"Honey, did you get the passports?"

I'm a little embarrassed to admit we learned the hard way. We planned our 3rd anniversary trip for Dublin, Ireland. I had found real cheap tickets on the internet. This was our first big trip with The Boy; all of you veteran parents realize how much kit and kaboodle you gotta bring. I was feeling very boy scoutish because I had all his goods for any situation that you could imagine--2 changes of clothes a day, nappies, wipes, toys, teething gel, pain reliever, upset stomach medicine, blah, blah, blah. You name it, I had it. As we were getting out of the car at the airport I suddenly remembered that I forgot to put in the passports. Abe and I both usually remember important stuff like that. We usually check with each other that we remembered important stuff like that. Nope. Not this time. With only one hour before the flight and a 45 minute trip home and another 45 minutes back, we decided to give it the ole college try and use our photo ID's. Unfortunately I don't have a UK driver's license yet and my Texas one wouldn't work as a proper ID. We tried all kind of options: switching flights, going to another airport, waiting until the next day. The only option that would work was buying a really expensive ticket. I moped around the rest of the day and was quite pathetic. However, we rallied the troops and took a road trip the next day. Since Cadbury chocolate is one of our main food groups we decided to visit Cadbury World. (Well, that and the fact that we were vacationing with an infant, so our entertainment choices were more limited than we were accustomed to.) It was very hands-on and we got lots of free chocolate. Then we continued down to Cardiff in southern Wales. We spent the day wondering around the city and took in Cardiff Castle. The Keep was quite old, but the newest part was built in the 1600s. It was actually a house of a really really rich family. He was the Bill Gates of Wales during that time. The house was over the top extravagant; one room had gold overlays on the ceiling. We also went down to Bath in southwest England. It is a quaint little town. Over all we had a nice anniversary trip, but it was a bit of a let down since we had planned Dublin...rookie mistake.