Ahhhh... summer!

Whoever decided that children needed a summer vacation clearly didn't have any children! I wholeheartedly believe that teachers deserve every day of summer vacation that we get, but children? As a parent, I start twitching thinking of summer vacation. First of all, it is LONG! Two and a half months of nothing but children. No breaks and no planning periods... Second of all, it is hot. At least here it is. 90s all week and it is only the beginning of June. My solution: grandparents! Yes, we are headed up north to take full advantage of them. I don't even feel bad saying that. The thought of being able to just use to bathroom without someone on my lap (yes, it has happened and on more than one occasion), or running an errand without whining, tantrums, or lugging around a heavy car seat, it is almost enough to make the eternal trip there bearable, though I was under no illusions that it would be an easy drive up there.

I think I started that last paragraph on June 8th. I spent most of that week stressing about packing for the trip. Packing for one is tough enough, but now, I pack for four. Dave sincerely offered to "help" and seemed slightly offended when I laughed at his offer. I believe he thinks he is helping, but in reality, it makes things tougher. I have a system of "organization" that really only makes sense to me, so if I have to tell him what exactly to pack, where to find it, and where to put it, I may as well do it myself. I appreciated the offer, but I think we both knew that his help wouldn't really be that. It was almost an unspoken agreement; I would take care of all things packing, and he would take care of anything related manual labor and lifting. We had planned to leave on Sunday so I had a couple of days to get everything together. I even thought we would try leaving early, like 5 a.m. early, so we could get in 4 hours or so before the kids would be up and conscious enough to want food or use the bathroom. At some point, I contemplated putting Ella and Hanna in pull-ups to cut down on potty-breaks. I decided that may be taking it too far. Saturday night, I was feeling pretty good about things. Everything was packed in bins, stacked by the door, food box was ready, dog-sitting directions were done... everything on my list was checked off. I came across a Netflix video and thought to return it before we left but the envelope was no where in sight. In searching for it, I came across our passports... "Holy crap! I almost forgot these! Good thing I came across them," I thought to myself. I can't imagine leaving and then realizing five hours into the drive that we forgot our travel documents! I flipped through looking at the pictures of the kids and was smiling at Hanna's picture. She was just a little baby. Baby. And then it hit me. She was a baby and she had a passport! And now, we have another baby, and he doesn't have one. I panicked realizing that getting one would take weeks and we needed an official document to cross the border. How could I have forgotten this?? Hmmm, plan B: birth certificate. It would have been a good plan except that we never ordered one after Silas was born. Idiot. Me. Not him. We would have to wait till Monday to go to the county office and get a certified copy. I was annoyed. Annoyed that I had forgotten this very important element to our trip, annoyed that I would have to rummage through bins to find things that had been neatly packed that we needed,  annoyed that I would have to stare at those bins, lined up by the front door, a constant reminder to my travel blunder. I almost single handedly packed for 4/5 of the family, yet it still wasn't enough. I hadn't thought of everything (later on, I'd find out that there were also other important things that I hadn't remembered... like Hanna's underwear) and the one thing I hadn't though of was the most important! Having traveled often during my lifetime, I took this oversight so personally. Yes, Dave could have and should have reminded me, but he didn't- it never occurred to either of us. So far, the summer hadn't gotten off to a very good start and I was hoping that this wasn't a sign of things to come.