The countdown begins!

We're officially down to 5 days until we begin our string of vacations totaling about 3 weeks off from work! I'm getting antsy to leave and am really in the need for some time off. We hit Iowa first beginning Friday for Scott and Jessie's wedding. We plan on celebrating Jack's birthday while we are out there, too. He turns 3 on Thursday. We got him a model rocket with shuttle gliders that we will (weather permitting) launch. I hope he enjoys it! We also get to meet Caroline for the first time. She got baptized today and we unfortunately couldn't be there to celebrate. It would've been difficult to fly out there today and then again on Friday.
We've got Charity and Daniel watching our girls for the weekend. Charity seems to be so great with dogs and really loves to spoil Belle, so I think the girls will like having them as babysitters! I'm glad we have such nice friends willing to watch them so they can be at home where it's comfortable for them. Anyone who has met Sequoia knows that she wouldn't survive a weekend at a boarding kennel. And based on our trip to MN, I'm not so sure Belle would do well at a different home either. They might be spoiled, huh?
We had a nice, calm weekend. Almost like the calm before the storm! We both worked this past off-Friday and I went to GNO at Scrapmania on Friday night. Saturday, we took the girls for a run/walk and spent the afternoon/evening hanging out with Charity and Daniel. We went to Red Robin (yummmm) and Coldstone. We also finally got to see their new home. After seeing their home, I'm now really focused on switching out all of our white trim, doors, and blinds to real wood (to match our hickory cabinets). It's a big task and it would be expensive (as well as not totally necessary), so I'm not sure we'll ever do it. But it's nice to imagine!
Back to the vacation thing-- I've decided that after returning from Iowa on Memorial Day, I'm going to take the 2 days off before we leave for Alaska. It seemed only fair to spend some quality time with them before we ditch them again for 2 weeks. I've got enough vacation racked up, so why not?