One of the advantages of being a younger sibling is that you get sneak previews into what is coming in future life stages. My younger three are getting a peek into college life this weekend. They’ve heard about dorms and colleges for most of their lives, but now they’ve walked around a campus, eaten in the student cafeteria, seen their older sister’s room, and heard stories about roommates. I keep hearing them say things that start “when I go to college…” Link in particular is looking around the school in picturing himself attending there. Which would be fine with me. I like this school, but we’ll make sure that when the time comes for him to pick a college that he doesn’t default to this one because it is the only campus that is familiar.
We rented a condo for this trip. I’ve discovered that a condo which sleeps six is more expensive than a hotel room, but less expensive than two hotel rooms. With the condo comes a sitting room, two bathrooms, and a full kitchen. Being able to cook our own food brings the cost of eating down. So far we’ve rented condos in both Moab and Cedar City. Both experiences have been good. We all love the Moab condo so much that we’ve gone back to the same one three years in a row. Having the condo space means that after we’ve been out together all day, we can spread out and have space from each other in the afternoon. Then we can gather and watch a movie together in the evening. It works out far better for us than trying to share a single hotel room.
I’ve had to learn not to attempt to script every single moment of a vacation. Sometimes vacation means going out and doing things. Other times it means hanging around the condo while the kids play on mobile devices and I sneak in an hour of working. Tomorrow is our last day here. Then we’ll bid Kiki farewell and drive home. That will be nice too.