One and Done Empty Nesters

  Even though I live in Florida, I grew up in the Midwest and love fall. My birthday is right after Halloween, which probably has something to do with my love of that holiday (friends always gave me some of their candy for my birthday). I liked being in school with my friends, I liked playing soccer, I loved the color of the trees. And I loved carving pumpkins. This is not quite how my husband saw the season. He had a scary experience as a kid on Halloween, he lived in Wisconsin and knew the long winter was around the corner, and he had no affinity for carving pumpkins. So it was up to me to establish the fall traditions in our house. And one of my favorites was our annual family trip to the same pumpkin patch every year starting with my daughter's first fall season when she wasn't even a year old yet. The weather was always beautiful, we'd often see old neighbors, and we'd take a family picture on the same bench. For 18 years. Then it hit me the other day - my daughter...

We just got back from our first official empty nester vacation. Here's what I learned: 1. It is really quiet. Too quiet. It was just my husband and me in a rental house. There is nothing wrong with quiet, but if you're not used to it, it's a bit unsettling. I need to work on being OK with the quiet. 2. You can get the good bread. There's nothing better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while hiking. But when we vacation with kids, we end up buying a loaf of white bread for the picky eaters. It was nice to get the good stuff this time.  3. No one is getting queasy in the back seat. Lots of windy roads and we didn't have to stop once.  4. You can hike to high vistas. Our daughter really doesn't like heights. At one point on a hike, my husband and I had the same thought: Mia wouldn't have liked this. But on our own, we got to enjoy a beautiful vista! 5. You can take detours. Usually we are rushing to get back home for school, or an activity, or a birthda...