What would our ultimate family vacation be? That’s a tough question to answer. I even enlisted the help of my husband. Even getting away for a long weekend so we could have a honeymoon was hard. Between his work schedule and going to visit our families, we have never been away on a real family vacation.

Let’s assume ideal conditions where our children don’t get over stimulated, and being out of their routines here at home doesn’t make them crazy. We’ll also assume that our youngest child would actually sleep without requiring his own adjoining hotel room. We’ll also assume available childcare for at least part of one day so my husband and I could do something without the kids.

I’m honestly torn between an amusement park like Cedar Point, or the beach. Each have their pros and cons. Each have the potential to be massively fun. I think I would choose one of these destinations because they each hold an amount of nostalgia for me. Cedar Point was where I spent Senior Skip Day in high school. My sister and I went as a girl’s day out while my husband was deployed. My husband has never gotten to go to Cedar Point with me, and I think the kids would enjoy it too.

The beach is the same thing. I grew up on Lake Erie. We spent all summer at the beach. So much so that by mid summer, I was begging to stay home just one day. I would pray for rain because I was tired of the lake and the beach. I know that sounds crazy to some, but you never realize what you have when it’s right there all the time. Now that we live landlocked, I miss those summers. I want to take my family to experience the summers of fun that I had growing up. Although knowing what I do now about Lake Erie, I’d choose to take my family to the ocean.

Where would you go for your ultimate family vacation?

Don’t forget to enter the “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, for a chance to win your own ultimate family vacation. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

To help our schools, Bing is offering a contest where students and teachers can submit their story by completing the sentence, “Our school needs:…………………” Entries can be an essay, photos, and/or a video. Four prizes will be awarded. There will be three $50,000 first prize winners, and one $100,000 grand prize winner. The three first prizes are one from each category, K-6, 7-9, and 10-12. You can also watch a video on the Bing site to help explain the submission process better. Submissions are accepted until October 22, 2010. Please see the Bing Our School Needs site for complete rules and details.

Voting begins October 27, 2010. Stay tuned for more information on this phase of the process at a blog near you!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Bing and received a DonorsChoose.org giving code and gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

*I’m sharing this opportunity because I feel it’s relevant to my readers, and I love cooking and kitchen stuff.

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Timestamp: 2009-06-01 10:54:36 UTC

If you have a child who is into Thomas too, you can head over to MomDot.com and win a Thomas the Train at Action Canyon set. Don’t forget to browse MomDot while you’re there too. They have mom blog listings, other active contests, and much more.

And for the furniture, the couch was gone when we went to buy it. So, now we need plan B because let’s face it, no other couch will be that couch. Oh, and they discontinued it in the chocolate micro suede. The other micro suede colors are ugly or too light to have with kids, and the other fabrics are pretty awful. Yippee.

We were in the car on the way home today, and Zach was being a pill when I told him enough was enough he’d been pushing my buttons all weekend and I was done. He then asked me when I thought my buttons might pop back up again. Sad thing was he wasn’t trying to be sarcastic. He just thinks in such absolutes and he’s THAT literal. In fact I’m not sure he’d know what sarcasm was even if it bit him on the ass. I had to explain to him that his making good choices was the only thing that was going to fix the situation.

I did have some good news this weekend though. My current jeans are getting looser, so it’s time to break out the next smaller size. I’m excited about that. I haven’t really done anything differently either. The only difference is that living here on post I can walk to almost anything I need when the weather’s nice. So smaller pants it is.

That’s where I’m at. How was your weekend?

When Aaron woke up, we went for a walk around Post. We stopped and got the mail, and I took some pictures of the fall leaves. Then I heard this music and thought “Man, someone has their radio up loud.” It was my phone LOL. My Dad called to say “Hi” which is strange because I was going to call him this week. On the way to our walk we also fond a little treat on our doorstep. We got “Booed” by the Phantom Ghost. We had to make little goody bags and leave them for 2 other people and then post our ghost to show we already got one. This goes on until Halloween. I thought it was fun, and Zach thought it was fun going around the neighborhood with me. We went to the far end to try and spread the fun out.

Tonight we did something as a family we haven’t done since before Chris left for Iraq. We sat at the table and ate dinner as a family. Of course as soon as Aaron was done he wanted let out of his high chair. I can understand that, he’s only going to be 2. Although, he did keep coming back with his mouth open like a little birdie saying “AHHHHHHH” at the top of his lungs for more of our food. Zach asked to be excused as soon as he cleared his place as well. Then it was peaceful. I swear it was a circus before that. DH says it’s because they’re not used to it. I think it’s just because they’re monkeys LOL. We eat out enough that they sit at a table and eat with us, and there, we sit until we’re all done. I think I’m going to get the dinner time games I saw at Learning Express yesterday. One starts for age 3, and the other deck for age 5. We can use them both now, but if Zach thinks the age 3 one is too babyish we can save it for when Aaron’s ready to play along too.

I also found this blog revamp giveaway tonight, but I’m not sure I got in on time. The contest ends tonight. If you’re interested and you think you can get in on it, you can check it out here. I did put the blog owner’s widget (?), icon (?), whatever they’re calling the pictures that represent blogs, in my side bar. Can you tell I’m so with the times. I’m 28 and I feel like a moron some days. Speaking of, I had to explain reel to reel movies to my 7 year old and he looked at me like I was nuts when I said that’s how we watched movies in school on a pull down screen, just like in Tom and Jerry. The look on his face said “Wow, Mom must be really OLD.”

A random rambling from my grocery store trip. I found Bot Water in the organic foods section. My 7yo loves the berry and orange. He’s not a grape person so we didn’t try it. They’re like vitamin water for kids. I saw them on the MomDot.com site originally. I also got the pancake batter in a can that I saw on the Because I Said So blog awhile back. Or maybe it was the review blog. I can’t remember anymore. I’ll let you know how those go over when I make them. I figure for a non morning person like me, they’re great for when DH is gone on weekends. There’s supposedly no artificial stuff in them either. How cool is that? I wonder how many college kids have eaten the batter straight out of the can while drunk like whipped cream? I think about weird things like that.

Ok, I promise I’m done rambling for today. Hope you have a great weekend!