Staycation

So ideally we wanted to go 'home' to Maryland to visit family this summer. August will mark 2 years since we've been 'home' or seen our family (except my brother who flew over for Thanksgiving). With little girls growing fast that's a long time.

To add to that disappointment upon further investigating our finances, traveling really isn't a possibility for us either. Even though we are in Europe and close to many things, it is more expensive to find hotels and to eat out here (even McD's costs more) and the exchange rate isn't helping too much.

However leave was submitted and approved and with a deployment looming in the future it doesn't seem wise to not take time with our soldier when it's being given to us.

So staycation it is!

Now luckily though......we are in Germany and within an hour or 2 are so many things to simply see on a scenic drive that most people will never see in their lifetime.......so not doing any real traveling can't be that disappointing can it?

I am doing a decent amount of planning for this, since Jazlyn is old enough to read (and then shares with her little sister) I'm making up a full blown itinerary for us. Since we have 2 weeks, one week is going to be spent painting (or at least a few days) since we've been wanting to do it for a long time now but haven't had the opportunity. The girls are quite excited for this lol.

Among some of my ideas are:

Visiting Cologne, Trier and the Rhine Valley (all can be done within a day)
Going to a barefoot park
Video-Game Day (complete with family Wii night)
Kids make dinner night
PJ Day
Photo Shoot on location (done with a friend)
Board Game Day
Exploring our town on foot
Watching a sunrise together
Family Movie 'afternoons'
TV show marathon (watching an entire season of a tv show)
Bike Riding (the girls are still learning)
Dance Lessons (going to get a video tutorial)
Swimming at local lakes/pools
Candle light dinner
Picnicking
Local Festivals
Family Discussion/Investigation on where we'd like to live next
Visit a Japanese Garden
Squirt Gun Fight
Craft Day (to make our souvenirs)


Prior to the on-set of our staycation I have rallied the girls to help me make the house 'hotel pretty' complete with new air fresheners for every room. We are going to dole out specific 'running' responsibilities for 'maid service' so the house keeps that hotel feeling with minimal work. (Things like picking up toys, tossing dirty laundry, making beds). I'm hoping to use as little dishes as possible and make some meals ahead for freezing and buying ready made meals.

Prior to the Rhine Valley trip I plan on sharing some of the legends/stories/fairy tales of the regions with the girls, and serving as a tour guide while we are driving and seeing the sites.

I am still in the planning process, so any thoughts/advice/recommendations are more than welcome.

I remember R&R during Jason's deployment when we had hardly any time together in Germany before he left so when he got R&R it was all new, and we just spent the 18 days hanging out at home and seeing stuff around us. It was wonderful. He's been working so much in the past few months and had a few stints of being gone and it coming up on increasingly longer absences until he deploys. So while traveling would be nice, I think just having time together doing things we wouldn't 'normally' do is just as good.

The girls are excited, so it's hard to not be excited myself.......8 days to go till we get to start!