Away We Go

I thought we packed a lot of shit before we had a kid, now the amount of stuff we have to take with us is unfathomable. We are embarking on a 15 hour + drive from Nebraska to Michigan today with a 100 lb. dog and a just turn 1 year old daughter. Lord help us.

After packing the car last night with our baby pool, baby life jacket, inner tube, our suitcases, her suitcases, the dog kennel, our 'what we need when we get out of the car' bag, our 'entertaining her in the car' bag, the dog's bag (treats, water, rawhides, leash, throw dummies, etc.) and the other 5 miscellaenous bags we thought we were all set. That is until we went to get in the car this morning and mysteriously there were five other bags waiting by the door to be loaded. Three of these were our everyday bags that now had an assortment of other 'needed' items shoved into them. My bookbag that I carry into work normally includes all my workout gear but was now stuffed with a change of clothes, jacket, baby monitor, the dog's choke collar, leash, two binkies, ipod, and all my shoes. My husband packed another bag since he couldn't fit his shoes into his original bag plus a sweatshirt and phone chargers. One of the five bags was her diaper bag that we normally take to daycare that was stuffed with all duplicate stuff that we have in the 'ready to go' bags. I'm not sure what the other mysterious bags contained but whatever it was I was convinced at the time that we needed those items to go with us.

Upon making two last minute runs back into the house after the dog and daughter were all packed into the car this morning we were on our way downtown for a 1/2 day of work before our journey began. About 2 minutes into our commute my husband turned to me panicked and said... "Oh no, we forgot the IPOD." I assured him I had it stuffed away in my backpack. Two seconds later I turned to him panicked and said. "Oh crap, we forgot her (our daughter's) snack!" He assured me he had it in the cooler. About 15 minutes later he looks over at me and tells me that he has forgotten his swim trunks and this would not be an item I would throw in for him. I started to laugh... I mean a week at a lake with no swim trunks. Then I started to wonder to myself... did I pack any underwear??? Who knows....my suitcase is packed so deep I won't find out until 3am tomorrow morning when we arrive.

Stay tuned for more on our crazy cross country journey.