Vacation

I have really never taken long road trips.  My family always flew - probably because my parents had no desire to deal with three kids in the car for long periods of time :)  Aaron is the opposite.  Growing up with 5 other brothers and sisters, flying was obviously super expensive and super tricky.  So they drove everywhere.

We stopped at a bar and all had a refreshing beverage on a hot day

Since I was still on maternity leave and Aaron has vacation saved, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to get away for a week.  Aaron came up with South Carolina, and after looking at the weather forecast, I was on board.  Airline tickets were ridiculous and since I'm currently not getting paid, we decided to drive.

Out on a walk

The drive down seemed to take forever.  Zoe had a rough time in her carseat (two diaper blowouts just on the way there) and just wanted to be out.  I don't blame her - how boring to stare at the back of the seat for hours on end.  But we were in that, "Woohoo, we're going on vacation, we're so excited!" mode.  Crying?  We could tune it out because we were SO.EXCITED.  We stopped halfway to give the girl a breather and spent the night in Tennessee.  

Driving the safari car at the aquarium after she finally woke up

The drive on the second day was gorgeous.  We both agreed we'd have to go back another time just to vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  And only 6-7 hours in the car?  Totally doable. 

Then finally....palm trees!  That's when I know I'm on vacation :)  And 80 degrees.  Since we left MI in the 40s, it was heaven.  

Walk on the pier

We walked around quite a bit (we had to enjoy the weather!), we drove to a plantation/garden, we went to the ocean, and to the aquarium.  Zoe LOVED the beach.  Absolutely loved it.  The water itself?  Not so much....she screamed when Aaron put her toes in.  And being the awesome parents we are, we decided we had to capture her reaction on film so we recreated it an hour later and caught it on video.  We are so mean...I can't wait for her to go camping this summer though in Traverse City.  She'll be old enough to sit on her own and I think she'll love playing in the sand. 

Loving the beach

Her naps and sleeping on vacation?  HORRIBLE.  She refused to nap in her pack n play.  We literally had to go on a walk for every single nap.  Which means they were short naps and probably not the best quality since she was being jostled around.  And she slept terrible at night (so not like her).  I never knew if she was hungry (growth spurt?) or just needed to cry a little before falling back to sleep.  But we were in a hotel and I didn't want to wake all of our neighbors up so most of the time I just caved and fed her.  Then her wake up calls were usually 6:30.  Then they creeped up to 5:30 and the final day?  5 am.  The only upside was that we got on the rode extremely early and were able to make it home in one day rather than two.  

Finally!

It was so much fun though to see her reactions to everything.  The sand was fascinating.  She slept for most of the aquarium but was completely enthralled by the fish tank once she woke up.  It's funny how the small things are so exciting to her which makes them that much more fun for us :)