Hmmmm....maybe tomorrow I'll actually post about our vacation.

But, today, I'm posting about packing...

We have taken our annual road trip to "the shore" every year for the last 7 years. Every year, I struggle to pack for a trip, for 6 people, that includes sleeping in a different location for each the first 4 nights.

A couple of years ago, I bought a couple of huge, really HUGE! suitcases. They are really BIG! I should actually take a picture of them because I bought them during my "I love the color lime" phase. Picture the biggest, hugest, limest suitcases that you have ever seen. I'll just say that I have no problem spotting my luggage when it is coming off an airplane.


They are great suitcases and serve a purpose, but they are not "ideal" for dragging in and out of a hotel over and over again. Way too heavy and a huge mess after 4 days of 6 people going in and out of them. After using my huge, lime suitcases a few years ago, Spencer.....ummmm...... "suggested" that we try a different approach.



Ok, the next year, I bought those huge-o ziploc bags. I had one for each day. So, when we checked into the hotel, all we needed was that day's bag. The system worked pretty well, but I think we looked a little trashy each night as we crammed 6 of us into a hotel room and carried in our huge ziploc bags. Looking back on it I'm kind of embarassed.


Last year, I thought I would use the same approach, with a bag for each day, but I would take up up a step in class....a very small step.





Yup, I used my handy, dandy Walmart re-usable shopping bags. I taped the day of the week on each bag. Now, I am really getting embarassed. I actually thought it was pretty cool when I did it. LOL...what a dork!

This year, the day before we were leaving for vacation, I was still working on gathering and organizing our things when a package arrived at the door....a big package. The package was from our wonderful friends David and Jeannine. David and Jeannine's house is our "Thursday" night stop on the way out to the shore each year and our absolute favorite stop on our trip. Since we have been staying with them each year, they have been able to witness my packing adventures.

So, imagine my surprise when I opened up the big package and found, in addition to some fun road trip toys for the boys, a very cool LL Bean "Thursday" bag!! I was so excited and laughed so hard!!! I couldn't help but wonder if they got it for us because they were worried that we would show up with trash bags as luggage this year. But, I didn't really care what the reason was...I loved my cool new bag!!

I went to move the "empty" box out of the foyer and realized that it was still pretty heavy. I dug a little deeper and was really surprised to find a cool "Wednesday", "Friday" and "Saturday" bag to go with my cool "Thursday" bag. How awesome is that!!

I felt so good each day as we went into our hotel with our very cool bag!! The system really worked well and we finally looked "cool" too. I smile every time I see one of my bags. Now, if you want our family to visit you, please make sure that it is a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. :)

Thanks Jeannine!! You are the best!