We met the Claybaugh’s this last week out in Grand Junction, CO for our 1st Annual Claybaugh Family Vacation. We spent the first couple nights is tents at the Highline State Park and then moved on for three nights to the Country Inn in Grand Junction.
We had been planning for a family trip for the last couple months and
decided that there needed to be a few requirements to make it
successful. After a few years of watching and experiencing the BASS Lake family trip that the Garlock’s have been doing since before Cami was born, we knew that there were a few things that could be improved upon.
1. It had to be a central location. While it is always fun to go to the lake in central California, it is not an easy commute for those of us not in southern california. I am not complaining about it because the vacation was started when the whole family lived under one roof and it was super easy to go to BASS Lake together and they are not going to change it not, which is cool.
2. We all need to stay for the whole time. This is an important aspect. Again, comparing to the BASS Lake trip, people come and go as they please and it is much more fun to all be there the whole time together. This will be more and more difficult as time goes on. We are going to try Lake Powell in the future and have a house boat that would make it virtually impossible to get off the lake until the vacation is over, but that is a couple years down the road.
3. There needs to be water involved, to a heavy degree. As Judy has said about our family "Just add water"
4. The meals will be planned ahead of time and we will have a community kitchen where we combine snacks, etc. This makes it easy and keeps people from complaining about who is eating what.
These are just a few things that would make a successful family vacation, at least in our limited experience of planning and conducting said events. (Although after the fact I must say that it worked out pretty good.)
The next couple posts will detail the trip itself.
