This weekend, we ventured up to Wisconsin to visit our city-turned-country friends, the Marions, in our “second”:/news/2006/have-baby-will-travel/ out-of-state family trip ever. Despite a case of the “sniffles”:/news/2006/first-sniffle/, everyone had quite an enjoyable time.
p{color:gray}. Photo: Don’t pick that pumpkin! It’s a human!
On Thursday night before departing, Jon and I decided on two goals: 1) We should make our trip as vacation-y as possible, and 2) we should use all of our working energy to actually push us out of the house on Friday. I find the packing and departure process to be the most labor-intensive part of traveling with a baby, even when we are trying to pack “light”:/news/2006/traveling-light/. (Ha!) Lucy had a delightfully long nap on Friday morning, which aided our efforts, and we drove away at 1:45 pm. Not bad!
We celebrated our departure with a Peppermint Hot Chocolate and a Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks at the O’Hare Oasis, and then enjoyed a quiet drive with Lucy napping in the backseat for almost two hours. The hum of the car and gentle rain seemed to lull her into peaceful slumber. As the rain turned to hail and Lucy’s refreshment was complete, she awoke with a desire to play — difficult with two parents in the front seat. Jon and I began what I am sure will be a long tradition of “singing”:/news/2006/songs-from-the-boyds-nest/ various songs to our child in an attempt to entertain her. Lucy’s favorites included traditional warm-up scales sung in full operatic soprano by Mama (seriously), “Let it Snow,” the Mickey Mouse song, and, of course, her own personalized version of “Mama Yo Quiero.”
p{color:gray}. Photo: Lucy met Franz the Goat, among other new four-footed friends.
Lucy was overjoyed to finally get on the floor and roll around once we arrived at the Marions’. The weekend was filled with fun playtime with good friends, yummy food for the big people, and happy moments with the farm animals for all. A highlight for Mama was a Sunday morning walk with Lucy to visit the goats, pigs, cows, chickens, and horse. I appreciated the peaceful, quiet moments, Lucy seemed to enjoy seeing the animals in the flesh (as opposed to just in a book), and everyone else in the house got to snooze without being disturbed by Lucy’s gleeful cawing noises.
Our return home went relatively smoothly, except for Lucy’s one-day-only protest at sleeping in her crib again. She screamed bloody murder for each sleep on Monday, terrifying us into imagining that we had permanently broken her ability to go to sleep peacefully. But Tuesday morning brought back the same old Lucy we know, and she chatted her way “happily”:/news/2006/happy-napper/ into dreamland. What a resilient girl!
We have noticed that it is really a lot more work to go on vacation with our darling baby than it is to just stay at home. Between the amount of stuff we pack up, the unfamiliar routines, and the lack of exersaucer, it ends up sometimes being more work than fun. Of course, it is worth it to visit good friends every once in awhile. But what does this mean for Boyd family vacations in the next couple of years? Time will tell. In the meantime, we are all enjoying being back in our little Boyds’ Nest.
Congrats on an enjoyable vacation! I completely understand about it being more work than fun sometimes. We tried to accompany my parents (whom we really enjoy) on their summer vacation for two summers now. And each time we end up leaving after just 2 or 3 days because it just doesn’t work! I’m really looking forward to vacations in a few years when everyone is just a bit more flexible.
As we try to plan our vacation in January I just think of all the work and keep telling everyone, I am “working out the sched.”…really I just can’t bring my self to book the flights. I don’t want the week with no crib or sched. it has been hell to get Maddy back to her own bed and on a sched that works for all of us. The thought almost makes me sick.
Then the family all says, we want to see you….I think they can come this way for the next several years until all the kids are older…is that selfish?
Anyway, isn’t Wis. beautiful…we love it here!
Katrina, I feel the same way. James’ family is in Texas and we have visited, but boy what a pain! Plus, we find that if we are staying somewhere without a dedicated room for Benjamin, it makes it really difficult since Benjamin is used to sleeping all by himself (and since he goes to be hours before we do). If we share a room with him, it’s difficult to sleep because I always worry that we’ll wake him up. Plus flying on a plane with a baby (especially once they become mobile and really don’t want to be held for 3 hours straight) is very trying.
Now that we have two, we have made it pretty clear to James’ family that they are just going to have to visit us – at this point not only would we be traveling with two young children, we would also have to buy a ticket for Benjamin so it would get rather expensive! Perhaps it’s a little selfish, but honestly I think the grandparents get a more agreeable grandchild when they visit since the child is in a familiar environment with familiar routines.
Car trips I feel to be much more managable just because if the baby cries, it’s only us it bothers (as opposed to all the people on a plane) and you can stop whenever you want if you need to.
Jon, the beard looks great! You and Lucy look like your ready to join all the hunters up here!
I think that I always have to weigh the good with the work when go on vacation. It is sometimes easier to be gone for a longer period because than I plan on doing laundry….short trips like the one that we are taking this weekend always seem to be so work intensive. My boys are too excited to help much with the packing and hopefully Naomi will take a good nap so that I can get something done.
Winter trips….ie Mid NOV trips are harder too….as you need both inside and outside clothes….and then all the things that go with that like sleds if snow is in the forcast. (Plus Charles really wants to show everyone how he can ride his bike!….I thnk that will have to stay home)
But we are celebrating an early Thankgiving and all 5 of us sibs will be together for the first time in three years….So I hope that Sunday we will feel that 24 hours together is worth it!
Ann I dont think it is selfish at all to want to have people come by you. We are hosting Christmas this year as my boys are tired of traveling on Christmas day…..
I am glad you had an uneventful trip….then snow that Madison got last friday made things pretty interesting around here.
very cute pics (of the humans)!
So reading this entry and the comments has made me interested in the answers of everyone about what to do with extended family at the holiday season. Is it just expected that things will be nuts because everyone wants to see the baby? Can there be reasonable limitations? How do you honor your parents while maintaining your new nuclear family sanity?
Hmmm…..Jon, I finally have a chance to think through what you asked about honoring parents and maintaining sanity. I think it helps to at least ask what parental expectations are….what is important to them…..christmas eve service toghether….christmas dinner…..When we lived in Chicago my mother in law always wanted us to be at her house at 8 in the morning. Well knowing that expectation we could say that was not possible for our family ….I think we compromised with 10am.
It is also helpful to know where you, Ann, and Lucy can be flexible. Which nap seems most important….is there one that she could take somwhere else? While we were with my family my sister gave her 2 year old daughter a quiet time at 11 knowing that things were happening in the aftenoon and she would not get a nap.
I think it is important to maintain some kind of routine….I know that we we travel even short distances I can go literally days with out connecting with andy or our kids. Weird. And now that Lucy is in the picture you will want to begin traditions that are unigue to the Boyd’s Nest on St Louis. I suggest a measure of flexibility, routines for sanity and GRACE and then more GRACE.
blessings to all of you as you celebrate the holidays.