Thanks Markus!

So I will start. Last night, I was talking to Markus and he mentioned that we are going to need to start having Immediate Family Reunions since we just don't get to see each other very much. Even when we do get together, it always seems like someone or other is missing. I thought these "IFRs" are actually a brilliant idea. (IFR is short for Immediate Family Reunion - if you didn't get that.) I think that if we plan in advance to have some sort of family vacation every couple years, it will give us something to look forward to and a definite way to spend some time together - ALL OF US! I don't think we should have to wait for a Wedding or a 90th Birthday to have an excuse to get together. Just wanted to see what you guys thought.

I know money is tight in certain circumstances, so it’s not like we are going to plan a trip to Hawaii or anything (yet). But I’ve been doing some research and to make our first IFR as cost effective as possible, I came up with 2 options. If anyone else has ideas - PLEASE throw them out there. These can be up for discussion.

Option #1 - The Lake Havasu Family Vacation - we can rent a house in Lake Havasu, AZ and just play on the lake for a few days. The home rentals are not that expensive, the lake is huge and the area is beautiful. Most of the rental homes have a pool, they do fishing trips, boat tours, and you can rent any water toy that you want. Plus we would be going somewhere new and exciting.

Option #2 - The Southern Utah Family Vacation - this would be the same idea except we would stay in Southern Utah. They have Sand Hollow and Zion Nat'l Park, so we would definitely find things to do. But there will be certain restrictions - Mom & Ron won't be allowed to WORK, and we have to plan some actual activities! No just hanging around the house. It is supposed to be a vacation.

Let's talk dates. Does everyone think they could do something later this year? Or do we need to plan more in advance? I was looking at either late September or early October. The weather is still warm, but it's off season. I just wasn't sure if it would conflict with the kids' school so that's one thing to think about.

I also looked into flights for the Missouri people. Either way, you guys would fly into Las Vegas and hitch a ride the rest of the way to Havasu or Utah. You can fly from Kansas City to Las Vegas for about $200/person, round-trip. To fly from Springfield will be about $400/person. I don't know if that's worth it to save on drive time, but that's up to you guys. And of course these prices are dependent on what time of year we have this shin-dig.

Also, just to give you guys an idea of the rental homes in Havasu, most of the places that have a pool and grill and sleep 6-10 people are about $135 a night. Again, this is dependent on the time of year that we go. But if we stay 4-5 nights (I was thinking a long weekend) and split that between all of us, the cost would be about $85/person for a whole 5 days - not counting Jorel or Luke. They are free. You can't get that rate at a hotel! Keep in mind that if we rent the house, we will have to bring our own food, but since we'll have a fridge and everything we can buy at the grocery store and have cook-outs at the house to save some money.

I may have gotten ahead of myself, because I am REALLY excited about this. So I hope it is something that we can work out. I guess the info we need to discuss is:

a. What dates will work for you & your family?
b. Do we want to try & do this in 2008 or plan for 2009?
c. Which vacation destination to you prefer?
d. What can we afford?
e. How long do we want to stay?

So let's talk about it and get this thing rolling!
Love you guys - Jaana