Emilia had her first successful sleepover at our house last night. Surprisingly, asleep by 10. Not so surprisingly, up by 6. We did all those typical sleepover things - ate pizza and ice cream, told crazy stories and built castles out of cardboard boxes - I'm not exactly sure what the girls did. Of course, Audra tried to keep up and the older girls graciously let her tag along.
Heather and I have talked a lot about what the girls will gain this summer. We've joked about them getting to have an answer for that inevitable beginning of the school year question, "What did you do this summer?" Watching Emilia and her friend, Jae, makes me wonder what the girls might miss this summer.
People's reactions to hearing the news that we're going to Portugal have ranged from "What?!?" to "What a great opportunity for you and the girls" to "Awesome!" A couple of days ago at Ellis Johnson's dedication I was talking to Ellis's grandpa, and he'd heard we were traveling this summer. I told him the story about Kyle and Jayme's e-mail and just how quickly everything seemed to happen. He said, "If you had more time to think about going, you probably wouldn't." His response surprised me, but in light of the successful sleepover makes a lot of sense.
Often, when we have to time to think about doing things, we focus on the reasons why we shouldn't rather than looking at "the why we shoulds." In spite of successful sleepovers, we're still excited for June 4 to come. We know there are things we will miss here, but we also want to be the kind of people who look to live in the "shoulds." I'm also reminded of the adjustments that the girls (and their parents) will be making as we leave the familiarity of home.
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My parents just left here from a 3 week vacation. We had all kinds of goofy things happen, from missing a flight, to my dad almost having his pocket picked, to losing two nights in a hotel, to getting a flat tire, etc. However, as we sat around the table the night before we left we all raved about how great the experience was! It wasn't that everything was perfect, it was that we had shared a once-in-a-lifetime experience with each other and now had stories (some great, some not so great) that will last forever.
It kind of took the stress off of me for this summer. I don't feel like I have to make everything go perfectly. I know there will be things that won't be perfect (and I'm sure they'll be things you'll regret missing at home), but I have no doubt that you will look back at the summer of 2008 as a truly amazing and unique time together as a family.
Thanks for the blog. We look forward to seeing you guys in a few days.
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