Preparations

 When planning a trip out of country, one must have passports, since Craig's, Anna's, and Sam's are still current, I filled out 11 passport applications and we headed out to the county clerk's office to finish the application process. Fourteen Houston's filing through the metal detectors, up the stairs, and into line at the passport counter made quite a stir! Thus the beginning of the biggest adventure our family has ever had!

So thankful for Make A Wish Foundation for sending us to London, England!!! We are so excited and yet the preparations will be many! It is no small task to plan and pack for 14 people for a 10 day excursion across the ocean. The trip to the county clerk was the first step and only took us about an hour and a half to get done. The children behaved nicely and did well with getting their mugshots pictures taken. After the grueling task of filling out 11 separate checks, we were at last finished!

Lots of paperwork to fill out, good thing I filled out the applications the night before!

 The waiting then was the next step. We are still waiting for the actual passports to be in hand, though I trust that the eleven cleared checks means they will be here within the next week or so. (It has been 3 1/2 weeks since turning the applications in) We did receive word that our tickets have been purchased!!!!
                                  Woo Hoo!
We will be headed to England June 23 and will be back the first week of July! We will even be spending our 20th wedding anniversary in London! I couldn't ask for a better way to celebrate than with my entire family in a lovely place filled with history and adventure!

orneriness never hurt anyone, right? ;-)

We have had fun shopping around for luggage and strollers and thinking of fun "treats" for the plane ride. I want to have special surprises waiting for the little ones in their backpacks that will entertain them for the many hours in flight.

I found a steal of a deal at Goodwill! As I know we will be doing much walking around in London, I felt it necessary to find a good stroller for Selah. While I was checking out at Goodwill, I looked over and spotted a stroller that will be PERFECT! It is an Italian made Peg Perego stroller that new runs around $200.00......for a whopping $14.99!!!! Sure it has a little wear and tear but for the most part, it looks new, is a smooth ride, was easy to clean, and folds nicely. Now there are just a few more things we will need to look into, and then the real waiting begins.....the countdown to departure day! We are SUPER excited to have the dates now, it means we really are going to London folks!!

A little tired waiting to be done.

Selah's new ride!

Fun to dream and get excited!