Sheep Guarding Llama

I was still driving when the day flipped over from Wednesday to Thursday.  We hit traffic in Texas as we attempted to leave the DFW yesterday afternoon but after we were out of the DFW things flowed smoothly all night.  We took the northern route through Oklahoma which I much prefer when we are leaving during heavy evening traffic in the DFW area as it gets us out of the traffic zone much more quickly than heading all of the way through the DFW in order to head east out to Arkansas.

Dominica took over driving for a few hours early this morning.  We listened to a bunch of classic country music on her iPod and sang along for much of the night.

In the morning we stopped at a McDonald’s with a play area in southern Illinois so that the girls could get out and stretch a bit.  Both of the girls have been doing an amazing job of riding in the car.  Liesl has been a perfect angel without the slightest bit of complaining which we were not expecting at all.  I can’t get over how well she has done on this really long trip.

While we were at McDonald’s I talked to Dominica about how well we were doing as far as making good time on the drive and mentioned that if possible that I would really like to run out to East Canton, Ohio so that I could see my family as we pass by.  My family is only about thirty minutes out of the way on the drive from Texas to New York so it really is a good chance to see them.  I texted my cousin and my aunt and let them know that we were going to be coming through in the middle of the afternoon.

We made it to my grandmother’s house at a quarter after three.  Most of my family was able to meet up with us there including my cousin Monica.  So we hung out for just a little bit before all going into Louisville to have a very early dinner at Grinders.  It was really nice that we were able to stop by as I was able to take my grandmother out for Mother’s Day and she got to see the girls for a few hours.  Getting her more time with Luciana is very important at Luciana has a little bit of stranger danger and having grandma meet her today before spending more time with her in two months will help with that.

It was just a few minutes past midnight when we pulled into dad’s driveway.  We were in bed in pretty much no time.  We were really exhausted.  Dominica really helped a lot with the driving on this trip and might have driven as much as a third of the way.  Altogether the drive, including our stops, took thirty hours.

Tomorrow I am working from dad’s house in the morning, running errands with Danielle and then heading off to Jeremy and Rachael’s wedding in Geneva.  Dominica and the girls will be staying home and her parents are coming out to hang out with the girls in the evening.

Wow, the day is really here.  Today is the day that we leave Texas for… two months!  I can’t believe that we are finally leaving for New York and on to Europe.  It has been in the planning stages for so long that it seems impossible that the day is finally here.

I tried to sleep in this morning but I woke up at a quarter till seven and could not fall back asleep.  So I got up, showered and put in a little time wrapping stuff up around the house before heading into the office this morning.  Even going to bed last night and getting up this morning it doesn’t seem like we are really leaving for the first stage of our vacation today.  Totally surreal.

I know that for normal people, going on a vacation is a normal, annual thing.  But this is both my first “real” vacation, other than our honeymoon, since my parents’ trip to Prince Edward Island with me in 1992 but also my first vacation, ever, of this length, our first time seeing much of Europe and the first vacation with my girls.  This is big.

I came home at lunch and helped Dominica to get things ready.  I watered the lawn while I was home, it was looking pretty dry.  I helped her to get things ready to pack although the car was pretty much completely packed by that point already.

I went back to work but didn’t stay for long.  Things were really slow this afternoon so I just took care of any paperwork that needed my attention.  Things were so slow that I left at a quarter till four to get home and get on the road.

I am posting this as I leave the office.  We will be driving all night and hope, if all goes well, to be arriving before dark at dad’s house in New York tomorrow.  I sure hope that I can stay up driving all night.  This is going to be a long one.

Adios!

This is it.  Today is our last full day in Texas for a long time.  We will be on the road to New York in the middle of tomorrow afternoon.  It seems surreal.

I got up at seven this morning and got right to work.  So much to do.  We are not really ready at all.  There is so much to do and so much to think of when you are going to be traveling for this length of time.

My day was crazy busy just trying to get as much work done as possible so that I would be ready to go.  I am working from home today so that we have more opportunity to do things.  Not that it makes all that much difference at this point.  We are down to the wire.

Around twelve thirty Dominica ran off for her final hair cut before we go.  She wants her hair a lot shorter so that it is easier to deal with while we are traveling.  I need to remember to shave my head tomorrow morning as well.  Want as little to deal with once we leave Texas as possible.

I will be going to work tomorrow and leaving the moment that they don’t need me anymore.  Likely around 4:05 since most of my real work typically wraps up before 4:00.

Liesl is really excited to be going on vacation and going to New York to see her grandparents.  She can barely contain herself.  Little does she realize (or remember) just how long the car trip is and then how long the flight is going to be and then the train ride once we arrive.  Between tomorrow afternoon and Sunday morning there will be twenty-four hours of driving, nearly ten hours of flights and about three or four hours of trains.  Not to mention a six hour layover at JFK with nothing to do.

We tried to get to bed early tonight but it was probably midnight anyway before we actually turned in.  Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.  So much to do before we leave and then… the drive.

