Traditions

I am instituting a couple of family traditions. The first is having adventures. I want to have an adventurous life and I want the kids to have one as well. We bought a mini-van and headed out on our first family adventure last weekend -- Hood River. Lots of fun! We visited friends and took the kids sledding (Sonia declined to participate but Jack loved it). The next day we went to several museums -- an antique car and airplane museum in Hood River, then onto OMSI in Portland. We spent a loooong time in the car due to traveling on a holiday weekend but we had fun. We spontaneously stopped in Olympia to eat.. for us, wild times.

Our next big adventure is a 3 week trip to London. It is important to note that adventure does not always mean fun. It's an escape from our every day life. I am not sure taking 2 small children across several time zones to a different country will be fun .. but it will definitely be an adventure.

The other tradition I've started is weekly dinner guests. Every week, we have 1 family, couple, or person over for dinner. I want the kids to know how important it is to have friends and be a good friend, how to be a good host ( I am still figuring this out), and how to cook (also still in process). It's also a bit of an adventure because we never know how the kids will behave with others around.. sometimes they are happy and sometime they are .. not.