We kidnapped my parents for Thanksgiving. We packed ’em up in our car, took my youngest sister & her husband along with us, & headed up to Hot Springs Arkansas. We rented a house on the Ouachita River, brought food with us, & left all itineraries/plans at home. We were winging this one & adapting day-by-day.

Traveling with family is totally out of character for Eric & I. We’ve perfected how to travel with each other & have become a fine-tuned travel machine. When you throw someone else into the mix, we don’t know what to do with them: What do they like to eat? Do they like waking up early or sleeping in? Do they really want to hike all day or are they just saying that for our benefit? Will they think I’m anti-social if I read a book for a few hours?

But we also know that memories are made during family trips & so we forced ourselves out of our comfort zone for this holiday. I won’t lie, there were moments when I thought “why did we do this?” but they were quickly followed by sweet moments or laugh-so-hard-I-snorted moments. And like all good trips, I learned some new things. For example, I learned (or was reminded) that…