Lessons learned from our first family vacation ;)

1.  If you’re travelling to places furthur than 5 hours away, prepare for even the best of the babies to lose it!

2.  Don’t ever assume their eating & napping schedule will stay the same in the car. 

3.  The size of your full size stroller = the ENTIRE trunk.  (Now I understand just how *awesome* umbrella strollers are!)

4.  There are geniuses out there that have created a company called “Crib Connection”, providing pack-n-plays, high chairs, strollers, etc for the travelling family and it’s all delivered straight to your condo/hotel!  (If we’d have only known about them before we packed the entire house.)

5.  News moms (like me) don’t need a book or magazine to keep busy on the beach.  Just watching the “more experienced” and prepared moms of 3+ was enough entertainment!  Pulling out their pre-cut PB&J sandwiches, juggling sunblock and bags of grapes & water, sand, toys, AND their husbands was quite the show & extremely impressive!  It’s the little things you take for granted growing up (like just a “simple” trip to the beach) that I’m just amazed by now.  Thanks, Mom.  You’re awesome.   :)

6.  Sand+babies+sweat = a small disaster.  Parker ate more sand than I’d have thought he could fit in his mouth and digging it out of his ears for the next two days wasn’t his favorite thing!  And, also the 15 or so minutes playing in the sand & water was fun, getting back up to the room with the three of us wet and sandy and trying to ”organize” THAT was interesting!

7.  And finally, THE most important lesson:  Spending time with family on vacation is absolutely PRICELESS.  There were about 15 of us total and I can’t explain what a blast it was hanging out together for that week without anything to do but eat, play, relax, & catch up.  Awesome.  A MUST for every year!

And as a last note:  Don’t let my amusing “lessons” I’ve learned from the trip make you think we didn’t have a blast, because honestly, as much as I feared this trip with an eight month old (haha), it was a complete DREAM.  It truly could not have gone better!!!  Parker is such an amazing baby (he even slept a whopping TWELVE hours one night!) and he had so much fun with everyone the entire time!  For our first trip as a little family, we will never forget it!