I am feeling a bit all over the place lately! With my PLANNING!
(YES I KNOW! But hey, just so you all know – it happens to planning aficionados, too.)
I never planned our summer trip because it took a really long time to get Josh’s schedule sorted out.
Now we have our week for travel identified, but a little kink in our plans was that the kids really want to see Olivia Rodrigo live, as I previously mentioned. We missed her in Miami (mistake) and the Philadelphia ticket prices are insane. Like, cost of an entire vacation insane if you multiply x 5.
So. I started looking at alternative dates, and realized that we could see her in California or Seattle for something like 1/3 the price (still bad, but not nauseating) AND combine it with our summer trip during our vacation week. Seattle/Olympic National Park area is not Maine/NH, but it does have some of the same essential elements (beautiful natural areas, mountains, cool temperatures, total change of scenery from FL).
They even have maple syrup. AND one of Josh’s best college friends. So I guess maybe it’s GOOD that I didn’t plan our trip yet? This will likely work out and I will just have to table New England for another summer — I still absolutely want to go!
This was not on our 5 year travel plan, but that’s okay.
(Of course now I feel like I must scramble to get lodging and this reminds me of doing the same thing last year with Vancouver Island! Ahh well, it worked out and it probably will again.)
You know what else was not in the plan for this year? Changing schools (for next year, not this one) for one of the kids. There were multiple reasons behind the desire to switch, and it was hard (especially for me — who had envisioned 2 more years with all 3 of them together in their current school) to make this decision. But it’s now all settled and done! I feel a little bit of sadness but mostly a ton of relief, as I think it’s the best decision for the kid.
(And the others may end up eventually moving too, but definitely not next year! So there is a chance they will all be together again someday anyway.)
In other news, something about all of this change has prompted PLANNER UNREST and I am itching to jump out of my Hobonichi. This will probably be temporary (I always want to get back in when the NEW Hobonichi buzz starts around August/September!) but since trying different products is actually part of my job now (I mean . . kind of?) I’m just going to lean into it. Sometimes a new layout can actually help me see patterns in my time use or task management that I didn’t see before, and moving into a new book can help me spot things I didn’t see the first time around, so I don’t think it’s an entirely irrational things to do.
(It is a bit . . . extra. But just not entirely superfluous in my opinion!)
On that note, I will mention that Amanda’s Favorites published her EC launch video: here! Lots of cool changes coming to their Daily Duo, especially.
17 Comments
Oof, I found summer planning much harder this year, even with 1 kid and pretty flexible work schedules.
I intended to fly to my parents for 2 weeks the day after school got out but flights were DOUBLE what they normally were, so we shifted our trip back, which had a knock on effect on camps for the rest of the summer. I was planning on sending him to a camp for a bit of time while we are in Portugal, so I can work for some of it but those are notoriously slow about publishing timetables. We didn’t even pay for camp until 4 days in last year.
I’ve got a July/August calendar printed off and am going to get my husband to go through it with me at lunchtime. Luckily, we’ve just got 7 weeks, so it’s not a huge amount of time. Sign ups don’t need to happen super far in advance and T is quite flexible – he’ll miss going to the sealife camp, but the forest camp he LOVES (ax throwing! archery! den building!) will be running.
Seattle in summer is glorious! Hit me up if you want ideas/suggestions for your trip.
Seattle is awesome for kids! Lots to do in the city, close to many nature options, and has a fun food scene.
What planners will you be trying? Is that Erin Condren I spot in the photo?
Hi Sarah! I don’t know if you can comfortably elaborate on the school decision but I’d love to hear more about what your considerations were. Maybe this varies by region but it would never in a million years occur to me to have my kids switch schools. In this area most people use the public schools and those who go private usually make the decision early and stick with it. I suppose there’s no reason that you have to be locked in but that seems to be the norm here! Totally fine if you aren’t able to share any more but I guess I’m curious as to what factored in – school type (Montessori vs other), administration, social environment? Glad that the decision is made and hope all goes well!
