I'm not quite ready to nail the dates down yet, especially now with houses in flux. However it looks like my sons and I will drive back East for seven or eight weeks this summer.
Public school lets out on May 31 in my town in Texas. We started homeschooling right around August 15 if I recall. It's been a long year.
We plan to visit our family and stay some nights at my mother-in-law's house.
We plan to spend weeks in Cape Cod at her vacation home. I have invited some friends to spend time there but so far everyone is so busy with various child-centered enrichment activities that it has been hard to nail down.
I was hoping to go to Maine for the first time in a few years, the first vacation there since my grandmother's passing. The family homestead stands empty but fully functional so we planned to stay there. My aunt has invited us to spend time at her electricity-free off-the-grid cabin "camp" in a village that is only accessible by long drive then boat or seaplane.
My sons are spending a week at Boy Scout residence camp with their former Troop. I have been invited to be an adult volunteer leader that week, which will be my third time going. The fantastic leaders are more than aquaintences and I miss them and look forward to seeing them again.
My older son wants to attend a week-long rowing camp in Boston which will require me staying in a hotel for four nights. I need to get that application in the mail today, and see if he is accepted or not.
However how all of this jives with selling a house and buying a house makes all this planning difficult to say the least.
My husband will stay in Texas working except for perhaps a week that he'll fly in for a week's vacation and to visit relatives.
Due to us leaving, my son is missing a few weeks of his leadership responsibilities for the Boy Scout Troop. They are missing summer camp with the new Troop. My older son can't do off-season robotics competitions and activities. My younger son can't do the summer lacrosse clinics and scrimmages.
My kids begged for this long trip back home to see family, friends, and places they miss. However I anticipate this will be the last time. My kids want to keep doing the things they love and to be with new friends in our new home. They want to turn the clock back and be with friends from Connecticut also. It is hard to do everything they want if they have one foot in Connecticut and one foot in Texas. Their hearts are torn. This is all part of the letting go and moving on process. I think they are doing very well and handling the transition just fine.
I anticipate that the summer of 2013 will be busy with Texas-centered activities and maybe even dealing with a girlfiend. I bet we'll go East for two weeks max and will happily spend the rest of the time in The Lone Star State, our new home.