BIG road trip.....7 years in the making

This trip has been years in the making.  It has been the proverbial 'dangling carrot' for Bill at work.  The mantra has been 'just make it to sabbatical, just make it to sabbatical'.  And while there were days, weeks, and even months that we thought we might not quite make it, here it is.  The mother of all vacations, the packing job that goes on for weeks, the 'I can't believe it's almost here' moment we have thought about for a long time.  In fact, a couple of the time share condos that we have booked were secured in October of 2009!  Yes, we are planners.  Planners aren't necessarily super efficient packers though.  All I can say is THANK GOODNESS we haul this baby around with us on every vacation-

We leave in about 36 hours and I am almost done with the packing.  Packing for a regular vacation trip for 7 people takes a lot of time...packing for many weeks for 7 people has become downright tiring!  There are 6 clothing suitcases, 3 shoe bags, 3 large bins of snacks,

1 bin of car emergency equipment, 2 bins filled with wetsuits and life vests, 5 boogie boards, 3 large ice chests, bags of hand me down clothing for family drop offs along the way, a couple beach umbrellas, a couple strollers (yes, I know, they are 6, but there is no way in heck they're gonna keep up with all the walking in DC and NYC), 2 bins of kitchen wares, and there will probably be a couple more bins of misc CR*P that we'll throw in at the end.  It's how we roll.  Parker wishes he were going too......poor buddy.  We're sure going to miss him.

We've determined there is space in there for my parents too....I'm not sure my mom is going to allow us to pull out of the driveway.  This will be the longest we have ever been away from one another!  Of course, after about 2 weeks of traveling with us, they'd be begging to go home.  As a matter of fact, I might be too!

We added this to our trailer for the summer.  All the states with stickers are representative of those we have visited...meaning stayed in and done at least ONE thing in.  And no, stopping at a road side pit stop doesn't count.

We'll be adding to it as we go, so by the end it should look a lot more complete!  We are definitely off on an adventure of a lifetime, one I sure hope the kids appreciate and enjoy.  Because really, driving thousands of miles and planning all we have planned is for them and their memory banks!  I'll be blogging from the road, so stop back on by if you want to see what vacation with 7 looks like-the good times, the bad times, and probably the ugly times too!