Bucket List: Trips before the kids leave home

Five and a half years ago, when David, Jr. was 6 months old, Allyssa was 2 1/2, and Kaytlin was just a dream, David and I decided that we'd write down 10 places we wanted to go: 5 with the kids, 5 without.

We wanted to take the five trips with the children after the kids were old enough to know that we had gone and before Allyssa graduated high school. The list has sat in the top drawer of my husband's dresser beckoning me every time I put away his undershirts.

Two years ago, I asked David when we would take the first trip. I wanted to go when Kaytlin was almost 4. David didn't think we'd be able to swing a big trip without running up the credit card, so he wasn't sure we'd be able to do it that soon. So I started saving.

I've never been one to keep a secret. I don't like surprises, but I really, really wanted to see if I could save enough money to go on this trip. I put back anything I could. After about a year, I put a few hundred dollars worth of cash out in front of my husband. To say he was surprised would be an understatement. I said, "I think we will be able to swing that trip. How about the Grand Canyon in 2015?"

He had some questions. Where did the money come from? (Any gifts we received I tucked away; any extra dollar was put away, too.) Was I hiding more? (Nope!)

Thankfully, he didn't mind my surprise, and now that the cat was out of the bag, I wanted a bank account to put it in. So, he set one up and we started getting interest.

We started talking about the logistics of the trip: sleeping arrangements (we have 3 kids), other places we'd see on the way there, what we would do to prepare the kids to go. We decided that perhaps the best option would be to invite my parents so that one kid could take a break from the other two at night sometimes so that we'd all get better sleep. My parents had never seen the Grand Canyon, so we thought they might enjoy the trip as well. A year and a half before our trip, we asked them if they wanted to join us. They did!

Come back to hear more about our trip in my next post!