2 weeks of vacation or summer time fun for years to come?

Yes, that is the question.

We had been planning on a two week family vacation to Florida to visit all the parks next year. Anyone that knows me personally knows how much I dislike Florida, California or anywhere with similar temperatures and weather patterns so from the beginning I have been less than thrilled with this plan. This trip wasn't about making me happy though, it was for the kids. I grew up listening to all my friends talk about how much fun they had going to Disney and it wasn't until after I turned 18 that I got to experience it myself and I wanted to give my kids their own childhood Disney memories.

Summers here in the woods are lonely for the kids, there are no other kids within a couple miles to play with and despite having a great brother/sister friendship playing in the woods just isn't as much fun as when you have friends with you. Alex is very close with his cousin's Noah and Lily but they recently moved to PA so once the school year was over it was back to entertaining himself between play dates with random friends.

I often tell my kids "when I was your age I would do ______ during the summer for fun" and during one of these chats I started to realize how different it was for me growing up. I lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids, my best friends were within a 5 minute walk from my house and when we weren't playing sports, riding our bikes, skateboarding or fishing together at the local fishing holes we were keeping cool in one of the many pools within our circle of friends. It was after this conversation the I had an idea, not just any idea though, this one was hopefully going to get me out of going to Florida, cost half as much and give the kids great summer fun every year till they move out and start a family of their own!

What is this wonderful idea you might ask...A Swimming Pool!

I know, I know, ever since we moved out here I have declared time and time again that I would never own a pool unless it was able to be set up and taken down in less than 30 minutes. I have turned down multiple free pools but that was in the past, this is the present.

As I always do I discussed my "idea" with Rebecca to see if she thought it was worth presenting to the family or not. She was very surprised and wondered if I was running a temperature or feeling delirious, why else would I desire a pool unless there was something seriously wrong with me? I convinced her that I was not sick and quite serious about this and with her in agreement I would next give my proposal to the kids.

Several nights later I sat the kids down and presented them with the following question, "Would you rather spent 2 weeks in Florida making childhood memories or would you rather have a swimming pool to enjoy every year all summer long?" Without any hesitation they both shouted "We want a Pool!" I guess after spending a couple weeks in the Arizona desert last year they prefer to avoid warm climates too, Hurray!

Rebecca and I began shopping around for a full package deal and a short time later we had purchased a pool. It took a couple weeks before they came out to install it which happened last weekend. We filled the pool and stabilized the chemical levels during the week and thanks to my Uncle Richard we started landscaping the area around it. My next project will be putting up the privacy fence but I'm in no rush to try digging holes for the posts in our property that's for sure!