Monday, July 2, 2012

The Circus is coming to town (aka the packing game)

Way back when, when my husband and I were dating, we would visit his family or mine and it was he, and I and my one dog Old Lady (she wasn't that old back then). Everyone doted on her and she was the center of attention on all trips and visits. Packing involved a bed and some dog food.

Then we got married and got our second dog, Big M. Packing now involved two beds, more dog food and leashes since Big M isn't quite as well behaved off leash as Old Lady, although he does really well most of the time.

Then we had our daughter Baby A.

As mentioned earlier, we don't visit anymore, we invade. We are a traveling three ring circus and the amount of stuff that 'has to go' is amazing. There are diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, little spoons, baby food, dog food, dog beds, baby beds, dog toys, baby toys, baby clothes, baby bug spray, blankets, towels, etc, etc, etc (etc). Not to mention all my husbands things (who packs like a girl BTW) and Lord help us if he decides he wants to do some cycling while he's there since that's a completely separate bag of items necessary, plus bike. Some how, I can live out of an overnight bag for 7 days and he needs a suitcase the size of a smartcar. In addition, the whole family shares food responsibilities for the weekend and so we have to also pack a cooler with the things for the dinner we are cooking plus snack and breakfast items.

We fit all of this, plus dogs, plus baby, plus us, into our Xterra and the car carrier we bought last summer. Whenever we arrive at our intended destination and open the doors to the car, the circus explodes into fur, drool, spit up and general chaos as we pile out, clown car style with toys and leashes and bags falling out because luggage may have shifted during take off or landing.

We leave on Wednesday, I've been mentally packing for weeks and today started to make my lists. Baby lists, Dog lists, Food lists. I don't have a list for me yet. There is significant potential that I will make it to my in-laws house without underwear. I suppose as long as I remember my bathing suit, everything should be fine.


Did you notice how I started off with lists for Baby A, Dogs and me, and had to cross 'me' off?

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