I knew my brother and his family were visiting at the end of May. He and his wife have a two-year-old daughter, so I was kicking around ideas of things we could do that works for kids ages 9 and below. My brother’s family was going to be staying with me, and my parents were planning to drive up to my sister’s house, who also lives in Raleigh, to stay with them.

The whole crew was going to be in town (or as my dad would call it, “the fam-damly”).

There are 7 kids between my brother, sister, and myself, all ranging in age from 7 weeks to 9.5 years old.

I wanted to show a bit of Raleigh to Marc and Jess and make sure to choose places that would work for their two-year-old daughter.

Prior to their visit, a few weeks ago Justin and I took the kids on a quick weekend trip to visit friends in Virginia, near the Shenandoah Valley. In anticipation of that visit, the husband of the family we were going to be spending a lot of time with sent out an itinerary.
Other than trips for work, I’ve never been given an itinerary for a casual weekend trip, and I just have to say that I *loved* it.

Over that weekend, I got to experience how smooth the flow was, how everyone knew what the plan for the day was going to be, how people had the ability to opt out of anything they wanted to, or we could collectively agree to change the schedule due to rain. It was such an efficient way to organize a large group of people for a very short time. ...