, is 89 years old and is still the pastor! Fr. Imbelli, to his left, is a great professor at Boston College.

You and your spouse must agree on the goals of your trip, otherwise everyone will be miserable! Talk about your goals when you are in the planning stages of your vacation, and be realistic about what you are hoping to accomplish.

Even the most perfectly planned trip will not go according to plan. There will probably be at least one major disaster in the course of your travels – roll with it, and everyone will be fine.

Your kids are much more resilient than you realize. If you and your spouse can keep a smile on your face (for 80% of the time!), they will remember the vacation with fondness.

What lessons have you learned from your family travels? We could all benefit from your wisdom, you seasoned moms and dads!

Lessons from the Road