WFTV newscaster Martha Sugalski reflects on the fun and meaningfulness of family summers.

“Why are you signing up for online classes, for fun, during the summer? Summertime is for sitting back and relaxing!”

I can remember that conversation like it was yesterday: My then middle-school son Maxwell almost mocking his older brother Chase, who signed up for online classes after the school year was over. Clearly, two different personalities, and two different agendas for the summer! One wanted to relax, the other wanted to put in some work—that pretty much sums up our summer vacations.

I am pretty disciplined. I like structure and routine. However, with summer upon us, I must admit that for the next few months, I won’t miss the alarm going off at 6 a.m. to get my highschooler, Spencer, off to the bus stop. I won’t miss the panic of hitting snooze on my phone alarm, dozing off for five more precious minutes only to be woken up by her yelling, “Mom, we’re going to be late!” Then racing out of bed, throwing breakfast and lunch into a Ziploc bag (because apparently having a lunch box/bag in school isn’t cool anymore), and making sure my robe is on before driving her to the bus like a crazy person.

No, I will not miss that or other school-related stress-inducers. Yes, the lazy days of summer will be upon us, which means no more structure, no more books—school’s out for summer! On the other hand: What do I do with six kids? How do you fill the summer? Camps, trips to the splash pad, play dates, vacation, hanging out; what to do?

OK, vacationing with a rather large family takes months of planning, coordinating schedules and logistically figuring out how we are going to get eight people from point A to point B. When the triplets turned 1, we decided to rent a house on Anna Maria Island for a week. Sounds fun, right? Just planning it made me exhausted, which only got worse once I got into the physical work of ordering and packing everything we’d need. And we hadn’t even left the 407 yet.

Still, I thought: “How much fun will this be? Everyone together, having a wonderful family-bonding experience to remember long after I was gone.” It was to be a perfect Hallmark moment.

Well, to start, it took three vehicles just to get us there: Hubby in his car with all our stuff, the three older children in their car, and our nanny and the babies with me. We trekked to the other side of the state, with a few stops for diaper changes, and arrived at the perfect house. Just the right size (read: enough space where the siblings wouldn’t kill each other), lovely location and my secret stash of “Mommy juice.” Yeah, I was pretty sure this vacation would rock.

And it did. For about two hours. Until some little people figured out how to unlock doors and didn’t like their vacation cribs and didn’t want to nap. So, the week of relaxation and serenity turned into me constantly freaking out that one of the triplets would get out of the house and be on the beach, or would find the stairs and wobble up the flight to see their older siblings. Good times. It looked like I’d need a vacation from my vacation.

Eventually, we were able to go on some excursions with the older three, and I will always remember being on jet skis, watching dolphins swimming by, and heading to the local ice-cream shop and enjoying cool treats on a warm summer night. It wasn’t a perfect vacation. In fact, it was a lot of work—I think we eventually gave up trying to figure out how to put up the beach tent. However, I will always remember it: All of us spending time together under one roof.

Those moments are few now. With two sons in college (at least they’re both in Florida) and venturing out on their own in different directions and different interests, I value every minute we are together, and I think I value it more this second time around with the younger children. Just being together.

So, right now, we do not have some big summer adventure planned—not yet. (Although I am sure it will at some point involve the theme parks and standing in line in 100-degree weather with a bunch of other parents and their kids complaining about wanting another turkey leg or Mickey Mouse ice cream or that they don’t want to ride Space Mountain.)

But those are the moments—the moments that make our memories—and I am going to savor every second, because I do know that at some point, my children will be taking their own children on their own summer vacations and making their own memories. I just don’t want that to happen any time soon.

An Emmy-winning member of WFTV’s Eyewitness News Team, Martha Sugalski has been a journalist for more than 20 years, and she’s spent her entire career in Florida. She’s also a married mother of six children, including a set of triplets. You can catch her on weekdays at 5, 6, and 11 p.m. on WFTV, and at 10 p.m. on TV 27.

This article originally appeared in Orlando Family Magazine’s June 2017 issue.