{Planning Vacations is hard}

The amount of planning that goes into a vacation with children astounds me. Seriously. Finding somewhere to go is the hardest part is seems though. Little Boy is only 5, so we're limited to what he can do and what will also be fun for him. We had originally though Disney World but it's just so far away and so expensive. It was going to cost us at minimum $3000. And that's just tickets for the parks. That's not counting food or hotel. Which I think is outrageous. So we nixed that idea and decided to wait and save that for another summer. It's not like you can grow out of having a good time at DW right?

So after realizing that was a no go we thought Six Flags. Which was fine with me. I'm not crazy about it because I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'll be the one sitting with Little Boy while D goes on all the rides with the other 2. But he kind of has it in his mind that we're going so I looked into it. For tickets and parking for the 5 of us, it'll be about $300. Which isn't too bad. But then you can't take food into the park, they only want you to eat there. So we're looking at another $100 for food (I estimated high because I know how those places work). So that's around $400 just for that place.

Another place I found was a children museum called Magic House. I found it while searching for somewhere to go in St. Louis lol. I'm kind of excited about it. We went to a childrens museum in Iowa a few years back and G and Little Boy loved it. So I can only imagine that all 3 of them will enjoy this one. The best part is that for all of us to get in it's only $50 lol. OK that's not the best part but it certainly helps me enjoy it a little more knowing that we're not paying half a mortgage payment to some place to entertain our heathens.

So just attractions are going to cost us at least $450-$500. Then we'll have to have a hotel room. *sigh* And I worked in a hotel at one point so I am not about to stay somewhere nasty. I have no desire to come home with bed bugs or roaches *shudder*. I'm guessing this will cost least $100 a night for a decent room.

Why does everything have to be so expensive?

On top of the planning of the actual vacation, I need to figure out how we're going to pack the car. I will hopefully be able to put all 3 kids clothes ect. in the same bag. If we're just going for a couple days then it shouldn't be a problem. D and I can share a bag I think. Then I think each kid should take a book bag of things they can use to keep them busy. Of course Little Boy will take his Innotab, I already have some movies he has never seen ready to go on it before we leave and I might get him a new game to play too I haven't decided yet. All 3 will probably take their DS's. I don't know what else. But I imagine they wouldn't have a hard time finding things to take.

I will also be taking snacks and drinks so I don't have to stop cause someone is hungry.

We're not going until July. I have tons of time to figure all this out. But that won't stop me from obsessing about it.