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There is nothing like taking a summer vacation, especially when that vacation includes my favorite spot to visit in the entire world: Uruguay!

Last December, we had a great week of lying out in the sun, watching fun movies, and of course, Eating a lot of yummy food prepared by professional cooks who own a bakery business. Christmas and New Year’s parties are so fun because people stay up till midnight to see the fireworks and party!  You can laugh and smile and enjoy yourself completely.  You can relax and unwind and be present. This time it will be a new experience since it is winter there and very cold but we will manage to enjoy our time together as we visit abuela Nela and attend Nico’s wedding. (Daniel’s nephew)

It is MAGIC! Every single one of us needs that time away, and there is no need to feel guilty about taking a vacay when you work so hard the way Daniel does because you will come back a much better and more productive person when it’s over.  But make sure that when you schedule a vacation that it truly is a non-working, non-texting, non-emailing vacation where you can relax and enjoy your time and your family completely. 

Here is how Daniel likes to describe what it means to be on vacation: “A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”  -Robert Orben or (What Argentines call estar al dope”

My idea of a vacation is to fill it up with as many things as possible so you create memories and that is where we need to compromise. It’s hard these days to come up with fun ideas of things you can do together with your family that are inexpensive, fun, and get everyone involved at every age in the family. Here is what I like to describe what it means to be on vacation: “We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.” Anonymous. 

So that brings me to the next point. Even though we are not the planning type when we go on vacation there are a few things we want you to know that we are doing as a group this time around which includes going to the Zoo, Lagoon, BBQ, pizza and a movie and more eating out, going to the temple, going to see a play. 

And those happy memories we will make will remain with you forever, and when life gets tough in the future it will be those little happy memories that pop back into your mind and help you smile and get through those crazy tough times.

 I have started making a list of ideas for things to do at our family reunions, if we ever get to start them because so far it has been next to impossible.  I have been taking notes and gathering ideas from others.  I came across many fun, inexpensive things you can do with your family to have a good time and I thought some of you would like to see the list of ideas in case you are trying to come up with fun activities to do with your own families this summer.  Here are a few fun ideas from the list for you:

FAMILY FUN ACTIVITY IDEAS

Create a family vacation collage board where it starts empty and each vacation you add photos and items from the trip to the board so it continues to grow over the years. 

Plan a family themed party such as an 80’s party, or a 60’s party, or an 80’s party, or a murder mystery and then invite other family or friends to join your party. I would do the 70's for sure! 

Learn a dance together as a family such as a country line dance, or learn to swing dance etc. I can teach you a Zumba dance for sure.

Do a family cooking contest.  Each person bakes a dish or a dessert and then you each taste each other’s and have to cast a single vote for a dish other than your own.  Then tally the votes and see who wins.

Build a slippery slide in the backyard with garbage bags or plastic and a hose

Saturday morning pancakes or waffles or Daniel's amazing omelettes! 

Build a family totem pole in your yard with items that represent each family member.

Have a “Survivor” party.  Do homemade invitations with tropical island clipart.  Divide the guests into tribes the day before the party and give each tribe a different colored bandana, leis, or armbands.  Have the games include a scavenger hunt, a relay race, or worm eating contests, etc.  Try to copy the TV show ideas by using torches and candles to set the mood.  Serve tropical foods like Hawaiian haystacks and virgin pina coladas.   Give goodie bag giveaways with gummy worms and sea shells or bamboo.Making breakfast for dinner night. 

Slack line at the park

Do Secret Service for another family. I love doing this one around Christmas.

Family game night. Daniel's idea of a family game night is watching a soccer game :)

“unplugged” night for the family (all devices unplugged) 

Taco Tuesdays. 

Family talent show night. We got very talented kids and grandkids so this would be so fun!

Family karaoke night with wooden spoons and kitchen instruments. Karaoke is huge in the Philippines. Every event party has to include Karaoke. 

Picnic at a beautiful Canyon. My favorite is Millcreek Canyon.

Family rock band night, this would be fun to do with the older grandkids. 

Treasure hunt.

Donut run for breakfast, not sure about this one.

Read a book together as a family. I would ask everyone to read their favorite part of the Book of Mormon and make it a FHE night. 

Collect teddy bears or books for a children’s hospital and then deliver them.

Scrapbook with family photos (everyone does one page that night for the family scrapbook) Please, please, please, let's do this!

Family video game night of family games. Our girls loved making videos when they were little. They pretended to be T.V anchors telling us the news.

Family shopping night –contest to spend least money for the coolest item. How about going to the dollar store to spend $5 dollars and see what we find.

