I love summer. I love surprises. I love
making plans (even indefinite ones. They may be the best kind!). So
when my super cool sister-in-law pinned this on Pinterest, with the idea to make it a
summer passport for kiddos, I was all over it.
The link appears to be broken, so I was just able to show y'all the image of the original idea.
This
is such a brilliant and super quick way to get excited about
something. Summer, the Christmas season, a big trip. It was the
perfect start to our summer though because we knew we'd be doing smaller
outings and long weekend getaways instead of a full week away this
year.
So about a week before the last day of school, I got a little
blank book and started making a list of fun summery things to do. Go on
a picnic for dinner, go out for ice cream, movie matinee, dinner at the
pool, etc. The one fancy idea was a weekend at the beach (we had
booked it months ago, but chose to keep that little tidbit of
information from Homey). Such a cool start to her summer!
The last day of school arrived, and Homey's parents of the
year sprung into action. We do that sometimes, when we can pry
ourselves away from daily Porch Down time. I had secretly packed
Homey's things by keeping them in folded piles in the laundry room. I
had groceries ready and bagged, and we stole into the night (to the
garage) to collect beach toys, chairs, and coolers. I mean, we even
packed our coffee pot because this little guy would never do.
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| Have Cuisinart, will travel! |
Since I had to put a few
hours of work in that morning, the Mr. packed the car and got us ready
to hit the road. The greatest part of the plan was picking Homey up and
just driving East without telling her where she was going. So far, her
biggest excitement was being a car-rider as opposed to going to after
school camp.
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| Hello! I am now a 2nd Grader! |
So she
hops in the car (filled to the gills with bags, road trip activities,
boogie boards, etc.) She didn't seem to notice. I gave her the Summer
Passport, and we read through all the fun things we'd try to stamp
through this summer.
She still didn't really notice that we'd been on the
highway for a while. We asked if she wondered where she was going.
"Nah, *yawn*. I'm just glad to be going somewhere." Ha!!
Well, go somewhere we shall! We got all the way through
the "All Beaches This Way" signs, still nothing really phasing her (and
we were 4 hours in!) FINALLY, we go over a hill and see the beach in
front of us. Her response? "Is that the beach? Can we stop and see
it?" Um. Yes. We can.
After being thrilled about getting to stay in a hotel
(add to list of Homey's favorite things. "It even has hangers and an
ironing board!" Impressive, I suppose), she got to geek out about the
sugar cereal that we never have at home.
And other than a little tropical storm named Andrea, we had a blast! Just a few shots of our quick beach weekend:
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| The sea was angry that day, my friends. |
More stories about our Passport fun to come!
