So far I have a favorite part of prepping for this big trip  of ours.

As excited as we all are to go away, I wanted the kids to really be excited.

They all love to travel, and they all enjoy being away (especially missing some school), but I wanted them to feel some “ownership”.

Ideally, if they were older, I’d have them really involved in the planning; like assigning them a spot to research and tell us what we can do in each spot.

But, since they aren’t old enough yet to do that, I had to find a simpler way to get them involved. So, for starters, what I did was present them with some different itinerary options last summer. Of course,  they all chose the one that included a little getaway to Fiji for 4 days too.

I then went off and did tons (and I mean TONS) of research.  I bounced my ideas off of Rob, and he has been researching certain areas too (especially the ones where we are doing some driving). We found the main spots we can visit (that worked with airline tickets), researched hotels, and then some activities we can do. I’ve been doing this for months now. Kinda overwhelming I have to admit. But exciting too!

But this past month has been by far my favorite prep month!

I wrote down on little pieces of paper all the activities we were thinking of, all the areas we are visiting, some of the different options of things we haven’t quite decided about, and even some of the hotels and folded them up and placed them in a jar.

Every week, everyone pulls a paper and has to research the topic for the following week. They then have to present their activity/place/hotel at FHE. They also have to read reviews and make recommendations as to whether it is worth is or not for us to do/see/say.

It certainly has been fun to hear all about different things we have in store!

It’s also super cute to see what the kids are finding “important” to tell us: did you know that “we will get fresh clean towels in the bathroom in Fiji”? Yup. And we have lists of places to eat (and the average prices of main meals) in Cairns!

We’ve heard about day trips in the Fijian islands, ferry rides, bridges, caves, geysers, shows, and little bits of history. It certainly has helped is all get a little bit more excited. Here’s a couple of samples of their hard work:

I’m hoping that when we’re there, everyone will be that much more engaged. At least they better be:)

Less than a month to go….