Vacation; The Car Trips

8.28.12

This will be the first part of my vacation recap. Part of the reason I have to split it up this way is because of the overload of pictures. And by overload... I mean... overload. It was quite the challenge trying to choose which ones to pick to share. Which ones that will ultimately go into my blog book and stand as the significance of this week long vacation of bliss.

So. Here we go.

Day One, Saturday. Begins at 3am.

We woke up around 230 so that we could get the baby up, changed, and ready to go. Thankfully we had packed the night before, so besides a couple of our go-to bags, we didn't have much else to put into the car. Besides ourselves.

We arrived to my parents house by 4am, who were all ready patiently waiting for our arrival. Elliana and I didn't even get out of the car, and within minutes we had hit the road. And within those same minutes, the first breakdown began. The screams. For a good 30-45 minutes. Oh poor baby just wanted her mama and wanted mama to hold her and I couldn't and it was pure.torture.

Eventually, Elliana wore herself out to be able to sleep for a couple of hours. Mama too. And by the time we woke up? We were as happy as a clam. And in order to keep the baby girl happy? We went back and forth from the ipad to the iphone. Looking at pictures, doing educational apps, and watching Caillou. What did we ever do before apple products? Wait. Don't answer that.

And so that is how the rest of the trip continued. We only had two stops total from the 12.5 hour drive, and I think overall the trip went way better than we had anticipated.

That night we went to the grocery store as soon as we reached our condo. Spent too much money, ran into too many people, and put junk in our basket that did not belong there. Surprisingly, a simple shopping trip with my honey, dad, and sister turned out to be more fun than one would expect it too.

Andrew's parents, who are also staying at the same condo resort as we are, arrived just shortly after and came over for dinner once they were settled in their place. It was so, so, nice to see them { as always} and Elliana lit up at the sight of her second set of grandparents. I think this girl was on top of the world having all the people she loved most all in one room.

We sat around the dinner table talking about the drive, the Olympics, and the plans for the week. In no time, I looked around the room and saw eyes drifting. The men that drove. The wives who sang in the car. And the toddler who was rubbing her tiny little eyes with her fists.

We hit the sack and slept like we never slept before.

Day Eight, Saturday.

Did I really just skip days 2-7? Yes, I did. No worries, those days will be up on the blog tomorrow. This post is dedicated to the actual road trips right? Right. I know. Boring.

But I wanted to make note of them because well... it's going in my blog book. And I kind of, sorta, really love to look back at this stuff.

So where was I? Ah. Yes. We are leaving vacation. Insert a lot of unhappy faces. We decided to leave HHI at 6am, woke up around 515. Most of our bags were already packed and in the car from the night before, so we did the basics when we woke up. Quick showers. Quick breakfast. Last minute bag loading.

And we were off. And let me tell you. There is just something that was different about this car trip. I'm not sure if it was because we decided to leave at 6 instead of 4, but I think we were all much more awake and ready.

I was also worried about this trip home, simply because of the fact that Elliana had her "boo boo" the night before {more on that later}. I was convinced that it was going to be torture. I was convinced she was going to cry the entire time and that mama would probably have her heart broken into a million pieces. Convinced. Instead? She proved me completely wrong.

Not a single tear through the whole trip. Some typical whining for this or that. But not a single tantrum. So? Solution? A boo boo before a long trip guys. Ha. Only kidding.

Just like the trip to HHI, on our way home we only made two stops. Stretched out our legs. Chatted with my parents {who were right behind us}, and grabbed a few snacks on the go. And because of these short stops, we were able to make it home in 12.5 hours. Although it was sad that this meant that our trip was officially over, there's nothing like being home and sleeping in your own bed.

And you know what I did next?

I ran upstairs, dropped my bags, took out my camera, chip into the computer and load load load the 1,000+ pictures that were taken.

Ah. Yes. Those pictures. Will be up on the blog the next two days.  Be prepared :)