First Family Vacation

This week we took our first family vacation! As previously mentioned Josh was speaking at some high schools at the coast and Lily and I decided to go with him for a short Thursday night through Saturday morning trip. After a bit of a rough start, it was quite lovely.

The packing was a bit stressful. I didn't really leave enough time to pack. I'm still not used to all the extra time and supplies needed to travel with baby. There was a day, not so long ago, when we could pack to head out of town in thirty minutes. It was just a matter of raking the things from the bathroom sink into a bag and throwing in a few clothes. It is amazing how much more complicated things get with a baby. We had to make sure to have pleanty of food, diapers, toys, and clothes of various warmths. We had to have the pack n' play and bouncy seat. We had to decide which stroller and carrier to take. It was overwhelming and we got a later start than we had hoped.

That put us going through Raleigh at rush hour. We hit some traffic, but luckily the baby fell asleep soon after getting in the car. Unluckily, she woke up after we had only been on the road a little over an hour and was not happy to be in her seat. We stopped, got her out, changed her diaper, fed her, and got back on the road. An hour, and much screaming, later we stopped again to get her out for a few minutes and walk around. After that we made it to our hotel and she was instantly happy!

Thursday night we put the baby to bed, got hot dogs from the trolly stop right next to our hotel, and paired them with wine on our balcony. We were a bit disappointed to realize that the "ocean side" room we had did not actually have a view of the ocean, but of the hotels that had a view of the ocean, but there were still ocean breezes and it was nice just to get away.

On Friday Josh spent most of the day teaching. Lily and I took a walk on the beach in the morning, then relaxed in the hotel, then walked to some shops. It was quite nice. When Josh got home, we headed down to the beach and took a few pictures of Lily putting her feet in the ocean for the first time. It was cold and she squealed...super cute. That night we went into Wilmington for dinner at Elijah's and a walk along the river walk. After a yummy Saturday brunch at the Causeway Cafe, we got on the road home.

I have to say that I was pleasantly amazed at how good Lily was. She slept all night both nights despite being away from home (it was a bit harder for me to sleep hearing her every nighttime noise!). She was very good at dinner and brunch. She even slept almost all the way home in the car. It was a great few days to get away as a family. We are so blessed.