The Journey Begins

This year, the GHS yearbook theme was "The Journey." Journey of life. School as road trip. Not super original, but it worked. You might think that our summer plans influenced the yearbook theme (I'm the yearbook advisor for those who may not know) but it was just a coincidence. Even though we've thought about this European trip for a few years, it wasn't a rock solid commitment before we chose The Journey for our yearbook. But this summer's trip, which is kicking off today, is definitely a fitting end to the journey that was 2013-2014. The end of Sofia's high school career and the beginning of new adventures.

Cristina's dad drove us to the airport. Thanks Wito!

I'm sitting at gate 78 in the Orlando airport, or MCO to the airport code-knowers (i.e. those who search for airfare online with Kayak, Expedia, etc.). Little factoid: even though the name of this airport is Orlando International Airport, the code is MCO because it used to be McCoy Air Force Base. 13th busiest airport in the country, and my personal favorite. I don't love Orlando, but I love MCO.

Bella wants so badly to ride on a train. Does the airport shuttle count? Yes!

Blogging at MCO

So we had about a week after Sofia's graduation to pack for this trip. And I'm glad we had that much time, because we needed it. So much of packing (for us) is culling clothes, washing and drying, mending as needed, coordinating colors and layers for changes in temperature. It's oversimplifying to think that packing just means picking a few outfits and tossing them in a bag. Not in this family! I married a Girl Scout, and Girl Scouts don't pick, toss, and run.

5 total bags to check, and the 5th one is "small." Not bad for us. The basketball stayed home.

We could have gotten a normal night's sleep last night if we had prepared our thank you gifts earlier in the week. I don't want to give away what we made, since some of our hosts might read this blog, but let's just say it's a handmade crafty thing that took, well, all night. I finally went to bed at 2 and Bella woke me up at 6:30 with the announcement that "Mami stayed up all night." And my alarm was set for 7. Thanks, Bella. I guess I didn't need that last 30 minutes.

Cristina's mom helped with the packing too, and the mending and cleaning up, and probably a dozen other things I don't know. She's washing all our sheets for us while we're gone, which is really sweet. Thanks, Wita!

So I'm running on 4-ish hours of sleep. Cristina dozed for maybe 30 minutes in the car, and she's trying to rest right now, but I see that she's talking on her phone:

So the gate is starting to get that buzz that comes when boarding is imminent, so time to pack up the laptop. Next stop, JFK. Then across the pond to Amsterdam. And one last short flight to Copenhagen.

Then we get to see if our luggage will fit in the rental car.

Stay tuned!