Win a 7 Day Stay at Diamond Resorts

-
You can Win a 7 Day Stay At #DiamondResorts | Family Vacation Time! (Check out below for details.  This is part of a promotion by Travelingmom.com)

 Vacation of a Lifetime

 As a stay at home mom planning a vacation for a family with toddlers does not always seem like a vacation at all.  It can just seem like more work.  Planning a vacation not only can be exhausting but a budget buster too.  But now, years later, I wouldn't have traded our week at a Caribbean getaway for all the money in the world.

You have probably seen the commercial with a 5 or 6 year old girl sitting in the driver seat of a car as her dad gives her driving instructions.  This is just crazy. No one would let a 6 year old drive the car.  But then the camera flashes to the reality of the situation and the girl is actually a teen who is old enough to drive and it becomes clear that even though this girl is old enough to drive her father still sees her as his 6 year old darling child.

This has been my life this entire year.  

It is almost June and a number of our friends have kids graduating from High School this year. We are in between graduations. We have two kids who have already graduated and two kids still in high school but they are getting closer to graduation faster than I think I am ready for. The carefree days of childhood have passed and our conversations have changed from who would win if Batman fought Superman to who would win if Batman fought Superman and what am I going to do after High School Graduation.

When the kids were little we took a trip to the Caribbean and stayed at an all inclusive resort.  This meant we just had to get there and once we arrived there would be no more charges. Meals were included as well as entertainment. It was fantastic. But it was not easy. When you have four kids it can be a challenge just going to the local grocery store let alone go on a long distance vacation.

When we got there we immediately realized that everything was going to be ok. The place was set up for kids including a ping pong table and pool with a waterfall. We could spend our time just focusing on the kids and what they wanted to do and didn't have to worry about planning out activities.

We had only been there a couple of days when it occurred to my husband and I that we were also being able to relax and enjoy ourselves. Our two youngest kids were not really “swimmers” yet. They definitely could not swim in the deep end on their own and so they splashed around in the shallow part of the pool with their waterwings strapped to each arm. But our daughter was determined to swim because she wanted us to take her picture underwater with the waterproof disposable camera. By the end of our vacation she had it figured out and she was swimming on her own.

I didn't think about it very much at the time but now more than 10 years later she will still tell everyone that she learned how to swim in the Caribbean. Our son will tell you about the chameleons and how cool it was that the ants built up wild little mounds on the sidewalk when it rained (and it did rain). This trip really inspired our kids to love travel and now they are great travelers. Each kid has their own memory of that trip but the biggest and best memory was that we were all there together on a grand adventure.

TravelingMom is giving away a 7-day vacation for a family of four at a Diamond Resorts International® property of your choice!

Choose between Florida, Cabos, Las Vegas or Hawaii:

Win 7 Day Stay at #diamondresorts summer dream vacation

Prizing Details:

ONE randomly drawn winner will receive one (1) week (six nights/seven consecutive days) vacation accommodation for up to four (4) people at one of the following Diamond Resorts International® resort locations:


If you are on Twitter or Instagram be sure to follow the hashtag #TMOM to jump in on the conversation and dreambuild for your next vacation with us.


* This is part of a sponsored campaign by Travelingmom.com.  All opinions and original stories are those of Stayathomemom.com. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Tips for Creating a Healthy Environment for Kids

-
Image
Guest Post by:  Jana Free Moms want the best for their kids. They want their children to feel good and to be  happy. They want them with smiles on their faces and joy in their heart. As a mom, do you often wonder if there is some kind of magic object that you  can pull out of a hat, or a magic spell you could cast, to create this perfect  scenario? I’m pretty sure there’s no object or spell, but I do know that a healthy  environment is like a magic wand that can keep kids’ eyes bright and their bodies  full of good energy. How do we moms create a healthy environment for our kids? We focus on  keeping physical spaces clean and we do more. We make sure that each aspect  of our kids’ lives is as free from toxins as we can get it. Which means we look at  the food we eat as well as the attitude we keep. The following are 5 tips for creating a healthy environment for kids. 1. Model Good Food Choices Children usually eat what they’re...
Read more

Holiday Season

-
 We're back. But more on that later! This year's holiday season is upon us and with everything going on in the world we have to get a little more creative to bring the sparkle for our little ones. This year is a great year to get back to making holiday chains out of recycled paper and a little scotch tape and spending more time snuggling and less time stressing. With holiday budgets having to be watched a little more closely every penny counts when making your holiday purchasing decisions. One of my favorite holiday traditions is the advent calendar . The only reason I am bringing this one up so early - it's not even Thanksgiving yet! - is it's important to start your Advent calendar on the first day of December. That means a little planning ahead. The advent calendar gives our family a chance to all come together and at least once a day talk about the real meaning of the season and at the same time getting a little surprise each and every day. One of our family's f...
Read more

Summer Book Club for all ages

-
Image
It almost seems incredible but I have heard people say to me "I just don't have time to read". That is the precise reason a person must read! And for those of you who have caught yourself saying that then make your first book one on time management. YES! We do have time to read. When our kids are very little we must read to them. The more we read to them the more they will grow up loving books. Kids love books that they can grab ahold of and turn the pages and look at the silly pictures even before they have a sense that there are words on those pages. But the more we read to them the more they figure it out. And when you have little kids like this in your house it might seem like you don't have time to read but you don't always have to read baby books to them. There was a great scene in the movie Three Men and a Baby where Tom Selleck's character was reading Sports Illustrated or some other grownup magazine to the baby. It didn't matter what th...
Read more