We leave Texas in forty-eight hours and we leave for Europe itself from New York in five days.  Vacationitis is now in effect one hundred percent.

I got up at a quarter after six this morning so that I could get some work done.  Liesl was up just minutes after me.  She popped into my office at half past six and asked me to set her up with a My Little Pony show and chocolate milk (Pediasure.)  Her morning routine, but not normally this early.  It was still dark out.  Every morning she finds us, has us set up whatever show she was watching just before going to bed, bring out her Dora pillow and her pink polka dot blanket and set up on the couch in the playroom with her chocolate milk.  This is how she starts her day.

Over the last several weeks her thing has been making tents from blankets.  She loves to have a tent over her bed, tent over the couch, etc.  Yesterday she decided that she wanted a “cave” instead (basically a tent with her head poking out.)  So I have to set her up with that so that she can watch her shows as well.

I went in to Medifast this morning at my usual nine o’clock and did my final check in before leaving for Europe.  As of today I am also out of transition and into my “stay fit” cycle where, in theory, I am back to eating real food and being “normal” from here on out.  The goal is to maintain my current weight, hopefully, forever.  They are excited about my trip and will be following along on Kidding Around Europe.  Dominica has been working on some new posts for there too.  The big one will be about all of the luggage and how she is managing to squeeze everything in there.

I’ve gotten a Europe 2012 Flickr Set set up now where all of the raw pictures from our trip will be being uploaded as we go.  Pretty much empty right now, but in theory that will be jam packed with content very soon.

Dominica spent a bit of time this weekend getting iPads and iPods ready for the trip. Books and music loaded, movies to watch.  We are ready.  There is going to be a lot of time spent on planes and trains.  Keeping the girls, and ourselves, occupied is going to be tough.

Today was slow at the office.  I was thankful for that.  My head is swimming with all of the things that we need to do before we leave.  It is starting to feel like a panic.  I am starting to have a hard time concentrating or focusing simply due to the massive volume of things demanding our attention.

I had to run to the post office this afternoon to send out the Droid X that has to be returned to Verizon.  Quite honestly, we are glad to be rid of it.  We never liked the phone and we don’t want it cluttering up the house like our old Palm 700p and BlackBerry Tour do.  Even Dominica’s old BlackBerry Pearl won’t go away and Liesl still plays with it from time to time and Luciana is starting to play with it.  Very soon, I suspect, they will be playing with an HTC Droid Incredible 2.

The whole afternoon was really slow at work.  I remembered to submit my timesheets – always a concern with me.  Very critical since we will be out of the country and very dependent on the regular flow of income while we are away.  I did some bill paying too.  Want to get that all taken care of before we are traveling.

It is Monday so the country club is closed. So our routine has been for me to pick up food on the way home to save time.  We are pretty much out of food at the house and we do not want to buy any more since we will be leaving and anything that is in the house will spoil while we are gone.  So we have already gone through and pretty much eaten everything and now have to eat out for all of our meals.

So I called into Rockfish and ordered dinner before leaving the office.  I brought home dinner and Dominica had some Rick Steves lined up and ready to go when I arrived.  We watched his European travel tips to make sure that we had thought of everything possible.

My new laptop case arrived today.  It is pretty cool.  I will try to post some pictures tomorrow – both of it and of the new laptop too.

Tonight was busy between prep work and just general work needing my attention.  So much to do, so little time.  I expect to be home tomorrow and in the office on Wednesday.  So pretty much everything has to be done tomorrow.  Wednesday is purely a “pack the car” day.

Three days.  AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

I got up early this morning and got right to work trying to get things done as quickly as possible.  I am completely overwhelmed with work and projects that must be done before we leave.  There is not nearly enough time in the day.  I have no idea how I am going to pull all of this off.

I locked myself in the office for much of the day.  The girls really wanted to hang out with me but I just don’t have the time for interruptions.  I sat down with Liesl and explained that I had to work really hard today and that I would go to work for three days but then, after that, we were going to go on vacation.  She got super excited and seems to understand.  We are trying to show her videos of where she will be going and doing and trying to make her understand as much as possible.  She seems to get it and can’t wait to leave on Wednesday to go see her grandparents in New York and then fly on to England.  I tried to teach her to say “jolly good show” as well.

Dominica went out to do some shopping today.  She has been buying My Little Ponies for Liesl to surprise her with on the trip.  Liesl is so into them now and has been asking for them all the time.  She got nearly all of them today and gave Liesl one of them, Apple Jack, early as Liesl was really anxious to get that one.  The rest will be a surprise to dole out while we are in Europe on the trains.

The day was exhausting.  By the evening I was really burned out.  I spent some time watching some shows with Dominica and the girls.  We caught up on the latest episode of Hot in Cleveland and Happily Divorced which are the only normal shows that we watch.  Then we watched some more of Travel with Kids.

Once Liesl went to bed I went to bed myself.  I’ll get up early-ish tomorrow and get more work done then.