Long Range Planning

A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out with my friends Des and Eric at the local roller rink.  Our kids all have free passes for skating so the parents were chatting, while the kiddos did their thing on the rink.  Actually the odd thing is that I was not skating with them as I love roller skating and usually do. And if I had, well the conversation might not have happened. . .

Des said that their family was going to Disney in October of 2016 and camping at the Disney campground.  They would love it if our family could come along too as we are one of the few families they love to do camping with.  We like to do things together, but I am not a "joined at the hip" kind of person.  If something doesn't fit my family, I just do something else and hook up later. They love that as sometimes other friends have been a bit clingy and needy.

But, my company did not give raises this year.  And I have a guy in college. So this required a lot of thought and looking at the budget.  It required talking with my wife, whom I know HATES Florida with a passion.  I did both though, and I think we might be able to pull it off. We don't have a camper but I can rent one down there for way less than the cost of renting a house and the campground looks fun and like a place all the kids would enjoy.

I have also begun discussions with Fiona's group home about working with me to make a plan for her to come down for part of the week so that she too gets a Disney experience. She has wanted this her whole life--what kid doesn't?  In typical form, the head basically said gee, go ahead and take her on a trip.  I said, whoa, wait a minute. It is more than that.  I have researched and she is entitled to a vacation whether or not our family was going.  Therefore, I expect there to be a plan for accompanying her and helping her to succeed.  She may become overwhelmed and need to take space.  She may want to do something at the park that the younger kids don't want to do. Those options need to be planned for.  There was a bit of stunned silence at the end of the phone but then the head of the program agreed and said that they would be happy to contact the rest of the team and begin working on this.  I so hope it plays out well.  I have also been clear to them that Fiona is to know NOTHING about this.  It is way too far away and the anticipation will not be anything she can begin to deal with.