Lots of Sleepovers

I'm not sure if it's because Elliott is an only child and I am a stay at home mom, or what, but it seems like we constantly have someone wanting to spend the night at our house.  We're about 4 weeks into summer vacation, and we've already had to tell several kids that we have a limit of three times a week for sleep overs.  We've had eight sleep overs at our house already this summer and Elliott has spent the night with two of his friends as well.  Tomorrow night he is spending the night with one of those friends again.

The good thing about so many sleepovers is Elliott is willing to clean his room without much fighting.  Ha.  That's one of the conditions to have a friend over, and he's really been pretty accommodating for the most part.  It also keeps him from telling me that he is "soo bored!" which is definitely great.

There are drawbacks, too, though.  It makes it hard for us to get school work done when we have someone over so often.  I feel bad sending kids home all the time.  We aren't doing a whole lot of work these days, but I want to make sure we continue to do work at least 2 times a week, so he doesn't forget the stuff.  I also miss having more time with just Elliott.  I like his friends, but sometimes I just wanna hang out in jammies all day with Elliott, ya know?

It's also expensive having kids over all the time.  When they are active, they are hungry.  We have been over budget on our groceries constantly since school got out, so I ended up raising it by quite a bit for the summer.  Things like fruit, yogurt, and granola bars are just flying at my house right now!  We've also been doing art projects and science experiments with friends, too.  It is a lot of fun for them, and worth the money, though.

I really am glad that Elliott has so many friends.  And I'm glad that they all feel comfortable at my house, and they are comfortable talking to me about anything and everything.  As they get older, that will become even more important I'm sure.  Right now they all still listen to me and follow my rules as well, which is definitely an added bonus. :)

Summer Time

Well, Elliott is officially done with second grade now.  His last day of school was Thursday, but his last day of doing anything work related was Tuesday.  His summer vacation lasts until the seventh of July, when we officially start homeschooling.  I think he would kind of like a longer summer vacation, but he's on board with starting school in July so he can have more time off at other times of the year. :)

We started summer vacation with a bang. We drove to Bismarck yesterday and went to the zoo and Red Lobster.  We considered staying the night, but couldn't find a hotel with a decent pool that had openings by the time we made up our mind to stay the night.  So we came home.  We are planning on going swimming at one of the hotels in Minot today or tomorrow, though.  My husband is going to make some calls when he comes in from mowing the yard.  We're trying to decide whether to spend the night in a hotel, or just do the afternoon at the one with waterslides. Decisions decisions!

We have a few fun things planned this summer.  Living in North Dakota, a lot of the stuff is only open from Memorial to Labor Day, so we are planning on having a fairly busy summer.  We have plans to work on some school stuff that is related to different places in the Dakotas.  As I have been doing research, I've discovered quite a bit about my current state that I didn't know before. :)   I'm looking forward to learning even more!  We believe that having a good foundation of state history is pretty important, too.  And since this IS Elliott's home state, and the only state he's lived in so far, we think now is the time to really find out more about it, and do some traveling to see it in person.

Another Vacation?

We go on vacation every year, and have for a while now.  In my opinion it's important for our family.  I know not everyone agrees with me, but I think I personally need the time away from home to recharge, and spend more time enjoying my family.  Even when our vacations are just to my parents' house in Missouri, it helps us recharge and relax.   Plus of course, it's awesome to see family.  We live 1100 miles from "home" for both my husband and me, so we don't get to see our families nearly as often as we would like.  Elliott and I do manage to go home every year, and Carl is with us most of the time, but sometimes he's just not able to take the necessary time off from work.

This year, we were planning on just going home again.  We were  planning a trip to Kansas City for a few days.  Our parents live in the Springfield area, so Kansas City isn't that far away, but we had planned on spending 2 or 3 nights there anyway, so we could do more stuff.

However, my husband recently found out that he will almost certainly not be allowed to take any leave next summer (2014) if we are still here.  He will most likely either be sent to another base for a while, or will be left here, where they will be obviously short manned because so many will be elsewhere.  We were planning another Florida trip for next summer.  My son is really into Super Heroes and Lego blocks, so we were planning on doing Universal Orlando and LegoLand, while he still loves those things.  However, we have been talking over the idea of doing the Florida trip this year instead.  We normally have a pretty extravagant Christmas, and my whole family is on board with the idea of clearing out our Christmas savings account in late June for a July vacation to Florida.  We were also planning on buying a 3D TV within the next few weeks, and have decided instead, to put that money toward a Florida trip as well.  So if we can come up with another $500 by the end of March (about halfway between now and the trip), without cutting into debt repayment, or any of our other savings goals, it looks like the Florida trip might happen this summer!

Saving Money on Vacation

My family took two vacations this summer.  And we paid for both with cash.  Our first vacation was to Missouri, where we are both from.  We stayed with my parents, so that saved us a bunch of money . Our second vacation was to Washington state, though, where we know no one.  We were still able to save a bunch of money.


Travel by car if it's cheaper.
We travel by car when we travel because we often take our two dogs.  We also live in the Minot, ND area, where it costs around $500 per person to fly anywhere.  It's MUCH cheaper to drive where we need to go, even counting stays in a hotel.  We also like the freedom to stop in various places.

Travel with others.
Even though we are only a family of three we own a minivan.  That means that we are often able to invite others on vacation with us.   In addition to having more fun with extended family, they can also help pay for gas and even hotel stays so we save money that way.  My sister lives with us now and was able to get off work to travel with us to Missouri.  When we went to Washington in July, we invited one of my other sisters and my aunt, and met my sister in law there.  We were able to rent a larger suite and saved a lot of money over paying for just a hotel room.  We stayed in a 2 bedroom suite in one area and a 4 bedroom beach house in the other.

Pack your own snacks and meals.
Another way we save money while traveling is to pack a cooler.  My family isn't necessarily big into sandwiches, but we also pack fresh fruits and easy to eat veggies, along with beef jerky, sunflower seeds, and trail mix.  Throw in some juice boxes, soda, and bottled water, and we are set!  We limit our eating out to once a day or less, and maybe one additional drink from a gas station (if they are cheap, like they often are in the summer), while we are on the road.  When we are at our destination we try to stick to the same limits on eating out, but if we are busy, we sometimes have to eat out twice in one day.  That works on a budget if you plan carefully.

Look for good deals.
Another way we saved money was to look on groupon and livingsocial for the area we knew we would be traveling.  We ended up getting vouchers for 2 different area restaurants this time, but there were other options as well, just none that we wanted to do this time.

Plan Ahead.
I always start planning for a vacation several months in advance.  In fact, we are already laying the groundwork for our family vacation next summer!  By planning ahead you can often find a great deal on lodging.  We ended up paying $125 a night for a 4 bedroom cottage just a few minutes from a beach on the Washington coast.  Just outside of Seattle, we got a 2 bedroom suite (with a pull out couch in the living room) in a decent hotel for just over $100 per night, by booking early and using an additional discount.  They even upgraded us for free!  If you are traveling with others, this can really save you money.  We had full kitchens in both units, so that made eating in much cheaper and more appealing.

Plan to relax.
We did a lot of things in Washington, but we made sure to leave some free time, to just sit on the beach and relax, or play games in our room.  That helped us recharge our batteries, and helped us save money.