When my parents’ house was in escrow and my brother and I were basically sobbing through our days, my parents came up with a plan. They decided that they wanted to celebrate with a family trip to Hawaii. I gave them the side-eye like, “Are you trying to distract me from the fact that you just sold my childhood home?…because don’t get me wrong, I can be distracted!” I was talking with Mike last week and I realized that we have never gone on vacation with my family. We have an annual trip to Arizona with Mike’s family, but in the eleven years Mike and I have been together, we’ve never gone anywhere with my side. I am really, really excited – it’s been nine years since I vacationed with my parents (sans Mike), and I haven’t gone on a trip with my brother since high school.

Annabel is also beside herself, and has been following me around all weekend as I’ve been prepping for the trip. I finally told her to pack her suitcase, and this is what she decided was essential for a trip to the beach:

annie's suitcase

Nailed it.

In between writing out instructions for the house-sitters (poor Rigby doesn’t get to go), I’ve been packing suitcases, weighing the pros and cons of bringing a stroller, and prepping a backpack of goodies to distract Annie on the plane, including a bunch of art supplies. I know she’ll enjoy drawing on the flight but there’s noooooo way I am going to chase dropped pencils all over the plane. So, I hot-glued yarn to colored pencils and tied the other end to a spiral notebook. Hopefully this will keep the pencils within arm’s reach.

glued pencils

This will be James’ first flight, but he’s such a chill little dude that I’m not worried about him. He’s happy just being cuddled and smiled at. Annie will be full of energy but I’m hoping our early flight will lead to a nap…if not for her, for me!

Since we’re leaving in a few hours, I need to grab all the last-minute things and try to sleep a bit. I hope you all don’t mind if I turn the blog this week into a travelogue of our trip!