Spring Break?

Through the winter months you dream of it; Spring Break.  No school.  Warm weather.  Ahhh....

Or maybe you're a parent who dreads it.  What do you do with that week?  Do you have the time to take off of work?  Where do you take the kids?  How much is it going to cost?

Or maybe you're a commuter who is awaiting it.  Traffic lessens as the families go away.  No school buses to get behind.  No crossing guards to stop traffic for little ones.

Well spring is officially here (although it may not feel like it) which means spring break.  Or DOES it?

As a family, we've only had one spring break vacation.  That was back in 2012 when we went to Walt Disney World.  It was a pretty fantastic trip. (Despite the fact that my husband's grandfather died the day before we went and we didn't tell my son until after the trip was over AND that I did something awful to my ankle and had to hobble for a couple days and use a wheelchair one night).  But that was the only family spring break trip we have taken.  

My husband and my son went on a spring break vacation with my in laws to Washington, DC one year and Philadelphia the next. Pretty much every year after that my son has taken a week-long trip with my in laws to some place.  (How many times does my son want to visit Gettysburg?  The answer is infinite!)

This year they had planned on doing some historic trips in Pennsylvania (visiting Harrisburg, Fort Mifflin, etc.).  My in-laws live in the suburbs of Philly, so for the most part they were going to use that as "home base."  It would be a fun 5-1/2 days (from Monday-Saturday mid-day) for all three of them.  My in-laws would pick him up on Monday (while I was at work) and my husband and I would go get him in PA on Saturday.

That changed two weeks ago when we got hit with Nor'easter #2.  With tree limbs and power lines down (and some people still without power), the last of the snow days were used up before school could reopen.  One day was going to have to be removed from the spring break holiday.  Time to modify the plan.

New plan #1:  My in laws would pick my son on Monday and bring him back on Thursday afternoon so that he could go to school on Friday.

Fine; plan established.

Until Nor'easter #4.   At first the school planned to have an abbreviated day. With a half day, we could get everything in and not lose a day.  Good plan, until the governor declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm, snow totals predictions went up and...Well that was the end of that.

Spring break plan #2:  My in-laws meet us half way in the late afternoon of Easter.  (Where exactly our mid-point would be I wasn't sure.)  They'd still have Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday.

But...

I with Nor'easter #4 I needed to have a backup plan to my back up plan because it was looking like one snow day might not be enough so...

Spring break plan #3:  No trip to the in laws.   I take a day off of work on Monday and as a family we decide to do something fun.  (My son's choice WITHIN reason.)  Yes, Tuesday he is stuck home doing not much, but...then he returns to school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.


Thankfully we didn't have to go with Plan #3.  The Nor'easter #4 was not as bad as they had predicted (not that 9 inches of snow on the 2nd day of spring is fun).  But...

Not much of a spring break is it?  But then we haven't had much of a spring (thus far at least).  I don't know whether to envy or feel sorry for all our friends who made plans that couldn't be changed.  Those who are off to Disney or other warm places for a week (or maybe a little more) of fun.  While I'm sure they still will have fun, those days of missing school will be in the back of their minds I'm sure.

No matter what, spring break this year certainly isn't the break that we all needed.

What we all really need is a little bit of...

BUT!

(You thought this post was going to wrap up all nice and warm, right?)

Here we are in April.  Easter Monday.  And what do I see outside my window????

No, this is NOT an old photo from a week or so ago.  This was actually taken at 6:30(ish) this morning from my front and back stoops.  This is NOT an April Fool.  (Although I am feeling pretty foolish.  Maybe we SHOULDN'T have put the snow blower away??)

Now just to be clear, this is what my backyard looked like yesterday (April 1st)

And yet this morning, it looked like this:

So I ask you...WHEN do we get our spring break???