I struggled to determine where to take the girls on vacation but knew it needed to be somewhere warm.  My choices seemed quite limited because it was be the first time just the three of us would be traveling.  I needed a place that would not be too chaotic.

In addition to the apprehension of traveling with the girls, I was also concerned about the emotions that would be evoked by not having David with us on vacation. We enjoyed our stay, the weather was perfect, the people were friendly, the girls had so much fun, I was also able to relax. Despite all this, there were nightly tears as my daughter(s) cried about missing their Dad. In some ways the vacation made this worse since we were constantly surrounded with children playing with their Dads.

We had “family” pictures taken while on vacation. This started off rather painful with my older daughter crying that we cannot have family pictures without Daddy. Saddened, I explained to her that we will forever have Daddy with us. Shortly after, she bounced back to her chipper self. When we looked at the pictures, she pointed to one and happily she said “Daddy is right there”.

Traveling was relatively ok and my younger daughter associates flying with her Dad. It seems to make her feel closer to her Dad and once we are at cruising altitude she looks outside the window contently saying “I see my Daddy”.

Overall, I felt a sense of accomplishment knowing that we managed relatively ok considering that it was the first time it was just the three of us.