Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, a Family Vacay to Remember!

Ok, maybe not trains...but it sounded like a cute title right?!?

Like a week ago we headed out on a BIG trip that we have been anticipating for close to two years now! My bonus brother, Tyler, finally tied the knot with his longtime love, (and super cutie!) Jill!

Who knew by the time this trip came around I would be the mother of a 6 month old? I sure didn't!

Onto the logistics of the trip....

• We would fly into Milwaukee, WI
• Drive an hour away to stay at my dad and bonus mom's newly built (and stunningly beautiful!) home in Middleton, WI
• Wake up the next morning and haul ass on a 4 hour road trip to the place of the wedding, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Spend the weekend enjoying wedding activities (and a fab hotel!) in downtown Minneapolis 
• Head back to Middleton (via another 4 hour road trip.) to round out our vacay!

Deep breaths everyone.

As someone who does not fly often (nor well...) I greatly appreciate all the tips I received on FB regarding flying with an infant. I regret to inform you, nearly none of them worked. Well, not well anyway...

I followed everyone's tips to a T....

1. Schedule bottles around take off and landing 
2. Hold off nap time
3. Buy new toys baby has never seen before

As my fussy, restless, baby drifted off soundly while sucking her bottle during take off, I said to myself, HOT DAMN! THIS IS GONNA BE PERFECT!
rookie mistake.

Approximately, 30 minutes into a beautiful (and much needed at this point!) nap, sleeping beauty woke up ROARING (Thanks to me and my stupid need to readjust myself and get blood flowing to my arm again!)

Thankfully it only seemed to last about 10-15 minutes until we pulled down the table in front of us and she was able to drum her little heart out! (Yeah, the 20 bucks I spent on shiny new toys, not needed...nor wanted for that matter, mental note taken.)

The next couple hours were pretty uneventful, and thus, I give you, PICTURES!

 Here we go!

 Fast forward past the 3.5 turned 5 hour road trip to Minnesota, which went pretty well, minus a few poo-sposions (totally anticipated thanks to the last trip.) and my always dreadful time pumping in the car (full of people this time...WOOHOO!)

Rehearsal Dinner time! At Pinstripes! A super cute restaurant/bowling alley with an amazing view! (NOLA PEEPS, think Rock 'N Bowl, but NICER!)

 Mere and Pere!

Seriously? Could you die? I mean, look at that pumpkin head <3 

 Big Paw Paw and Big Mama

 Wedding Time!

With a fascinator worthy of a royal wedding of course!

 So unlike a southern wedding, which typically involves an hour or so long ceremony, immediately followed by a 3+hour long reception, in the north, weddings and receptions usually have a fat 2-3 hour break in between them!

I first experienced this a few years ago at my dad's wedding, and child-less me thought..."Well, this is lame! What the heck am I suppose to do with all this time?"

Fast forward to the present, and I am so convinced that the person that came up with this concept had a child!
What do you do with this break you ask? YOU SLEEP! YOU SLEEP, BABY SLEEPS, YOU RESTOCK THE DIAPER BAG, TOUCH UP YOUR HAIR AND MAKE-UP, AND BAM! Time for the reception! It's PURE GENIUS!

Actually, Sailor preferred to spend most of her break hamming it up in the pack n play!

 Reception time at the beautiful Walker Arts Center!

 Baby was sleeping

 There she is!

Someone looks like she had a great time enjoying all the festivities!

Saying Goodbye to her Uncle Tyler and new Aunt Jill!

The one touristy thing we did while in Minnesota...walked 2 blocks down from our hotel and posed with the Mary Tyler Moore statue!

Fast Forward past another pretty uneventful (yet somehow seemingly much longer!) 5 hour road trip back to Wisconsin! Well, uneventful minus the MAJOR, BATH-INDUCING, CAR-SEAT WASHING, POO-POCALYPSE, we encountered just as we were arriving back to my dad's house!FUN TIMES!

Now back to pictures!

TWINSIES off to the Pumpkin Patch! 

Getting a decent picture of her with these pumpkins was pure chaos since she can barely sit up by herself yet!

