Basically, my husband and I have gone insane. For months, we planned to spend our summer vacation at my family’s lake house on Lake Livingston. One week. Close to home. No frills. Relaxing fun.

But somehow over the past few weeks, that plan has changed to: Two weeks. Few days at the lake. Road trip to Colorado. Few days in Dallas. Griswold Ryan Family Vacation.

Yeah, don’t let that middle part slip by unnoticed. Road trip to Colorado. With four young kids. Friends, if I return a changed woman (or if I fail to return at all), just remember that this is where I lost it.

I can easily list about a million reasons why this has the potential to be a bad idea. Boat wrecks. Car trouble. Car sickness. Altitude sickness. Sunburns. Fighting children. Fighting parents. Uncomfortable beds. Too many potty breaks. Not enough potty breaks. Too much fast food. Too much togetherness. And the list goes on and on.

But no matter how many reasons exist that can keep me from wanting to go, only one reason is needed to ignore them all: Memories.

I cannot foretell if the memories we make will be good ones or bad ones, but I do know that they will be ours. And since we only have 12 more summers until our children begin graduating and possibly leaving the nest, we’ll take every chance we can get to create those memories.

Someone once said, “The days are long, but the years are short.” God gives us our children for such a short time and then they’re gone. Here’s to hoping that, when they do leave, they’ll leave with plenty of “Remember when…”s.

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