South East Asia called and wants their Tourists back

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Looking at the fourteen day forecast only confirms that the decision Candace and I made to spend almost $6000.00 the other night wasn't such a bad idea after all. Of course this money could have been used to pay down our mortgage or invest in more RRSPs but who wants to do that?

With four round trip tickets paid for, we finally put in motion "The Trip" we had promised our kids over two years ago. On our last adventure, much to their dismay, we opted to enjoy one more trip to the Land of Smiles by ourselves and left them to stay with their grandparents for a month while we lounged on the beach, rode elephants, visited Wats and did all those crazy things that "young" parents do when they are in tropical climes without their pride and joy.

Payton (13) and Quincy (12), when told they were coming with us to Thailand this year, were also shocked to learn that they would need to raise $1400.00 each for their airplane tickets. We explained that they would have to be resourceful and do odd jobs to save enough money. We have several neighbors with large treed yards and fields of grass to cut and a few friends with younger children that are always on the hunt for good baby-sitters. Both were quite eager to pitch in but as we suspected, did not understand how much money they really needed to save. At times, it was a struggle to keep them focused on the prize at the end of the long ride.

As dates, destinations and travel partners changed, the kids kept on shoveling sidewalks, raking leaves, cutting grass, walking dogs, pulling weeds and those other jobs that we all hate doing and don't mind paying someone's kid to take care of for us.

With the purchase of the tickets, we felt it was time to count the two nest eggs they had both saved. After several tallies to confirm the totals, it was determined that both our kids had saved over half of the cost of their ticket. They were both surprised when we admitted to them that they would not have to pay for their ticket but could use it as spending money while on the trip.

Tonight we listened to our kids list off the amazing things they think they might do with their hard earned money. Both Candace hope this trip will teach them about the world around them and as we just saw, about themselves.

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