First Step: Researching & Planning

First thing is first. We are 33 and have a 22 yr old son.

We adopted him when he was a teenager and became a family of 3. Two years ago we added another.

(Blog about our life HERE in case you're interested.)

Here is a picture from our previous family trip to Asia a few months ago:

So as of current day we are parents of a 22 and 2 yr old (and soon to be adding more).

And life just became a little bit grander...

We love to travel!

Whether just sightseeing or for mission trips, I've been out of the country 4 times in the past 10 months. It's been amazing and I can't wait to travel more.

It never hit me, though, that if our son worked for an airline that we could fly for free. But when he came home after his first week and said "Hey mom, I need you to fill out this form and then you will be setup to fly anywhere for free" I peed my pants dropped everything I was doing and filled out that form in about 2 seconds.

Then the dreaming began...

Where do we go? What do we do? And what about working around work schedules? Day trips? Overnight trips? What if we miss our flight back? What if we don't get there until later? What if.....(fill in the blank).

So we started researching, reading, and trying to understand the system more.

Thank goodness for other writers out there that talk a little about this and the airline website itself! If we put them altogether they offer quite a bit of information!

So this weekend we started researching flights. Oh my good grief, I had no idea how many flights took place everyday. How many people are flying? Where are they going? Why??? We went to our local book store and purchased some great travel guides (what to do on the cheap and on little amounts of time).

Oh and we are about to become some of these many passengers.

Considering we will need to work around work schedules, for the time being, we are only looking at domestic flights leaving from DFW.

So where do we want to go?

We started researching online, thinking about places we've been to before that we would love to revisit, along with places we've never been before. My project manager of a husband started a spreadsheet. We work well together :)

In no particular order (and being added to constantly) here is our list as of today.

DC

New York City

San Francisco

Miami

Chicago

San Diego

New Orleans

Boston

Los Angelos

Santa Fe

Portland

Nashville

Montreal

Quebec

Philadelphia

Atlanta

Salt Lake City

Lake Tahoe

St Louis

Vail

And the list goes on and on and on...

But not only is work a factor, but our 2 yr old son plays a role as well.

*insert new column on the spreadsheet (kid friendly or couples only?)

In two weeks we are going to test this non-revenue status out.

We will pack one backpack, dress nice enough to be allowed to fly first class (should there be openings of course) and plan for three different destinations. Hopefully one of them will work out!

Until then, we still have some planning to do!

Anyone out there have suggestions for us? :)