Summer in Seattle even if it’s not the summer trip you envisioned! Hopefully you can find accommodations and build around that and come up with a plan!
I am sure the school change decision was hard but hopefully you feel peace now that it’s made. This is like a small fraction of the stress you experienced but we had to change daycares last summer after some issues with the daycare owners/management and even having that small decision hanging over us was really hard. Which again – teeny tiny fraction of the stress you went through with tween!!
Our summer plans are set but summers are easy to plan for us because it is the best season of the year here in Mn so we don’t go on trips and soak up time at my parents’ lake home. Now that our older is in a public school summer program, we have to figure out what week we will spend at my parents in the spring so we don’t pay for that week of care and the planner in me LOVES THIS!! My husband is NOT a planner and would rather just wait on making plans. I much prefer knowing what we will be gone, especially now that I am traveling more for work.
Yes, what EC book do you have there? So small and pretty! Can’t wait to hear about your planner change up if it happens….
I have always wanted to take my kids to Olympic National Park! Rainforest, mountains, and stunning beaches (and very different from FL beaches!) all in one park. I think you will find some similar vibes to Maine for sure. Also, my 10-year-old daughter just went to Olivia on her birthday (my sister who is a big Olivia fan took her) and it seemed like a PERFECT first concert for her (although she was definitely one of the youngest there).
We loved visiting Seattle! Taking the ferry from Seattle over to the Olympic Peninsula was so neat, and Olympic National Park was one of my favorites. We also visited North Cascades National Park (gorgeous and with more glaciers than Glacier National Park), Mt Rainier National Park (very pretty), and Mt St Helens (so cool to see the lava fields — they look like solidified waves). Wishing you the best as you plan your summer!
We went to Olympic National Park back in 2018. Housing options in ONP were pretty thin and by the time we booked, nearly everything was gone. We wound up camping and literally booked the last available camping spot. So don’t wait too long to book housing! Also, there are a lot of awesome tribal communities in WA state – I highly recommend checking them out. We drove out to the Makah reservation at the very Western tip and they have a wonderful museum there. Also, some breathtakingly beautiful hikes. It was actually the highlight of our trip.
Honestly I think you can’t go wrong with a trip to Seattle! I’ve never been there, but I have been to Maine/NH- so I would opt for Seattle if i had the choice.
Yes, bummer about the school situation- I mean at least for you. Sounds like it’s best for the kid though. I hope the start/end times aren’t too different than the other two kids. Since my kids are six years apart, they never attended the same school. And the start/end times are wildly different for elementary/middle/high school, so it was kind of annoying. But like everyone else- we made it work.
I was actually thinking about you and the school change today because we found out my daughter got into a magnet program. Where we live you don’t apply, everyone eligible just gets entered into a lottery and you get a random letter one day. Anyway switching schools was not at all something I had been thinking about but now I’ve been thrown off all day! A nice problem to have but it very much feels like there’s an opportunity to mess this up. School is such a big part of kids lives you really want to get it right!
I love the vacation pivot! It sounds like a lovely plan that encompasses exploring new places with the kids AND seeing a concert. Win win! New England isn’t going anywhere… and doesn’t change much 🙂
Side note I feel like I haven’t heard about migraines lately… did you finally find something that worked?
Stopped hormonal birth control in August and zero migraines since. Who knew …
Seattle in the summer is amazing weather and has lots of day trips you can explore- go hiking near Mount Rainer, take the ferry to Bainbridge Island, drive up to Bow Edison! Sending good summer travel vibes to you from another physician mom of 3 here that lives in WA state!
Seattle is amazing and to celebrate our move we did a quick ONP trip last summer. Mountains, beaches, hotsprings and rain forests in one park. we booked last linute and ended up at an Airbnb in Port Angeles, which was not a bad home base near the park. Lots of other great things to see and it will be a huge relief from the weather in FL.