Preparing for Big Trips

It's Taylor here now.

Do you know how much work it is to get ready to go on a five and a half week trip? And then to get ready to move on top of that?

We started planning the trip months and months ago. My mom asked us to help think of places we wanted to go. That didn't always work out so well. One time when we were supposed to be planning the trip, Christian was running around the living room singing, "I'm a depressed monkey." That's a song Rachel wrote with some of her friends.. It goes like this:

I woke up in the morning craving banana pie.
But when I went down to the kitchen, the bananas were covered in flies.
I picked them off the tree, but those bananas got rotten on me.

Chorus:
I'm a depressed monkey.
I'm a depressed monkey.
The bananas are old and funky.
Oh, I'm a depressed monkey.
They were all rotten and totally forgotten.
My, oh my. I can't have my banana pie.

Beans and rice aren't nearly as nice as sweet banana pie.
Gourmet dish isn't nearly as delicious as sween banana pie.

Repeat chorus.

Or something like that. (I had to ask Rachel to remember the words.) Pretty soon, I was running around with him. Doesn't that song make you want to run around the room too? We didn't get much done that meeting.

Here's some more things we have to do to get ready: We ordered books on tape to listen to while we drive. Actually, my dad reserved about half of the books on tape in the library for us. We needed two plastic bags to carry them all. We got Kindle Fires for our birthdays to read in the car. We downloaded some games too. For Christmas, we got duffle bags and sleeping bags. My mom makes us pack our own bag. She gives us a list and then we have to get everything. Hopefully, the bag will be lighter than when I went on a school fieldtrip for three nights to Nature's classroom to Cape Cod. My bag was so heavy that I could hardly carry it.

We also have to get Christian used to sleeping in the camper. At home, he normally sleeps in a crib. In the camper, I share a bed with Christian. When we're supposed to be sleeping, he sometimes "accidentally" bops heads with me. Then he climbs out the bed and yells "Taylor stole my pillow" even though I didn't! He's a big ratski at sleeping in the "pop." It takes him like an hour to go to sleep - and then it takes me that long too because I can't go to sleep with him acting like that.

Last night, I was reading a book to Christian called: "One, Two, Three." It's by Sandra Boynton. She's written lots of books for little kids. For the number five, the book says, "Five works well for a ride in a car. As long as the car ride isn't too far." On the first part of our trip, there will be five people in the car. Do you think the car ride is too far?

Taylor signing out.