And Were Off...to Windsor Castle!

Ready or Not...Here We Go!

The bags are all packed and checked. We have said our goodbyes. We flew to Detroit and made our connecting flight to London on time. After months and months of preparation and stressing and discussion, now all there is left to do is simply ENJOY the trip! By now I guess you have figured out that we are taking a VERY special family trip. Sittie and Jidi are taking all of their children and their families on a European vacation. A neat Naifeh tradition that Oney and Adele Naifeh started and one that Joe and Sandra wanted to continue.

It was fun today watching the kids transition from the "dread" of the long family vacation to the "sheer excitement and anticipation" of what is going to be a TRIP of a LIFETIME.

As I am typing this, everyone has taken a little sleep aid of some sort and we are settling in with our pillows and blankies for a nap. Actually, I've lost everyone except for Ally and Oney and Joseph. They are still stirring a little.

We have four more hours left until we land in London. It will be 7:30am. We hit the ground running. We have a private tour guide and driver the next two days. We are going to Windsor Castle first stop! What an exciting time to be in London with the Olympics being hosted there this Summer!

I know by tomorrow night we will be dead tired! We will have been out of our beds for quite a while. I can't wait to see and do everything on this trip!

I hope to be able to blog a little as we go with pictures so that you can follow along at home! Thanks to everyone for holding down the fort. My sleepy meds are kicking in now-gonna try to sleep for a couple of hours anyway.

Thanks Sittie and Jidi for being so generous and kind and loving us enough to want to do this for us. And no...I'm pretty sure all of my posts will not be quite this congenial. Anytime you have 12 Chiefs and no Indians, things get a little tricky! But for the record, we made it so far extremely well and airports are typically stressful. So, I say we are off to a great start:-)

One other side note:Judson has decided to do a little "blogging" of his own this trip. He is keeping notes on his iPhone to be published or shared later. If he lets me, I will share some of them on my blog. They are actually pretty funny. He says that is going to be his mental therapy on the trip...if it works...I will definitely keep his pencil sharpened!!

Day One...Traveling Across the Globe

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Ginny drove 4 of us to the airport and Abby volunteered to ride with Sittie and Jidi. They also had to take a few of our bags! We have NO IDEA how we will make it home with our stuff in a few weeks. Oh well, we may be asking for volunteers to pick us up from the airport. 

INSERT PICTURE OF GIRLS IN MEMPHIS WITH HATS ON

We arrived with plenty of time to go to the Delta Sky Club...ALL 12 of us...actually Sittie opted to just ride her wheel chair straight to the gate. We flew from Memphis to Detroit where we had a very brief layover before we would board our international flight to London, UK. 

INSERT PICTURE OF NAIFEHS SPREAD OUT IN DETROIT AIRPORT

Once again Sittie opted to take her “special” handicap seat right by the gate while we all ran to grab a bite. As you can see from this picture, the Sun was in Jidi’s eyes so he wore my hat! 

INSERT PICTURE OF JOE IN HAT

We boarded the plane, the plane doors closed and finally the moment I had been waiting for...no more packing, no more preparing, no more checking my list. We were off and at that point all we had left to do was simply ENJOY! You don’t realize the pressure a trip like this puts on those involved until you experience it for yourself. The planner, the packer, the organizer, the financier. Just leaving home for this long with two stores, over 120 employees, two houses, a dog, etc. Whew! 

Everyone did SUPERB on the plane to London. We all were able to sleep a little-some more than others! The kids were PERFECT! We landed in London safe and sound. And we were off to a trip of a lifetime! 

****NOTE****I had great plans of blogging every day while we were in Europe. That didn't last. We hit the ground in London and never stopped for a second. I have had these posts as drafts for 6 months now. I am now surrendering and this will be my only post in my blog book. If you want to read about Europe, you will have to come to my house and look at my Europe Book that I made. THANKS to Sandra and Joe for a trip of a lifetime! 

Get Set...

Barely fit everything in the car!

On Your Mark...

Just packed the last bag...now the excitement is starting! Just need a couple hours of sleep tonight!

F is for "Flotilla"

A Flotilla ...

A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small flota (fleet) of ships, and this from French flotte), or naval flotilla, is a formationof small warships that may be part of a larger fleet

WOW! Now that is a flotilla! This is a group of us in Dry Creek at Pickwick Lake earlier this Summer. How cool is this photo? One of the boaters in our group drove across the cove on their SeaDoo and took this picture for us! Another great day on the Lake! 

Football Camp

Oney went to the football camp at TRA for the 5th through 8th graders. WOW! I can't believe that he is going to be playing "real" football this year. My baby is growing up.

TRA Ballin' Babes

T is for...

tenacious,temperamental, talkative, terrific, terrifying, terrible, tan, thin,trained,trite, tactful, tame,thoughtful, talented, terrific, tough, truthful, trusting, trustworthy, tranquil, tight, tactful, tolerant, tyrannical, tantalizing, tremendous, tall, tender, tasteful, tricky, tiny, teeny, twisted, troublesome, trendy, triumphant, touchy, thrilling, thoughtful,truthful, trivial, trustworthy, thirsty, tired, treacherous, tenuous, tiresome, ticklish, thorough,and much more!!!

The TRA "High School" Lady Rebels basketball team left today for Summer Camp. Coach Sharia asked Abby and Kendall to go with the high school team as well!

The girls have about five games each day, are staying in the local high school in Waynesboro, have community showers,are eating cafteria food, don't have wi-fi, and are sleeping on air mattresses...welcome to the REAL world girls! Great college preparation!

Sharia took Sarah Howard with them and the girls were really looking forward to her going!

Best Sister Ever

Have I ever told you that I have the BEST SISTER ever???

She is LOVED by EVERYONE! She is BEAUTIFUL,too!

Oney has pretty much been with her for at least a little while everyday for the past week. He loves to work in her garden, play with her dog, drive the truck on the farm, ride the dirt bike, clean the pool, fish, you name it...they do it!

THANKS to Aunt Das for ALWAYS being willing to take a kid! You are the BEST!

WE LOVE YOU!

Praying for Lucy

John Rich...For the Kids!

AWESOME night of fundraising for St. Jude! John Rich did a remarkable job with this "first annual" (I believe) event. It was a very intimate and touching performance. The performers were John Rich, Kellie Pickler, Darius Rucker, Big Kenny of Big & Rich and Jeff Foxworthy.  Judson and I will definitely attend again next year!

Check out all that John Rich is doing for St. Jude. Also, you can buy the song, "For the Kids", to help raise money for St. Jude...It is a GREAT song! Get your kleenex ready!