Brown Baggin'

Sweet home, Chicago!  We are going to Chicago to see my whole family, and to celebrate my mom's birthday.  I am especially excited to meet my new nephew who was born to my sister this January.

The kids are great at packing their suitcases.  But this year, we'll be taking a plane out of New York City, which is a three-hour drive from our house.  So, just getting there is a full-day event for us.

In the past, we would have bought lunch on the way, and then bought dinner and snacks in the airport.  But buying all that food for five people is expensive, unhealthy and takes a lot of time, too.  And I'd rather spend my money on other things, like traveling.

So we are packing our dinner bags to take on the plane.  On the menu we have, crackers, salami and cheese slices, trail mix, Emergen-C packets to mix with the free airplane water bottles, and Cliff bars (Chocolate Brownie and Peanut Butter flavors - in case you were wondering).

Each child had a different job in getting the bags ready - Campster separated the salami and cheese slices, Sher-Bear put the crackers in the bags, and Jordan allocated the trail mix and Emergen-C.  It's a shame that you can't see very well how I wrote out everyone's names on their bags, and stamped them with stars.

For lunch we're eating bagels with cream cheese and ham slices on the road.  That keeps us from having to make an extra stop.

Wish you were here!