International family night – theme of a country night with meal and activity that matches. We are experts on 29 countries in the Caribbean, all of Latin America and the Philippines for starters. 

Create a family cookbook with your favorite recipes. Oh yes, this is on the works. 

Make a family mailbox for writing love and appreciation notes to each other. 

Family American Idol night – pick judge or judges then compete.

Movie and pizza night. YES! Daniel's favorite!

Charades That would be Daniel's least favorite. 

Watch old family videos of your family growing up night. 

Volunteer together as a family to help with a charity, a hospital, a food bank, etc.

Make a family banner or crest that represents the family and what your family stands for.

Dinner date night with a kid and either mom or dad alone.

Do a cousin’s camp where all cousins come together at a park or yard to play games. Our family has grown to 36 members and 16 of them are cousins. 

Start a family monthly newsletter or blog that tells what is happening in your family.

Do a backyard campout with ghost stories, smores, and look at stars. Except that the idea of camping for Daniel is the J.W.Marriott. 

Make a Family Time Capsule.  Each family contributes something which represents themselves or their family to be placed in the capsule.  Choose a date when it will be opened and store it somewhere with instructions as to when it can be opened. 

Family Sports Days:  Work up a sweat and have a ball playing favorite sports together. You can each take turns selecting the sport and thus keep things interesting by alternating between several, such as soccer, tennis, Frisbee, biking or bowling. Your sports day can either be a friendly and casual event, or it can be competitive with victors, medals—the whole works. Or do a mini Olympics, they do this every year at Reid School. 

Plant a garden together as a family. I particularly would love to plant a pumpkin patch to have a lot when Halloween comes along. 

Do a photo scavenger hunt as a family.  Every team gets a list of items to photograph and the first to complete it wins.  When everyone returns look at one another photos on the tv screen.  (photo items such as kids playing ball together, a squirrel, a grasshopper, an old person, a police car, a huge dog, a tiny dog, a person playing golf, etc)

Do an everybody cleans their bedroom night as a family where you blast music in the house and everyone cleans their rooms at the same time and then you tour each other’s clean rooms in the end.

Cook a dessert as a family and then deliver it to someone else together. 

Spend a night looking at old family photo albums, laughing and remembering stories about the photos together as a family. I made an album of photos Daniel had scattered from when he was growing up. 

Make homemade ice cream together. Good Ice cream or gelato is Daniel's favorite dessert. 

Plan a family vacation months in advance.  Then map out the entire trip together.  Study the places you will visit and learn about the area you are going to and the activities it offers so by the time you go its more meaningful.  Plus you get to enjoy planning for months before the trip together. (I want to do this one next time we go to Central America. I know this place like the palm of my hand.)

Make Tie-dye shirts as a family or paint pen shirts together that are your family shirt. 

Create history:  Get to know your family better by creating an audio or visual family history. Interviewing immediate and extended family members provides insight into where you came from and how your family evolved. We are so doing this with our moms this year. 

Go do paintball, miniature golf, or laser tag together. Miniature golf sounds like a fun thing to do. 

Go camping:  You’ll have uninterrupted time to focus on one another. For this one, we will need to rent a motor home. 

Do a family ping pong tournament or pool table tournament or other tournament together for a trophy. The beach house in El Salvador is perfect for this!

Go on a bike or go roller blading. 

Make a huge tent in the house out of blankets.

Have a water fight in the backyard.

Make a city in the driveway with sidewalk chalk and play city.

Do a jigsaw puzzle together as a family.

Do a family service scavenger hunt where everyone has to do fun service projects and the first one to finish them all wins. Yay, I love this idea!

Obstacle Course – Make an obstacle course using things to crawl under, climb though and jump over. Use garden furniture, old tires boxes, and mud or puddle of water to jump over, if available. Or come to the Philippines!

Make up a Song – There are many reasons to make up a song. To make work easier, to bring a family closer together, to make an event specials. Do it at birthdays, how about one for each time you eat burgers or go out for ice-cream? Bianca can help us with this one.

Create a huge family wall mural with photos, drawings, poems, special memories, memorabilia, etc that represents your family.  Everyone signs the mural.

Well there it is – a whole list of fun activities that don’t cost a lot of money and can be a ton of fun for the entire family.  Put it to good use this summer and have a BLAST with your kids! Any other good ideas you have done at your family reunions? 

As we head into this week decide to make a few new memories with the people you love.  Remember, it doesn’t have to be fancy, it just needs to be fun!

Con amor,

Vero