…and still have time left for just the two of you?

(Posted by Gayle)

What does it take to make a relationship with a significant age gap work.  In a word…

Creativity

“The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.”

Frank Barron

We are halfway through one of our best and most creative vacations yet. We are holed up in French Lick, Indiana having a great time wearing our Extreme Pop & Gigi superhero capes!  We came armed with a suitcase full of Legos, puzzles, books, recipes, and even our Wii.

We were long overdue in seeing and spending quality time with the Eastern contingent of the Lambert family.  Ron’s oldest daughter lives in Kentucky and his youngest daughter lives in Indiana.  French Lick is conveniently located almost exactly halfway between the two families.  To get to here, we flew into Louisville, Kentucky (less than 2 hours away from DFW). We were thrilled to find this little oasis away from the everyday hustle and bustle and get down to the serious business of loving on grand babies (okay they aren’t babies anymore, but who’s counting?!)

Fast forward…

It’s a a few weeks later and one of our best and most creative vacations ever is sadly over.  The second half of the vacation proved to be as wonderful (albeit quite different as the testosterone level was noticeably higher during the second half of the week!) as the first half.  People asked us why on earth we were going to French Lick and it took a bit of explaining.

We don’t get to see the kids who live East of us nearly as much as we do the kids who live here in Texas and in Kansas. We miss them.  They miss us.  We even feel guilty about the time imbalances due to the logistics of three very busy families.  We wanted to create a butt kickingly good family vacation with as much quality time as possible.  We also needed to make all that happen in just one week as vacation time is limited and we have some other trips planned this year for the two of us.

Besides the sheer joy of being with the grandkids and kids, one of the things that made this vacation so special was our creativity.  French Lick provided a convenient location and a home away from home (but much cooler and more fun than home.)  We cooked all our meals, played games, swam, worked puzzles, “Wii’ed”, watched movies, talked, laughed, and even facebooked together.  It took a while to get the plan together, find a location that would work for everyone, load an entire suitcase of gear (thanks American Airlines for charging us that extra $15 checked luggage fee), lug $350 of groceries from Wal-Mart up all those stairs (yes we overbought), and collect the steely grit needed to sit through Paul Blart Mall Cop to make it all work, but make it work we did!  We made it work so well that we were wiping tears of joy and sorrow when it was over and there is even a plan on the horizon to re-convene in the summer of 2010!

We can’t wait!

Ron’s Eldest Daughter Tracey and Her Family

Ron’s Youngest Daughter Julie and Her Family

You don’t have to be in May December relationship to be privy our secrets. Are you blending a family or facing the challenges that come with long lasting relationships?  Then our secrets are meant to be shared with you too!

Some secrets are meant to be shared!

Pass it on….