 Modeling her new pumpkin hat Pere insisted on buying for her <3

 Apple Trees (Seriously, this place had the very best apples I had ever tasted in my life!)

 An extremely short journey through the extremely small town of: Pine Bluff, Wisconsin!

 Corn Fields 

Will experiencing the greatness of Poutine for the first time! (Fries topped with cheese curds and gravy, SO YUM!)

Trying Squash for the first time! (Probably her new fave!)

WHO DAT'in in Wisconsin for Monday Night Football! 

Traveling back home was both better and worse (Does that make sense?) 

Better in that:

1. I knew what to expect 
2. Sailor slept for an hour on the flight this time
3. We had a slight delay, which was a god-send because we were laggin' and draggin' all the way to the airport

Worse in that:

1. Do you really ever know what to expect?

2. Sailor's long nap came at the cost of a  hour long meltdown 

3. After exiting the flight I noticed I couldn't find my phone, throwing all of our belongings out of our carry-ons in the middle of the airport, sending Will back into the flight to find it, cursing the world assuming someone obviously stole it when he came back empty handed, crying all the way home, only to find it safely tucked in my hubby's back pack upon arrival. (I'll give him a pass on this, and chalk it up to likely putting it in there in the middle of above mentioned meltdown.) 

All in all I think I am getting better at traveling with a baby, although it's still far from my favorite thing to do with Sailor, and I am still already dreading the 6 + hour road trip up to Arkansas for Thanksgiving,  at least I know (mostly!) what to expect, how to time things, (When in doubt, add 2 hours to EVERYTHING!), And not to mention, I feel like I'm becoming quite the master, portable,and efficient pumper, (Don't get the wrong idea though, it's still the single worst thing about traveling right now...SIDE NOTE: 5 months (or sooner if I lose my sanity) til I dump the pump!)

Until next time...

First Family Vacation!

I'd like to start this post by first saying, THANK YOU SO MUCH to my wonderful friends who didn't bat an eye when we decided we wanted to bring Sailor on our Labor Day Vacay with us!

 You see, we booked this trip last year before we even knew I was pregnant, then when it came around we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to spill the beans to our friends (as I would not be drinking, and it would likely bring up suspicions anyway...) But then, a hurricane hit here and the vacation got shelved indefinitely.

Then life happened. I was getting bigger by the day, my best friend soon realized she was pregnant too, and really? Who wants to go to the beach big and pregnant, much less when it's cold outside? So we ultimately decided it would be best to re-book one year later, this past Labor Day.

Pregnant me said, "Hell yeah! Of course I will let the baby stay here with my mom for the weekend!" Baby-Free-Party at the beach! WooHoo!"

Then I had the baby, reality hit, (remember that fierce, ferocious, love I talked about on the last blog?) And I realized, there is simply no way in hell I'm leaving my six-month old for 4 days while we are 4 hours away!

So then, I had to come to terms with the fact that we had to tell the rest of our friends that we wanted to bring our baby to our "party trip," and also had to accept the fact that everyone may not want that and we would have to graciously give up our spot...out of fairness to them.

I was so anxious the night of our group meeting about the trip, I felt sick to my stomach as I cautiously came clean that I wanted to bring Sailor to the beach....

 and to my relief and delight, my friends were so understanding and overwhelmingly said it was fine! WHEW!
I hope you all know how appreciative we are!

Now, to some fun pics from the trip...

Someone's excited!

Fast forward past a shit show of a road trip...3.5 hour turned 5 hour drive, (thanks to holiday traffic), several unintended stops, (Thank you Sailor, for finding it absolutely imperative to take a massive dump in the middle of stand still traffic, forcing us to change you in the middle of downtown Mobile, AL), and pumping in a moving vehicle (a true nightmare!)

We made it!   
 

 What a babe!

                                                

 She loved the sand!

 My fave!

 Much needed girl talk!

 

Sleeping on Nanny!

Pool Day!

 She wasn't very impressed by the pool...

Momma needed this!

4 Days til our 2nd family vacay (And baby's first plane ride...)
Pray for us all!