We haven't had a REAL family vacation in a long time. The last one I would have considered a vacation was 5 years ago when hubby was getting ready to deploy to Iraq and was sent to California for a few months beforehand. The boys and I flew out there for a 10 day stay. If you ask the boys they will say it was a vacation but to hubby, who still had to work and report to the base everyday, he would say it was no vacation.
We do day trips alot. We live about an hour north of the DFW metroplex so there is always something to do to keep us busy for a day. We homeschool and will be going to the homeschool day at Six Flags over Texas next month. We go fishing on one of the area lakes...we pack the cooler and go for the day. The only $$ we are out is if we go to a state park, we pay a small 5-$10 fee for the day. Camping is a great fairly inexpensive "vacation". If you have family near a "fun hub" you can stay with them to forego hotel rates and take advantage of activities. I know for us, lodging is one of the main expenses that keeps us from going places too far. If we do have to get a room somewhere, we always make sure there is at least a mini- fridge and a microwave so we can reduce our eating out bill a bit. We were a military family for a good many years and as you may or may not know, military pay isn't that great, so I was always trying to cut costs in some way or another.
