Expedite your Passports!

Dennis and I are going on a trip to Paris and Rome this fall with our friends Jen and Nathan. We were quite excited about the thought of traveling abroad when our friends invited us to look into vacation packages with them - the one problem though - we didn't have passports! Mine expired when I was 17 and Den only ever used his military ID when he was in the Army. We decided to book the trip anyway and hope for the best. We made an apppointment with our post office to get the paperwork submitted. In the meantime we went to Walgreens to get our pictures taken and we downloaded the forms online. On July 7 we had our meeting at the post office and handed everything in. On July 23rd (2 weeks later!!!) Dennis got his passport in the mail. On the 24th I got mine. And within a couple days after that we received our original birth certificates back in the mail. It was an extra $60 per person to expedite them, but it was well worth it! If you are planning a trip any time soon and you are worried about this sort of thing, I would highly recommend expediting your passport. It worked great for us!