Seattle or Bust

As if things aren't consistently chaotic in my home, we are now in frantic mode as we prepare for a trip to the Seattle area to visit Joel's family.  Save for a wintertime flight when Cael was barely two months old, we've never attempted to squeeze the boys' larger-than-life personalities into the cabin of a Boeing 747. 

Prayers go out to the people sitting next to us.

As Saturday's flight approaches, I'm doing my best to organize our belongings so effectively and efficiently that we can carry on everything and not have to incur any checked bag fees.  And while most of me is pretty well certain that the experience will be horrendous and might replace water-boarding as an effective torture method, I have to admit that the Type-A part of me lives for the opportunity to make lists, cross off achieved tasks on said list, and for the satisfaction of zipping up that last suitcase knowing that everything is included and arranged precisely.

Until I realize that Graham shoved the cat in the suitcase, of course.  After unburying him, the shirts have usually lost some of their luster.

I guess I shouldn't complain that the boys want to help, but their brand of "help" isn't usually very helpful at all.  Just yesterday, as I was reading through my bag list (yes, I made a list of each bag and its contents) I noticed that Graham had made a few additions to the list that I had apparently omitted.

It is during moments like these that I refer back to my iPhone's extraordinary autocorrect feature.  I still maintain that my phone, perhaps angry at me for its accidental swim in the toilet, jumps at every possible opportunity to change my typos into laughable and often inappropriate suggestions. 

Thanks to this overzealous smartphone feature, I will be sure to include "juggleguppies", a spittoon and a tit mouse in our activity bag.  That won't make the flight weird at all.

Seattle, here we come.


(Because of our trip, I will be taking next week off from blogging, although you are welcome to follow along with our adventure on my Facebook page or through Instagram photos.  I'll be back on Monday, August 5th to share the whole story!)