Get ready Greensburg, PA, here comes the Colón family! We’re heading across country to celebrate our daughter’s college graduation!
I can’t believe my oldest daughter’s college graduation has come so quickly! She’s the first in our family to earn her Bachelor’s degree. She has studied Art Therapy at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania beginning in August, 2016 through December, 2019.
For our family, this time has been a learning experience. She’s the first in our family to do a lot things we hadn’t experienced such as the full college admissions process, applying for FAFSA, living across the country, traveling home for the holidays, and next up – grad school. She has her story as a first gen college student and we have ours as a family. More on this as I process the whole experience next week at her graduation!
How I planned a family trip for 10!
It was extremely important to me that we all attend our daughter’s graduation. Of course, her father and I, but also her sister and brothers and cousin and nanas (grandmothers)! I’m so excited we are all going to cheer her across that stage I can hardly sleep!
I began my plans at the Upromise site which links purchases so I will earn cash back from our family travel expenses. I shared a bit about this process here and here. Upromise will transfer our cash back from purchases directly into our ScholarShare 529 account automatically. I think it’s so awesome that purchases to attend our daughter’s college graduation will also help fund college expenses for my other children!
Travel + Leisure suggests to do one really memorable thing together. We’ve got that covered! It also suggests finding the right accommodations. This was tricky due the size of our group and their various ages. We had an option to either stay in an Air BnB or Holiday Inn because both were very close the college campus. That was a must for me! Though their costs were only slightly different, I ultimately chose Holiday Inn so I won’t have to worry too much about clean up and their free breakfast! I love their waffles!
Taylor Pittman in this Huff Post article suggests it’s ok to ask questions which will prepare you and your hotel for your arrival. I’ve asked plenty of questions while booking our travel. I plan to make a quick call to the hotel to check on an additional child bed for our room. I also will make a call to confirm dinner reservations at Robokyo’s. Yummy!
Mike Shubic in this Travelocity aticle suggests 12 tips to plan your travel. Some like, budgeting and planning ahead, were perfect reminders, however, there are several tips that I hadn’t considered. These are the tips one needs while en route to their destination. Planning to keep our funds in more than one place is important for safety reasons, as well as, keeping a water bottle handy to avoid dehydration. I hope you’ll find these tips helpful!
Above all, we plan to have fun because that’s what vacations are for!
Attending my daughter’s college graduation is a wonderful reason for a family vacation. This will be our first time traveling all together to such a far distance. Plus, it’ll be snowing! Oh, I can’t wait to share this experience with you. Follow on my social sites and keep watch for the recap!
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