"Get Back!"

We aren't actually in London yet, but I think we are finally ready to "get back!" there.

 For all but about 72 hours a year, this trip seems like such an amazing opportunity, blessing, adventure.  However, for roughly the 72 hours immediately surrounding and including our travel and initial arrival in London, "what the BLEEP were we thinking?" usually goes through my head a few times a day as I try to remember to pack everything, think about the college students and making sure they have a good and educational trip, think about how to impress upon the three year old that she really cannot run away from us and/or into the cray streets, think about how to impress upon Connor that if he loses his "Ashoka Tano" lego figurine (is "figure" a better word for a boys star wars lego toy than figurine?) on the plane she is gone for good, etc. etc.  But, as the packing goes from this

(This luggage isn't all going.  This was just part of the process where we got all the luggage out so we could decide which pieces to actually pack in.)

(This is just the kids stuff.  I didn't get around to taking pictures of the packing process for Ralph and I)

to this

I am starting to relax.  Ralph has been wonderful about trying to keep me sane and reminding me that we are not intact going to some third world jungle, but to a rather modern and civilized city where we can pretty much get anything I did forget to pack, and that really, as long as we have each other, we don't really need too much anyway.  Whew!

So tomorrow we are off across the pond, v. 2.0!  If it is half as good as last time, it should be an amazing opportunity, blessing and adventure!!