pre-vacation thoughts.

my family is going on vacation together. to Colonial Williamsburg. we leave on Friday. this will be our second family vacation to Williamsburg. my oldest sister missed it the first time. (lucky her!) for those of you who are uninitiated to the tale of what will inevitably go down in history as the worst family vacation ever in the history of all family vacations, some highlights of the first trip included a 4th of July weekend with 100+degree temperatures paired with 100% humidity, no air conditioning, warm drinks, a closed wig-makers shop, an open blacksmith shop, (great idea for a hot day - small room full of a raging FIRE!) missing all the 4th of July festivities, all while being constantly reminded of what a great day it would be for the water park. did i miss anything? doesn't that just sound like such a good time? no lie, everybody's favorite part of the trip was the night we ate dinner out of a vending machine and watched junkyard wars on tv.

so we're going back to give it another try! this will be the first time we have all been together since my wedding in October.

two parents, four kids, three husbands, and two babies. all together for a week of fun, running, the beach, pools, amusement parks, hysterical laughing, a little bit of history, and a lot of straight-up relaxing, with (most likely) just a sprinkle of drama and (most definately) plenty of food.

i started packing last night. because i am nothing if not a horrible last-minute packer. just ask anyone who knows me. i stress about trying to remember everything i will need, overthink every single article of clothing i pack, obsess about how many pairs of shoes are acceptable to bring (a different pair every day? why not?!)(but seriously is 5 too many?) and ultimately end up freaking the freak out before blindly shoving anything and everything into a bag with un-wreck-less abandon and i inevitably end up forgetting my deodorant. or my beach towel. or my bathing suit. or all of those things. i do not enjoy this process, and neither does the hubs since a lot of the freaking out ends up being directed at him, so i'm doing my best to avoid it for this trip.

because honestly, i really really really want this to be the best vacation ever. so much so that it's tainting my over-the-top-my-head-is-about-to-explode-from-squealing-jumpingupanddownexcitement-eeeeekkk!!! with just a little bit of being nervous about the whole thing. what if i do end up forgetting something important? what if its not as grand or great or exciting as i have worked it up to be in my head? what if we dont all get along anymore? what if we spend the whole week sitting in our hotel rooms because we can't decide what we should do? (what do you wanna do? i dunno, what d'you wanna do? now dont start THAT again!)

but really, i should probably just get over that. because the most exciting thing about this vacation is not the place, or the activities, or a few days off work. the exciting thing is that my whole family is going to be there, and do i really need anything more than that to look forward to?

because who knows when we will all be together again?