The Pre-Cation

As a type A, I find it very helpful to go on a “pre-cation” prior to a vacation. The objective of the pre-cation is to figure out what the travel/hotel needs are for the kids at that particular time and to have some fun. As the kids get older, their sleeping and eating needs change and consequently what we need to bring for a plane/hotel stay changes. Over the last few years boppies and breast pumps have given way to the “EPBS” (emergency peanut butter sandwich) and individual apple sauce packages, which travel everywhere with us. At the conclusion of the pre-cation, we conduct an “AAR”, after-action review, which helps plan for the upcoming vacation. We review what went well and why, and what needs to be improved and why. The AAR is a mainstay in the Kless household and used on a daily basis with the kids.

This summer, we went on our pre-cation to the Ballpark at Arlington and stayed at the Sheraton right by the ballpark in hopes that our beloved NY Mets were also staying at the same hotel. For Father’s Day, we gave Ed tickets to the Rangers v. Mets games. We made a weekend out of it. For the first game on Friday night, we just had Sean with us. We arrived early and got to see the Mets warm up and got the team managers, Terry Collins’ autograph. It was also super cool because we got to see Dirk Nowitzki “throw” out the first pitch that night. WOW, is he tall.

On Saturday, we met up with our fellow Mets fans ~ George, Landon and Sean Byrnes ~ and braved the 100+ degrees out in left field. It was hot. But, the Mets won big and it was fun to watch them score so many runs. Yes, Cara was hot. I think we spent about $33 on water alone on Saturday.

Sunday’s game was much better due to the fact that our tickets were under an overhang. Thank goodness. Again, the Mets won, which was fun to watch. Sean got another signature, Tim Byrdak, a relief pitcher for the Mets.

Here was our pre-cation learning:
1. Cara must be in a nighttime containment unit. Thinking she was going to stay in a bed is absurd.
2. Don’t run out of apple sauce.
3. You can always buy what you need when you get there.
4. We brought too many games/books.
5. Need to search iTunes for kids favorite TV shows and load on iThings.