There’s so much more to a family vacation than meets the eye.

Since the early 80’s our extended family has spent the week surrounding the 4th of July in Bishop. By the time you get all the family together it’s around 20 people. Through the years, as kids grow up get married and have their own kids the numbers continue to grow. When it started out years ago it was about fishing with my dad, brother and kids and telling stories around the campfire. But what we came to realize is that it’s so much more. It’s about creating some incredible memories. It’s about kids and their cousins bursting with excitement in anticipation for the close approaching vacation. It’s about staying connected with cousins, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, grandparents and various forms of in-laws. It’s also about husbands and wives and children being able to get away from the daily routine and actually have time to just talk to each other. It’s about family and relationships and connectedness. There is a love and connectedness that our kids have towards my mother, my brother and his wife and their kids that they would never had had without the yearly family vacation. They have wonderful memories of my father that are the result of those weeks spent in Bishop together.

Several years ago I attended the funeral service of a friend and neighbor, his name was Bob. His son, Jeff, stood up to say a few words about his father. I will never forget the impact of his words. He shared four things that his father had taught him. Four things that had stuck with him and were life changing for him. With each of the four statements his father had made, he prefaced with where they were and what they were doing at the time. Every one of the four life changing events took place outside of and away from the home. One was while they were fishing, another while they were at a baseball game together, another, I believe, was while they were camping. His father had taken the time to spend time with his son away from the ordinary of day to day living. Though he may not have realized it when he spoke, it was during these away times that Jeff was more receptive to his father’s wisdom and less distracted by the familiar.

Moms and dads, I can’t encourage you enough to make family vacations a priority. It can be a week long or a weekend event. Just get away. It’s good for our marriage and it’s good for our children. There is something about getting away from the house, and the daily routine that opens us up to one another. Discover for yourself how much more there is to a vacation than meets the eye.