Excuse Me, Is it Time for Spring Break?

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, we love our vacations and breaks from work and life. We don’t get lots of sunshine (we get about 200 days of clouds and rain a year) so we like to leave town for long weekends and spring breaks. In fact, earlier this year my daughter and I took advantage of our school district’s Mid-Winter Break (President’s Day week) and did a California Roller Coaster trip. So you bet I’m excited about Spring Break because we aren’t going anywhere!

What? No sunshine for Kevin? Yes, sadly that is correct. Since I’m a school photographer, Spring Break is a mixed bag of work and a few days off. All the school districts in the Seattle area like to take different weeks off for spring break. This is a major pain in the butt because I have to work during my kids spring break. This year I have a few days off so I’m hoping we can do a couple of fun adventures in Seattle. Maybe go out swimming at Tahoma Pool or even over to the Federal Way Community Center and partake in their swimming pool and lazy river. I wouldn’t mind even staying in a hotel for an evening and enjoying the hotel swimming pool and getting a pizza for dinner!

So tomorrow starts the Spring Break week for our family. My wife and I are headed out of town to the Eastern side of Washington State in the hopes to find a little sunshine and relaxation. I’ll make sure to give a full report of my trip to Winthorp, Washington and let you know how things are there. We get back on Monday. My son gets a little longer vacation with his friend’s family to the Oregon Coast.

The Oregon Coast is an excellent vacation but it never seems to be sunny (even in August). Honestly, we once had better weather in December than we did in August on the Oregon Coast. Nevertheless, the Oregon Coast is a beautiful vacation spot for scenic views and gorgeous beaches. Just plan to enjoy your hotel’s indoor pool if you want warm weather.

Thanks for reading. As always, leave those comments and snide remarks below!

First Day of School! Happiness returns to my Home!

Back to School!Today was the first day of school for the Kent School District here in the rainy Puget Sound area.  To be honest, I cannot remember any first day of school being so rainy.  Sure, maybe we did have a rainy day on Kauai when I was a kid but usually in the Seattle area we luck out with no rain on the first day of school.  Most years, we enjoy a nice September of great sunny weather (and wish our kids were out of school in September instead of rainy June).  Last year, we had awesome sunny weather until October 1st.

That doesn’t mean that our Labor Day Weekend is always good.  We’ve had Labor Day Weekends full of solid, miserable rain where we were stuck in the lake house the whole three day weekend.  On the bright side, this upcoming Labor Day Weekend is looking fairly good according to the TV weather folks.

Yet happiness has returned to our household with the first day of school.  Over the summer, the kids did argue and have a few fights.  I know that is shocking considering what an awesome father I am and how well behaved my children are.  I also may have forgotten to feed my daughter lunch a few times during the summer.  But in my defense, she is 10 and knows how to make a sandwich.  Besides, I was doing yard projects and my hands were dirty….well, not really I wear gloves…gotta keep my hands soft.

The kids returning back to school is always a mixed bag for me.  I like having my kids around but I need them to go back before I go nuts.  The internet and Xbox can only entertain your kids so much during the summer before you actually have to do something with them.  You know, take them to a beach, do a vacation together, etc.

However, our summer is now over.  It just blew by in a hasty mess of activities, summer camps, vacations, and trips and still left me with the feeling that I didn’t do enough with my kids.

So for the next 9 months of school, I’ll plan a really fun summer of 2014.  We’ll do a bunch of hiking, road trips, vacations, river rafting, and stay weeks on end at fancy resorts paid by my hugely successful Blog of Worthless Advice!  So hit that “Like” button now.  Make some insane comments and have your cute photo below this post!