For Christmas this year, we gave our kids the gift of memories.

We decided it felt like the right time to shift away from more material things and lean into more family time — the kind they’ll actually remember.

Because let’s be honest…
Ask your kids what three things they got last Christmas. I’ll wait.
But ask them about a vacation you took together or something special you did as a family? I’m willing to bet they can tell you exactly what happened.

So that’s what we did. We started planning a trip.

When I mentioned the idea to my family, my brother and sister-in-law immediately agreed it sounded like a super fun plan. So we combined Christmas gifts and gave our boys and their girls one shared present: a family vacation together.

That meant 4 adults and 5 kids, ranging from 18 months to 13 years old.

Which also meant we needed a vacation that appealed to all ages — and allowed the adults to remain at least somewhat sane.

We landed on Wichita, Kansas.

Now… that may sound like a strange vacation choice. HOWEVER, there was a small catch to our genius plan.

This entire trip was organized by the moms.
The men simply went along with it.

Hannah and I sat down like our own personal travel agents — tabs open, researching hotels and activities — while wrangling five small humans who may or may not have been running around the Twinstead like feral raccoons during the planning process.

First decision: the hotel.

Do you pay an extra $250 for another room?
Or do you decide, as moms, that you can absolutely play child Tetris and fit all nine of you into one room?

I’ll let you guess which option we chose.

Hotel booked.

Next up: things to do.

That’s when we found this super cool museum called Exploration Place (or “Exclamation Place,” if you’re Skylar). It had great reviews, looked perfect for multiple ages, and the best part? Our OKC science museum pass got us in for FREE.

Parenting win.

Our vacation officially started with some homeschool-style kid swapping. My kids went to Sam and Hannah for homeschool PE, Rosie and Xena came to me, and Zoey — who had been with me for several days — headed home for PE. Totally normal homeschool logistics.

Hannah and I had been prepping for days. Packing lists. Planned activities. Backup plans for different weather. We even squeezed in a girls’ night with Rose before we left — because priorities.

The next morning, Josh had the honor of playing van Tetris. How many things could we fit in the van? Now add five more people’s belongings. Then rearrange everything again for booster seat musical chairs.

Once we were finally loaded, we hit the road — moms and two kids in one car, dads and three kids in the other. First stop: food for everyone before the real car-trip adventure began.

When we arrived at the hotel (remember, all nine of us were in one room), the moms made a strategic decision. We sent the dads and all five kids to the pool while we tackled night-time hotel room Tetris.

The room had a weird shape, a partition wall that made things extra difficult, two beds, one couch, five kids, and four adults. We also had two bunk cots, one small cot, and a pack-n-play to fit in the space.

To say we optimized every inch of that room would be an understatement.

The next morning started with us realizing we had the breakfast times wrong — so we scrambled to get everyone downstairs before it closed. After breakfast, we loaded up and headed to Exploration Place.

It was seriously so cool and absolutely worth the trip.
(Spoiler: we went back a second time.)

After exploring for a while, we grabbed lunch, headed back to the hotel for a quick rest, then changed everyone into swimsuits and loaded up again — this time for Blast Off Bay, an indoor water park with something for every age group.

When we arrived, it was a little chilly, but manageable… until we left at 8 pm.

Everyone was wet. Everyone was tired. And it was snowing — like really snowing. We sat in the van while it defrosted so we could even see well enough to drive back to the hotel.

I decided I did not want to wait to figure out dinner, so I DoorDashed food to meet us at the hotel. When I say there were SO MANY BAGS, I mean it.

The next morning, I did all three nieces’ hair (they looked adorable, by the way), and we headed to the WAM… which was a total bust. So we pivoted and went back to Exploration Place for a few more hours and watched some of their dome shows.

After that, we stopped to see the Great Plains statue, and the kids — plus a few brave adults — raced across the long bridge nearby. I did not race, as I have a hurt ankle and chose wisdom over competition.

It was too cold for the zoo, so we headed back to the hotel instead. That night we watched the Thunder game, a movie, let the kids play with the toys we brought, and ended the evening with a glow-stick swim party.

Another night of sleep. Another round of night-time Tetris.

The next morning: breakfast in the lobby, clean up the hotel room, repack everything, and reconfigure the vans for the drive home.

Before heading back, we surprised the kids with a stop at FunCity, a jump and activity place. Was it expensive? Yes. Did it completely wear the kids out so we didn’t have fidgety children on the drive home? Also yes.

We stopped for lunch at a Mongolian place so the men could take full advantage of the all-you-can-eat — and then realized poor Rosie had definitely sprained her ankle at the trampoline park.

We made the drive home and ended the trip with a visit to urgent care to make sure nothing was broken.

Overall, I would say our vacation was wonderful.

Was it loud? Yes.
Was it chaotic? Absolutely.
Do we feel bad for whoever stayed on the first floor? A little.
Would we do it again? Without question.

Do I recommend vacationing with family? Yes.
Should you get two hotel rooms if cramming nine people into one would stress you out? Also yes.

But for us, the “who’s going to wake up next?” adventure was half the fun.

We’re exhausted.
And we wouldn’t change our Christmas trip for anything.

Cue a new family tradition, starting now. 💛