Travel Plans

2008 seems to be our year for extensive travel. It's almost the middle of the year but we still have the bulk of our trips planned in the next 4 months. So far this year, Seth and his dad went to Santa Fe for a week in February to attend another blacksmithing course. Fortunately, they made it back in time to attend the Winter Charity Ball.

In March, I took a trip with "The Girls". 7 of us went to Las Vegas to play in the World Bunco championships at Caesar's Palace. We had an awesome time. I must have taken about 300 pictures. Soon after returning from Las Vegas, we took the kids on a last-minute trip to Anaheim and San Diego visiting Disneyland for a few days then renting a car and driving down to San Diego for the rest of the week. It was Spring Break and neither of my partners were taking the week off so we seized the opportunity and had a blast. Another 200 pictures - got to love the digital age.

Seth attended another acupuncture course - this time in Calgary, Canada. I went along simply because I'd never been to Calgary before. It was a quick 5 day trip in May. Calgary reminded me a lot of OKC. We drove to Banff and visited Lake Louise and, of course, ate at some very nice restaurants in Calgary. I hope that future acupuncture courses are in the larger Canadian cities. Calgary isn't the type of city that I'd go out of my way to visit again. I would love to visit Quebec someday. This time, just a handful of pictures mostly from our day in Banff.

On the agenda for the rest of the year:

5 - 6 June: Amina's highly anticipated 11th birthday party. It's not really a trip - "the girls" are coming over around 1:30 on Thursday and we'll drive to Oklahoma City to go to Incredible Pizza Company for games and dinner. After dinner, we'll drive home, swim at night, then the girls will spend the night. Amina was promised a Birthday Cookie from the Great American Cookie Co for breakfast. Dee, Jason, Mom, and the twins are driving up from Dallas on Friday. As an added surprise, I just ordered a cake today in the shape of a large pink cell phone. I figured since Amina won't be getting a real cell phone this year for her birthday (despite some MAJOR hint dropping), she'd still get a cell phone.....cake. LOL. Yes, I'm an evil mommy. Bwah-ha-ha-ha....

28 -29 June: overnight stay at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine for Rhys' birthday. I convinced him to spend his birthday at GWL instead of planning another pool party (Pokemon themed no less). When I sat down to research party supplies, favors, and other Pokemon themed things, my head was spinning. Dee, Jason, and my mom will come up from Dallas and meet us there. The twins will be in Las Vegas visiting their other grandma. We plan on leaving Saturday morning, arriving early afternoon, spending the afternoon playing MagicQuest, having dinner, spending the night (we booked the Wolf Den Suite complete with the cave themed club house with bunk bed and tv for the kids), then hitting the indoor waterpark on Sunday morning at 9 am. We'll probably drive back home again late Sunday afternoon.

2 -7 July: Backpacking trip in Santa Fe. Seth really really wanted to do this trip with the kids this year. His plan is for us to drive to Amarillo on Wednesday evening, spend the night, then drive to Albuquerque on Thursday to pick up supplies at REI and spend the night. We hike into the Santa Fe mountains on Friday, spend 2 nights and hike back down on Sunday, drive to Amarillo to spend the night, then return home on Monday.

21 August - 1 September: 10-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise on the Celebrity Galaxy to celebrate Seth's 40th birthday and my 39th birthday. Our itinerary includes Rome, Sicily, Athens, Mykonos, Ephesus, Rhodes, Santorini, and Naples. This will be our 3rd Celebrity cruise and our first time cruising Concierge Class.

10 -17 October: Adventure by Disney's Spirit of America tour. We've been really wanting to do an ABD but my first inquiry ended with a shocker when I got the sticker price for a trip to China for the 4 of us. It was enough to buy a new car! I abandoned that idea right away hoping that prices will drop after the Olympics in Beijing this summer. We settled on the Spirit of America tour and it sounded so interesting that Ron and Deb decided to go with us. The kids will miss a few days of school but the trip promises to be an awesome American History learning experience for them. Surely, there will be some opportunity for "extra credit" somehow. This 8-day tour includes Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Williamsburg. The best part: Disney makes all of the travel arrangements for us.

23-27 October: Seth and I are now signed up for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13K at Disneyworld. This is a night race which will be a new experience for us. This race takes place during the 13th Annual EPCOT Food and Wine festival which we attended last year for the Race for the Taste 10K. The festival was absolutely wonderful and we vowed then and there to make this an annual trip if possible. The 13k is just an excuse to go to the festival!