Preparing for our Vacation....

Well, I made a list and I'm checking it over and over and over again. :) It turns out leaving for 2 weeks means a lot of preparation is required. We have a large white board and cork board on the wall in the hallway leading from the basement. I made 2 lists, one list for things to buy for the trip, the other list for all the things I have to finish before we leave. I am actually going to be finished tomorrow with my list 2 days before we leave. :) Yay!!!

Today we went on another bus ride to N. Prospect shopping area. It is unsafe to bike there because of traffic, so the bus ride was chosen. The boys were great on the bus as usual. We got almost all our shopping finished with only a few items left to purchase at a store close to home that we can bike to. With the use of the reusable shopping bags, I split the purchases between 5 bags so each boy carried their own bag and I carried 2. So, it wasn't too bad to carry back on the bus all our purchases. One thing that was very different this day on the bus was that it was packed with people! We were lucky to get seats. A lot of people had to stand. I was really proud of the boys today because a man on the bus offered them candy and they politely refused without me having to say anything. Since the bus was so crowded, Christopher did mention it smelled weird on the bus, lol.

Oh...I should share what our vacation plans are. We are leaving early Saturday morning after we pick up a minivan from the car rental place. We will be driving to Mildred's house first and spending Sunday, Monday and Tuesday just relaxing in Norman, OK. Then, we are leaving *very* early Wednesday morning to drive to Albuquerque, NM. We will stay at a great hotel with 2 rooms that night and the next day we will go see an ice cave and Bandera volcano. Then, we will leave and drive to Las Cruces to see White Sands National Park. We will again stay at a great all-suite hotel in Las Cruces. Next, we drive to Carlsbad and stay at an awesome boutique hotel chosen solely for my pleasure. :) http://www.thetrinityhotel.com/ I'm including the link because I'm so excited about the hotel! We will stay in the room that has 2 rooms so we can have our privacy from the boys. We will stay 3 nights in Carlsbad and spend the weekend exploring the caverns. I'm hoping Jimmy and I can go on one of the advanced cave tours that takes 4 hours. We'll see. :) I have to mention, the inspiration for this trip came after reading the book, Blind Descent by James Tabor. http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Descent-Quest-Discover-Deepest/dp/1400067677 Excellent, excellent book! So interesting and quite shocking account of what people will endure to be the first to discover the deepest cave on earth.

Ok, time to sign off. Jimmy and I are off to take a walk. :)