If you've looked at my packing lists you can see that I am a bit (*ahem*) hardcore when it comes to packing, and specifically packing with carry-on only.  For the past two years this is the only way I've packed when we've traveled as a family, but recently I thought I would take a break from it and reverted to my old style of last minute/big suitcase packing.

To make a long story short… it sucked.  Well, not initially - it was actually quite liberating to just toss whatever I wanted into such a spacious suitcase.  Can't decide between three things?  Throw them all in!  Don't want to worry about my travel sized liquids?  Take the big container!  What shoes will I wear?  Take them all!  The annoying part actually occurred while we were there and I realized that I had 5 tank tops but only one t-shirt.  If it was hot that would've been great, but it wasn't; California in February is quite deceiving.  I hadn't actually looked at the weather report and the one sweater I wore every single day got a little old by day 3.  So did the fact that I only took open toed shoes (3 pairs!) and my feet were freezing.  Silly, silly me.  Usually we have a deck of cards and some tape - both things that we didn't have but needed.  Urgh. 

Morale of the story - plan ahead.  I figure this happened because I needed to subconsciously remind myself that I'm not a packing freak and that I should continue with my overly analytical packing habits.  Point taken!