And we’re off…

To Seattle that is. For SIXTEEN days. Yes, you read that right… 16. 10 days of paid time off for Micah and three weekends in the mix. It’s kinda crazy, but fun.

Here is the predicament though. How do I pack for such a trip? I love packing LIGHT. Like love it. My college roommates know this. One of them even taught me how to pack a zillion shirts into a packing cube. I heart packing cubes. I was tempted to challenge myself on this trip to packing to most efficiently I ever have before (except that one time I went to Europe and wore the same pair of gauchos the whole trip…except I don’t call that efficient; I call that just plain ugly). Here’s what I was thinking… you know how they do those specials in the magazines like “How you can transform 10 articles of clothing into six different outfits for work, play, a night out on the town…?” I thought I could do that – one great pair of jeans, two cardigans, a cute tank, a dress, one pair of shorts…

And then I realized this is IMPOSSIBLE. Here’s the thing about our trip…we are CAMPING half the days we are there. Yes, camping. Some of you might be camping haters, but I love camping. However, it makes it very hard to pack. See, we are spending this weekend in Seattle visiting friends and family – church, going out to breakfast, lake party. But on Tuesday we are going camping with friends for a few days. Then we come home for the weekend and have more friend, family, church, dressing up time. Then we go back out for another camping trip with Micah’s family the following week. Then we come back for one more weekend with my family and I think family portraits might be involved. See the problem? Camping means sweats, shorts, a few swimsuits, junky clothes to run around and sit by the fire in. Church and portraits and meeting up with old friends means cute cardigans and sandals and tank tops. And hopefully we will be celebrating our one year anniversary somewhere in the mix, and that just might require a nice dress as well.

So no ten item packing for me. I’m taking two bags. Ugh. (Thank you Southwest for free checked luggage).  Did I mention that half our time will be spent in eastern Washington where it’s HOT and the other half will be in western Washington where it tends to be a bit chilly even in the summer? See – I have a huge packing conundrum on my hands!

But I am so excited for this trip! Looking for lots of time with mom and dad, sister and brother, Micah’s fam,  my closest childhood friends, my old roommates, church peeps and our camping companions. So I am going to cram it all in my bag and head to the airport!

P.S. Even though I dislike cold weather, I am secretly excited to pack some sweatpants into my luggage…