Yes, we are trying to put together an affordable family vacation for all of us to enjoy this coming June. We only have about 4 weeks each year that all of us are off together (2 weeks in June and 2 weeks around Christmas), so we are aiming to go in late June.

We've decided to go to Rapid City South Dakota. It is only about 300 miles from here, so we will be driving. We love to camp and have done so many times with our oldest child (haven't tried it yet with our 2 year old), so we are looking at going to a KOA campground near Mt. Rushmore. My parents gave us money (about $150) for Christmas that we have decided to put toward the three nights that we are staying at the campground. We decided to stay three nights because I found a coupon online that offers a free night after you stay for 2 nights. I'm going to call this week to get reservations, so I'll report how that goes (and how much it will cost) once it is done. We also want to spend a night in a Tipi at a campgroung in Custer - looks like lots of fun!

I'm very excited about this trip! It is a bit of a challenge to keep the expenses to something that we can manage, but it is also kind of fun to live up to that challenge! I've been researching A LOT and discovering online deals for many attractions. My hope is to keep the ENTIRE expenses for this trip below $500 (not including the money from my parents). This would cover gas, food, lodging, and everything else. I'm planning to use my $20 challenge money to fund this trip - so it will need to have grown to at least $500 by June. We'll have to see how we do!