Staycation

Since January our work schedules leave us with only Saturdays together as a family. It's not ideal but we figure it out and it means the kids have the most time with parents over a babysitter or daycare. However, when the calendar hit August we were a little blue realizing that summer had come and almost gone and we never had any sort of vacation. Yes, when you live in Santa Barbara there is an element to vacation mode everyday— but we could tell we needed a break from the routine.

We rearranged schedules and managed to have two full days together, just us with Santa Barbara as our playground. We packed the days with adventures and surprises and turned off our phones, laptops and the washing machine. It was such a good lesson for us; the kids were thrilled to just be with us, to have our full attention, to have family time together and those 48 hours felt like total luxury.

The best part was sleeping in our own beds, never getting lost (a regular occurrence on any Watson out of town adventure), not having to pack and a couple wonderful things called cuddles and contentment. We returned to our full schedules with full hearts and an attack plan to make staycations happen throughout the year.