The first family vacation officially took place in early September. Bubby and Grandpa graciously rented a large house on the lake for a week so the kids and grandkids could come and stay as schedules permitted.
We missed the first half of the week.Hubs was working hard to bring home the bacon. We left on Wed. night after C’s bedtime to ensure she would sleep through the entire 6 hour drive. She did and we arrived in the wee hours on Thursday morning. On Thursday, the only people at the house were Bubby, Grandpa and Quinn. The others had come, left and would show up again later in the week.
Before I digress into the details, please note my key learnings from vacationing with a baby.
• It takes longer to do EVERYTHING
• All
• Babies do not observe the lazy sleep-in schedule on vacations that we adults are accustomed to.
• Late night drinking and tom-foolery no longer extends into the wee hours like it used to. This is directly driven by the point above.
C and Quinn were on completely opposite schedules. Each day, they were probably both awake at the same time for 3 or 4 hours. We had so much fun watching the two of them interact, dissecting the plethora of ways they are different.
As we went for C’s first trip on the boat, we had to strap/zip/stuff her into the infant life jacket prior to even WALKING on the dock. Safety first people, this is my baby girl we’re talking about. It is hard to gauge if C liked the boat or not because she DID NOT like the life jacket! In all honesty, I could see why. It is big, cumbersome and has a flotation piece that supports her head.
The uncomfortable but super SAFE life jacket. I swear there is a baby under there!
Once the boat was beached, the girls had a little freedom from the life jackets. They floated in the water, slept and enjoyed life.
We only got out for a couple trips on the boat during the trip, mostly because of baby schedules. I think it was a learning experience for the whole family. We learned how different things are now and how we have to shift our idea of a vacation on the lake to fit our new reality. My guess is that in the future, we’ll try to be right on the water so we don’t loose so much time shuffling back and forth, and more people can take smaller trips out to ski and relax.
I also need to mention the strong sense of nostalgia I felt through out this trip. Our boat, Mellow Yellow, is… how do I say this? Vintage. The boat is old, but thanks to Grandpas diligent and expensive upkeep, we still get to vacation on the same boat on which we grew up. There were several times on the trip it felt strange to see the next generation on Mellow Yellow. Case in point is the picture below. That cubby was home to many a tired, cold, worn out kid. There is C, taking a nap in that same spot.
It was an awesome trip. And as a new mom, each new experience illuminates the ways my life is different now, in the best way of course.
FYI, this picture is to illustrate the importance of swimmy diapers. It looks like someone used a pump to inflate her booty.
2 comments:
Love this post - and C's bikinis. Adorable :)
Thanks Linda! I always thought baby bikinis were silly, but that was before I had to wrestle with changing a diaper on a wiggle worm.
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