But of course before setting off there were the preparations. First of all packing. My children each have their own wheeled suitcases provided by my parents. Although Odelia's case is relatively small she is slender and wears quite skimpy clothes as do most teenagers these days so she didn't have too much trouble fitting in what she needed.
My son would wear the same set of clothing every day if I let him so I directed his sister to oversee his packing and to ensure his sartorial elegance.
His shoes were more of a problem. When he started middle school where my daughter was already studying, she declared that boys in middle school don't wear sandals.
I have no problem with my son wearing sports' shoes but my son only wears one pair of shoes at a time – if you buy him a new pair the previous pair then lay untouched even if they are still in good condition.
This combined with the fact that my son's feet and grown from a 38 to a 43 in the last 9 months meant my son only had one pair of shoes and despite only being 6 weeks old they weren't looking too hot.
We hadn't the time and Elad hadn't the inclination for shoe shopping so we just prayed they would stand up to the rigours of a vacation.
Then we also realised the disadvantage of the latest fashion for canvas shoes – my daughter has several pairs but most were disintegrating rapidly after a couple of months of school wear. That left her with one decent pair of canvas shoes and a semi-decent pair of sandals.
This problem was sort of solved by my own sandals collapsing on the way home from work. I had to quickly buy a cheap pair on sale. Odelia and I are the same size so although the new sandals are really not sturdy enough for walking at least she now has some pretty foot wear for the evenings.
The problem for us adults was the suitcases. My large suitcase, the one I had used since I was 17, finally collapsed last trip when the zipper gave out. We have a couple of bags but nothing really big enough.
My parents are planning to buy new, smaller cases and give us the big ones so there is no reason for us to buy more but they still need their suitcases this summer. Eventually we borrowed an extra large suitcase from my in-laws.
Finally after hearing horror stories of lost luggage I decided everyone needed a carry-on containing both necessities for the journey and a spare set of clothing. Backpacks was the answer for the children but they only had the bags they use for school. Another quick trip to the office supplies store and this problem was solved. With the amount of trips they take at school these backpacks will be of great use and I really can't think why I didn't get them before.
Of course all this packing involved the washing clothes and the tidying of cupboards and because it seems I just wasn't busy enough I decided it was a good time for more housecleaning. I made both of the children clean out their rooms and remove old unused clothes, trinkets or toys. We filled two bags full of clothes, mainly from my daughter and another 3 with toys, mostly from my son who remarked 'I have the computer what do I need toys for?'.
I also decided I desperately need some elastic and convinced I had some stashed somewhere I sorted through all my yarn and fabric. My hobby corner is now a lot tidier although I didn't find the elastic.
And naturally because life is just like that the weeks before the trip were some of the busiest we've seen. Not only were there the trip preparations but in addition to our usual commitments we also made several unexpected visits to friends. At Eyal's work they decided to combine the usual end of month chaos with a stock take so he had to work an 18 hour day and my work decided we needed a department meal to solidify 'team spirit' before we all went on holiday!!
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