Home vs. Away

There are two types of people living in this house. The travelers (Ella and I) and the homebodies (Brennan and Natalie). I'm not sure if Natalie will stay a homebody. Right now it seems like she just doesn't really care if she stays home or goes somewhere. All summer long Ella's first words every morning were "Mom, where are we going today?" And if I replied "Today you get to stay home and play with your toys," I would get "But, Mom, I'm not sick," in response.

I can understand Brennan's point of view. He's gone all day. Lately he's been gone some long hours. He's out amongst grown ups all day. Even when he gets home he's had to pull out the laptop after the girls go to bed, and reply to emails or work on documents. So I can see wanting to come home and relax. If you're on the move all day, you probably don't feel like taking a spontaneous road trip.

The travelers in the house are getting a trip itch. It's winter in Minnesota, and however mild it has been, we're still getting a little stir crazy. Case in point, yesterday Ella says, "Mom, remember when we stayed at the hotel, and brought our floaties, and swam in the pool? That was fun." This morning she says to Grandma as I'm dropping them off for my much needed Thursday, "Grandma, we stayed in a hotel, and swam in the pool, and it had a twisty slide, and I went down it with Mommy." Natalie announces she was too scared to go down the twisty slide. All true. And the trip she speaks of was one to the Dells. In October of 2006. Over a year ago. Then she says, "And one time, we stayed in bunk beds." Yup. That was this past July. She'll also still occasionally bring up driving to Florida with Grandma, Mom and Natalie. That was over Natalie's first birthday. Ella wasn't even 3 yet.

Growing up my parents owned a weekly newspaper, and they couldn't travel together. Someone had to stay to make sure the paper got out every week. Which meant I often got double the vacations. Out to Boston with Mom. Skiing with Dad. Drive out to Wyoming with mom, and on the weekend Dad would come and Mom would go back. I almost wonder if this is in our future. If the homebodies will stay home, and the travelers will travel. Maybe once the girls are a little older, and Brennan's work isn't so demanding, we'll settle in to a few more trips. Or maybe, Ella and I will road trip to an ocean. It's not that we need to go to Europe, or see anything in particular. Sometimes we just need to get out of Dodge, and get a change of scenery for a bit.

For now we'll look for some balance. Take an extra trip to Target or the mall. I'll look at ticket prices for Seattle, and research hotel prices in Duluth or the Dells. It's like window shopping. Look forward to a trip to Wyoming in June with my family (which Brennan is hopefully able to break away for, not sure yet). We'll get there.