Always the scariest part of any trip – the night before! The husband is downstairs packing with clear instructions to absorb as much as the overflow as possible, but that is a gargantuan task. When we went to Thailand together we each carried a single backpack and it was fantastic. This time around we have SO MANY THINGS. I have gone through every bag and pulled out anything that looks unnecessary.

One of our friends gave us a tent to try for kiddo. We had it set up in the living room the last couple of days with toys in it to try and make it a cool place to hang out. We were very successful in convincing the cat that it was the cool place to be, the kid was less convinced. When we went to put kid down for bed this evening, we snuck her in the tent. So far so good, although this does mean one more piece of equipment to pack for her.

Seriously though. I thought that we had packed enough diapers, food pouches, formula for a month-long trip at least, and then the husband and I calculated it out to try and save on weight and we realized that we have maybe a week and a half’s worth. We looked at each other and realized that our kid will likely just do whatever the other kids do and get in some early potty training.

We have planned, poured over airbnb listings, sent many messages over facebook messenger to our friends in Indonesia (guaranteeing that one of us was up at an odd time, or messaging while trying to get work done), and acquired every item that might be of use. We also lost our kid (briefly at REI) likely overdid it on mosquito repellent and sunscreen and found caretakers for our menagerie (cat, dog, three chickens). I bought so many small items I had to take out a bag of recycling (our dramamine and benadryl had expired, we opted to pick up some children’s benadryl just in case), and all of the various accoutrements that one can justify collecting ahead of some long adventure.

I spent the morning pretreating our clothes with permethin as a first line of defense against mosquitos. I ran the Seattle half marathon a couple of weeks ago, and they give you these large blankets to wrap yourself up in at the end. I stretched that out across the backyard, laid out some clothes and sprayed. I focused more on the ankles, and sleeves, and then, because it started raining (it was supposed to snow today). I came inside and threw everything in the dryer on no heat. That worked well except the drum captured a zipper on a pair of the husband’s adventure pants (the kind where you can zip the legs on and off.

We have the child’s sun jacket from Patagonia, and even though it is a bit too large – we love it! I made sure that it was well treated as it will provide an easy way to cover up the kid (it has a hood).

While we were at REI the kid spent a bunch of time working on her rock moves at the shoe testing structure. The husband spent enough time trying to decide that it was justified. Our flight is at six tomorrow, so the task will be to tire munchkin out as much as possible before then. Hopefully we can keep her up until LA and then let her sleep as much as possible on the longest leg.

I should go help the husband finish packing…