After Kaelyn was born we said that we weren't going to let having kids stop us from getting out and going places because one, we love to travel and two, all of our family is out of state. So we knew we'd at least be traveling to Wisconsin and Virginia several times a year. I'd say up until recently we really stayed true to that. Before Kaelyn was four months old she had been to two different states and one foreign country. That's probably more traveling than I did the first 16 years of my life. She rounded out her first year with several trips to two more states. I've lost count of how many times she's been on a plane. And, while traveling with a baby and then a toddler was never a breeze, I'd say we had gotten the hang of it. And then along came number two. I still don't want to be stuck at home, but the thought of traveling with a 3 year old and a baby honestly frightens me a little. So, poor Brennan will probably think we were sheltering him compared to his sister. Until last week his travel adventures included two trips to Wisconsin and one to South Bend. And sorry to tell you Buddy, but it doesn't look like you'll be leaving the country until after your first birthday.
So we decided to expand his horizons a little and last week we took the trip to Savannah to visit Nana and Pop and see their new house they'll be moving to next summer. This is what the trip started with:
My hand-dandy packing list. Matt always tells me to calm down and not stress when we're getting ready to go on trips. Next time I'm just going to show him this list again. This doesn't include clothes plus I think I added a few things the morning we left that weren't on the list. I don't think I stress but I'm constantly doing mental checks, writing things down as I think of them and trying to figure out when things are going to be packed (most not until last minute) and how it's all going to be organized and work out.
And then we got a sweet ride for the trip (yes, I just called a minivan sweet).
I was actually ready to join the minivan mom's club when we pulled out of the driveway. It had all the bells and whistles. DVD player, automatic doors (which Kaelyn called magic), Sirius Satellite radio, park-assist, seperate climate controls, built-in sun shades in the back, blind spot notification and about a kajillion cup holders. I must say all the extra space was nice too. I don't think we could have fit all our gear in either of our cars. Maybe Matt would have had to leave his clubs behind (like that would ever happen). It was definitely comfy for the 14 hour drive and definitely helped that I was able to climb in the back seat to entertain Brennan and keep him (somewhat) happy most of the trip.
So anyway, we got to Matt's Aunt and Uncle's house in the middle of the night and it was a bit of a struggle getting both the kids back to sleep. Needless to say, we were all a little exhausted the next day. We went to see Nana and Pop's new house, which is undergoing a facelift and then finally checked-in to the rental house in the afternoon. Kaelyn was a bit confused with all the different houses and the fact that she thought we were going to be staying in a hotel the night before. The house was beautiful, but the view was the best part.
Not bad, huh? Kaelyn loved going down to throw stuff in the "magoon." There were tons of turtles sunning themselves on the banks and peeking their noses out of the water. We also saw some cool heron-type birds (not exactly sure what they were) every day. And one morning when Rudy started barking I scolded him for barking at the morning runner only to look out in front of the deck to see a six point buck standing there. Thankfully there were no gator sightings, though we were told there was baby who lived there.
I thought this tree was absolutely beautiful.
Love all the Spanish moss blowing in the breeze.
Anyway, I'm sure that's what you all really care about. Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of good pictures of the kids on the trip but here are a few highlights.
Friday we took the kids to the aquarium. Brennan fell asleep for about 5 minutes in the car and called it his morning nap.
The aquarium was a little smaller than we had expected and only took about 15 minutes to see everything, but Kaelyn didn't seem to mind.
Don't you think seahorses are so cool? They were my personal favorite. Kaelyn liked the turtles.
Since we had some extra time to kill we ran around outside by the water for a while.
Then we went downtown to have lunch at Aunt Laurie's restaurant (for those of you who don't know Laurie is Matt's aunt and the name of the restaurant isn't Aunt Laurie's, it's
Debi's Laurie's Restaurant). Did you know they filmed a scene from Forest Gump there? That meant absolutely nothing to Kaelyn, but she loved waving out the window to all the people walking by after the parade.
Saturday's itinerary included a golf outing for Pop, Dada and Kaelyn, swimming with Nana, Mama, Kaelyn and Brennan, a fancy dinner at one of the country clubs, a sick mama and an Irish win. I'm going to blame being sick but with all the great photo opportunities this day we only got pictures of the golf outing. And the kids looked so cute dressed up for dinner too. I'm really kicking myself on that one.
Sunday was pretty low key. The older boys went golfing and the ladies stayed home with B so he could nap. We took a walk by the "magoon" again (I kept trying to call it a lagoon but luckily I had Kaelyn there to correct me. What would I do without her?) and then after afternoon naps went to Aunt Laurie and Uncle Hal's for dinner. It was fun to see Matt's cousin's who we haven't seen in a while. Kaelyn had a blast running around with the other kids.
Oh, did I forget to mention the actual drive? Let's just say Matt did an awesome job driving the whole way there and back Kaelyn watched more movies than I care to admit and I may win an award for the most verses of "Twinkle, Twinkle" sung in an hour. The van was amazing for the trip. I don't think we could have done it without it. Good decision by us. But now that we're back I think I'm quite happy with my little Ford Fusion and I'll hold off on joining the minivan caravan for awhile. Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to try flying with two kids.
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