When we booked our
trip to Montana this year we also booked a bonus week at
Pend Oreille Resort in Hope Idaho. We thought it was a great deal and chances were we would be able to make the extra trip at the end of March no problem. It also happened to work out that it was spring break. Something we didn't know when we booked because we just took whatever week at any resort within driving distance that we could get and
Pend Oreille Resort was the only one with any availability.
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| Pend Oreille Lake |
Then our budget got a little tight and we thought we best use that vacation moola for some home renovations....I know boring but practical plus another trip to the States would mean that we would probably spend more than the cost of the shelf! Because you and I both know it is hard to pass up those deals in the USA!
So we started asking around if anyone wanted to take our week, since it might as well not go to waste! Lucky for us my Mom and Bob thought they would like to go and then turns out were able to go and somewhere in all the conversations I managed to invite Grady to go with them! What you say send my 3.5 y/o across the border with his grandparents? Yup mostly because he has been asking to "go on vacation" ever since we got back from
Kalispell AND since Brian had the week booked off worked we would also get a week child free. I know fab right, I am well aware how lucky we are to have such great family. Plus I was pretty sure as long as they took Grady to the pool everyday he would be happy.
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| Granpa and Grady |
Here are some tips for sending your kids on vacation with grandparents:
1) You will need a notarized letter stating that they have permission to take your child. Funny thing is the lawyer that we had sign ours said that it wasn't really that "legal" per-say but whatever its what those grumpy border crossing people want to see. AND they did ask for it when entering AND exiting the States so I was very glad to have it. I got a great form from my
friend Michelle which I then modified to include some info I thought might also be useful. If you would like a copy of my letter let me know and I can email it to you.
2) SOME googling also suggested that you have a consent to seek medical care and I thought with Grady's asthma and recent couch jumping frenulum severing fiasco that it would probably be a good idea JUST IN CASE. Same as above our lawyer friend said not really something that would hold up in court ya-da-ya-da but probably enough that the doctors would feel comfortable knowing Granma and Granpa had our permission. For this I couldn't really find a template so I just modified my border crossing consent letter to be a medical consent form.
3) I also was over cautious and sent along copies of our passports and birth certificates and marriage license. JUST IN CASE they didn't ask to see these though just the letter.
4) Have a notarized copy of #1 and #2 for yourselves at home too JUST IN CASE
5) We talked to Grady A LOT about the trip as we only had a week to prepare him we wanted to be very certain as a 3.5 yr old he (mostly) understood that Daddy and most importantly Mommy
would not be going with him. So we asked lots of "who is going with you on vacation?" "who is going to do the three steps?"(that's what we call the bedtime routine) "is Mommy going?" etc.
And without further ado here are the pics that Granma took in Idaho.I'd love to tell you more but I can't since I was at home sleeping in that week :D
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| Fort making |
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| Trips to MacDonalds |
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| Swimming, they sometimes went 2x a day! |
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| Sand box play |
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| They went to an aerospace museum |
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| Great playgrounds! |
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| Grady will always be in my heart! |
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| On the phone with Mommy and Daddy, the internet connection wasn't good enough to skype. |
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| Grady wasn't feeling well by the end of the trip, maybe too much swimming? Cuddles with Granpa helps I'm sure! |
Grady had a great trip and is still talking about it. Here's hoping there will be more in future? Maybe a good reason to stick to one kid? It is much harder to send two off on a last minute vacation with the grandparents and I bet a lot more work :D
