{written from the heart… so expect some grammatical errors that will eventually be fixed within the first week of me reading this post again… and again… and again)
So you may have seen a few of my posts that referenced #labiancaboxtrip. You may have been asking yourself – What the heck are the LaBianca’s up to now??? Are they learning to Box (weird) – are they living out of a box ( not as weird – but still a little odd) ???
I have this crazy mind that never stops… I tend to see things just a little differently and when life poses a problem – I try and come up with an out-of-the-box solution. I can actually be OBNOXIOUS with it – I just truly do believe everything has a solution. I even tell my kids – are you the person looking for the problem or are you the person finding the solution.
Ok – So when we lost both of my in-laws – we lost a huge part of what made our family complete. With my father-in-laws passing this last November – we have no more reasons to be making our annual visits to see them in NY and FL. It tears me up to no longer have the ” WE need to go see your parents” anymore. With every visit – over the last 12 years … we made so many memories that without knowing it… those visits became more then just vacations – they became traditions. I crave those early years more then anything.
So I knew we needed something new to fill this void we now have in our life. Something to look forward to. Something different. I wanted to come up with something where the kids got a “voice” in our vacation planning. I wanted to eliminate the “I don’t know… where do you want to go” song and dance. I also have been wanting to start gearing the kids to less toys for Christmas and instead going on a Big Trip.
Enter THE BOX IDEA… (Excuse the horrible box picture… just keeping it real ya’ll… and taking product photos and designing pretty layouts is just not my thing)
On Thanksgiving – Any family member that knows how to write (Sutton sadly doesn’t get a say yet) gets a vote. Each person wrote down 3 places that they wanted to visit. NO International that requires a plane ride longer then 6 hours was the only rule for the next few years – that rule came into place when Madagascar was thrown into the mix.
We then give the box a SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE – and then close our eyes and grab one of the folded piece of paper and place it in another box.
We wrap up the box and then on Christmas Morning we open up the box and see where our vacation will be.
Here is what was put in the box.
Emerson – California, Rhode Island and Tahoe (In the Winter)
Hayden – Cape Cod, Hawaii and Colorado
Mom – Banff, Maine, and Oregon
Dad – North Carolina, Wyoming and Puerto Rico.
There are two caveats to “The Box Trip”
You can BOOST the box – if someone else wants to go to a place too – they can vote for the same place to give it an extra “boost” in the box.
You can CHEAT the Box – ONE time – If the trip chosen gets Moans and Groans… like BANFF did this year – you can place all the locations back in the box, including Banff … and give another SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE … but if Banff is chosen again – then that is where we are going. For us Wyoming was chosen on our “Cheat the box”.
Well as many of you know we just went to WYOMING (and threw in a few other states into the mix – because why the heck not).
and that my friends is what we now know as THE LABIANCA BOX TRIP. We are all so excited about where we want to go next.
I plan on creating a photo album from this trip and place it in the Trip Box for next year – so when we open the box on Christmas Morning – We will remember all the fun we had and will get us excited for where we go to next.
Here are just a few of the images from the airport as we make our way to Wyoming. I do believe there is nothing better then the very first day of vacation. It’s why I take so many photos of us going to the airport.. it brings back the excitement we all had just before we made our way to Wyoming.
I plan to blog our adventures from the first trip – soon…which means it will most likely get to it by next year.
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She wanted to use her sissies backpack – which was just as big as she was – but man did she demand that she carry it. As you will see I helped her out (when she wasn’t looking)
When you have a girlie girl… fake nails are a great way to waste some time.