HAWAII

My husband and I are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow. I am beyond excited to spend some quality one on one time with my man. We haven’t been on a trip just the two of us since our honeymoon. Not to say we haven’t gone on little trips here and there, but we have always been with family or other couples…so to say we are ready to be on an island alone after 6 years of marriage and 2 kids is an understatement. To be able to go on our own adventures and not have to worry if we have enough diapers in the diaper bag or an emergency snack sounds like a dream.  However, every parent knows that going on vacation (with or without the kids) involves a lot of planning. I am a big list maker. I shudder to think about how much paper has gone to list making in my lifetime. Regardless, we leave tomorrow list check-marked complete or not. I know that one of the tasks I will try to occupy my time with on that long plane ride is going to be a “gift list” with people I will try to pick something authentically Hawaiian up for. Which brings me back to books and writing…

I hope I find a book for each of the kiddos while we are there. I love buying a book while I am in a different place, especially for the kids, because every time I read it to them it brings back the memories of where we were when I got it. Another plus to buying a book on vacation instead of clothing is the kids won’t grow out of it the next day. They might grow out of having you read it every night, but then they will see it on their bookshelf and be reminded of who got it for them and where it was from and they will ask you to read it again.

One of Tucker’s bedtime favorites is A Bear Came Along by Richard T. Morris. It is a sweet story about a bear, a river and different animals that end up on an adventure together they weren’t planning on. Every time I read it, I think of the children’s museum and bookstore outside of Hayward, Wisconsin we went to as a family. My husband’s family has been going on summer vacations to Hayward since he was a little boy. It has been fun to start that tradition with our little family. Everything is new and exciting to the kids. Different aspects of the landscape are highlighted when you look at something you have seen a million times through the lens of a child seeing it for the first time. Places get new life from the energy children bring. I venture to say that vacations and holidays, while more tiring, are a lot more fun when kids are involved. They bring the hope associated with the unknown. I love making memories and books lace through memories like words weave and flow to create the perfect sentence. Just like a line from a good story that will stay with you or a catchy song you can’t get out of your head. So, buy the book. Create the memories. Build new ones as you read the new favorite “vacation book” as many times as they ask to hear it.

I’ll keep making my lists and (hopefully) checking things off those lists while I search for our new bedtime favorite on an island in the middle of the Pacific. I’ll be missing my little nuggets as I burry my feet in the sand and apply ALL. THE. SUNSCREEN. However, when I get home, I will snuggle up for story time and pull out a book that sparks the imagination of the next great Hawaiian adventure and create a new favorite memory.

Do you have any favorite books that you picked up while on vacation? Or how about any books about far away places you hope to one day explore? Let me know in the comments below and have a wonderful weekend! Until next week…