My family just came back from our 2nd annual “week at the lake” with extended family. We’ve wanted to do this for many years but between weddings, pregnancies, and tight finances, it just never seemed to be the right summer to start this tradition.

Finally, after realizing that if we waited too much longer, the oldest cousins wouldn’t even want to go on some dorky family trip, I picked a location and a date. I shared the information with my parents and siblings but was determined to start the yearly tradition with or without them.

I was thrilled when my parents and both of my sisters’ families decided to join us. Let me share a few perks of group vacations.

1. You save a ton of money! Our cabin was $1,300 per week. Dividing that number by four families made our vacation easier to handle financially.

2. Free babysitting! Being around other adults who love your children provides opportunities to have some quiet time or adult time. The men caught a movie during our vacation and my husband and I were able to check out some of the local talent at an art gallery without kids.

3. The workload is shared. With four women (sorry to stereotype, but that’s the reality when my family gathers), cleaning up after dinner is a snap. In addition, both of my sisters don’t hesitate to throw another kid into the bathtub while bathing their own or recruiting extra cousins on hikes. My mother washed, dried, and folded all of my dirty laundry. It was a beautiful thing.

4. You have less to pack. We were able to fit our three children, clothes, and all of our vacation stuff into our van with room to spare. Before vacation, we split up the list to avoid duplicating and to simplify packing. For example, I brought sand toys, my sister brought games, and my mother brought matches.

5. You can share the food. Make a menu together beforehand and divvy up the items. We worked it out based upon our schedules and shopping preferences. We all saved our receipts, added up the damage, and divided the total bill equally. We briefly considered taking into account family size but that was just too complicated. Plus, we all know that kids never seem to really eat (just endless snacking) while on vacation. Anyways, we’re family. In the end, it all works out. Creating a menu and doing the shopping separately took some organization but in the long run saved time and money. And who really wants to end up with four bottles of ketchup?

6. Lots of photos! With so many adults snapping photos, we end up with more winning shots. Each December we create a photo calendar, using Photoworks, with the best of that year’s pictures to distribute to all of the families.

7. Relationships are built. This is by far the most important and was my motivation for wanting to start this tradition in the first place. As toddlers, my kids have all enjoyed listing on their chubby little fingers all of the people who love them. “Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Holly, Aunt Katie, Uncle Chris,” and on and on. What a comfort for my children to feel so surrounded by love.

Now, lest you think we’re a perfect family, we’re not. I believe we’re a spectacular family but we’re also very normal. Being human, we get mildly annoyed with each other during the week over silly, petty stuff.

“Shhh…the baby’s sleeping.”
“Who got the floor all wet?”
“Did someone eat all of the cookies?”

Isn’t resolving minor conflicts with others a lesson we want to teach our children? What better way than seeing grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins figure out the give and take of loving relationships…?

Now that’s a beautiful thing! Even better than clean laundry!

-Kay