I may need a vacation from my vacation..., Part One

Vacation. I'm obsessed with it. I think it's a mental vacation for me to think about and plan for an actual vacation, so I've been spending too much time thinking about what we'll do this summer.

First, I was on cruises. Cruises are great because there is something for everyone to do every minute of the day (like my kids) and other family members are free to relax by the pool with a book and a Purple Bird of West Green Bananas cocktail.  Yes, I realize that this sounds like I'm planning a vacation where we don't have to spend every second of every day together, and yes, I will leave that off my Mom of the Year application. Also, the all inclusive makes it much easier to make and stick to a budget. Perfect for a cheap frugal person like me.

So, cruise. Bahamas or Jamaica?  Grand Cayman or Belize?  Honduras?

Definitely no Mexico - we went there last year. On that trip we learned our kids are NOT adventurous. One of them who shall not be named (*ahem* Tucker *ahem*) is just flat out not a risk taker in any way. He likes routine. The same. No surprises. For this reason, I've determined that we need to put the boys into situations where they feel uncomfortable so they can be be comfortable with their discomfort. Travel is the perfect way to do this! Makes perfect sense, right?  I thought so.

When we couldn't decide on a cruise, Trey suggested we just wait to book something and see if we can get a deal at the last minute. We really don't have a preference on where to go, so let's decide not to decide. I was totally on board with this. But, of course, I continued to obsess on vacations.

I discovered that cruises out of Florida are cheap  very inexpensive. In fact, we could fly to Florida and go on a cruise to the Bahamas and spend about the same amount as a cruise from Galveston or New Orleans. The boys have never been on a plane before, so there's the added adventure I'm wanting. Strangely, Keaton has decided that his dream vacation is to go to Miami (I have no idea why, and I don't think he does either). So this is my next plan -- fly to Miami, cruise to the Bahamas. One of the boys who shall not be named (*ahem Tucker ahem*) might need a kiddie xanax, but we'll cross that runway when we get to it.

But wait!  If we're going to fly, we may as well look into all inclusive resorts and forgo the cruise altogether. This has all the same benefits of a cruise (activities, food and drink included), without the ship. It may actually be less expensive according to my calculations. THIS is our plan!

But the boys don't have passports. They don't have them because their mother is cheap frugal and doesn't want to spend the money on them. I have, however, finally come to realize that once they have passports, we are free to choose any of the vacation options previously listed for years to come.

We got out of school early today, so off to the post office we went. And thus began the Great Passport Debacle of 2013.