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Everywhere is treasure.

Before travelling, us adults make a big to do list to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
Vacationing with kids can be fun, but it is a lot different than vacation without them. 
I didn't exactly rest on the most recent one, but I still forgot about my real life for a precious 5 days and that is good enough for now.
When I wrote my to do list, I had no idea what I actually had to do.  The unexpected portions of my to do list are bolded for emphasis.

-get passports
-get American money
-pack beach bag

-be served a variety of ice creams at the beach, which morphed into a treasure hunt for Pokemon Cards to the untrained eye were "just rocks". (flavours included root beer, marshmallow (which can be picked from a garden) and cheesie flavoured)


-make sure cats get fed while we are away

-make sure kids dash as fast possible away from the expensive educational experience you researched and ensured that they went to so that they can frolic for free in the fountains across from the expensive educational experience.


-figure out route we will follow
-get right cord for the portable DVD player, mandatory!!!
-go to library and get videos for portable DVD player
-pay library fines


-give up and never get around to getting cords for portable DVD player and listen while bored and extremely over tired children re-enact all the Charlie and Lola episodes they can remember (while taking lots of hilarious liberties with their characters).  




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