2 Days & Counting

Last weekend was graduation at our high school. Van was registered as a Senior, so she got to walk in graduation even though she did not graduate. She did get an honorary diploma, though. She thought taking this picture was dumb, but at least she smiled for me.

Here she is with the rest of the family. Like how I'm not in the picture, since I'm behind the camera? Gotta love that part!

And with her best bud, J. This is one of three people that Van got really close to throughout they year, and I know she will miss J a lot. At least there's always MySpace...

In case you are completely oblivious to anything that is happening in my life, its a mere two days before we leave for Vietnam! Van will be returning home, and Holly & I will be going with her to meet her family and spend two and a half weeks with them. Van has shown me on the computer lots of the things we will be doing, seeing, and places we will visit. Of course I am very excited! Well, about everything except being on a 13 hour flight with a 2 year old!

We are leaving Saturday morning and I told Van today that she needed to have her suitcases packed and in my car Friday afternoon before going to the car derby. She said "Oh, yeah, I'm almost done packing. I'm just waiting for my laundry to dry."

Now lets be clear, there is NO WAY she is going to get ALL of her stuff into her two suitcases, so I was pretty curious about her packing progress. When she went to the pool with J, I popped my head into her room to see what all she had gotten accomplished. This is what I found:

Does that look like "almost done" to you?! Because this doesn't look any different than her room does most of the time, except that you can see more floor space!

Its her packing and her problem to get it all into her suitcases, so I'm not worrying too much about it. Except I am going to be seriously grouchy if she thinks I'm going to try to get the car packed up to go to the airport at 6:30am on Saturday!!!

I went in to my room with the camera and Holly said "Mommy, take MY picture. Say cheese!" So, I did what I was told...
Now, for a Type A, this is what "almost packed" looks like: carry on stuff,

airplane clothes (with extra shirts in the carry ons, of course),

and ONE suitcase for both Holly and I. I even have an extra bag in there so that when I make all those fabulous purchases, I have another bag I can check on the way home! How is that for planning? Even at this point, I still keep thinking that I have over packed, but we are going to be there for 18 days, so I had to cut myself a little slack.

And just in case you are wondering, Holly's backpack weighs 4.6b lbs, which is well within the 10-20% weight limit that the Academy of American Pediatricians recommends for backpack weights. I know you probably want to know what weighs so much in there, but healthy snacks are a HUGE part of packing for such a long trip! I tried to include as many games, toys, and activities as was practically possible, but only those with one piece!

I think we are ready! I can't wait! I will be blogging throughout our trip, so you can see what all we are doing while we are there.