For the first time ever as adults, my entire family took a vacation together to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was also the first official vacation that the three of us took as a family since Tommy's arrival! It took us close to 13 hours to drive down on Saturday of 4th of July weekend, when it should have been about 10 (or 8 according to mapquest, though that does not account for stops to eat and use the restroom). My brother and his wife have done this trip for several years and have never sat in the traffic we did getting onto the island. Tommy was really good most of the trip, until the last 2 hours or 30 miles, which is when we hit the traffic. I don't blame him, because we all felt the same way. But once we arrived at the house, he was laughing and crawling all over the place with my mom following him while we got the cars unloaded. I decided that night that the best thing in the entire house was the elevator, so we could just send everything up to whatever floor it needed to go to!
Tommy and I drove in our car along with my sister. John flew to Norfolk, VA (the closest major airport we could get him to) on Tuesday AM. He then had to take a shuttle service 2.5 hours to the house because I certainly was not going to drive another five hours round trip, which I did feel guilty about up until Saturday night on our drive down and we got stuck in the traffic. We think it was because of the time that we arrived to get on the island, and maybe partly due to the holiday weekend, but my brother said they've done the drive for the same week and never saw anything like this.
Happy 4th of July!
This was the closest Tommy would go to the pool without crying!
Happy 5th of July! (I don't think he was too thrilled about Mommy dressing him in various red, white and blue outfits all week!)
The house had seven bedrooms, each with it's own bathroom. It also had a nice theatre room with surround sound, a large kitchen, rec room with pool table, decks that wrapped around 3/4 of the house on every floor, and a nice pool in the back that we enjoyed for several days of the trip...except for Tommy. He would sit and watch everyone in the pool, but the minute we tried to put him in, forget it. He also flipped out when I gave him a bath the first time, as we didn't end up bringing his inflatable bathtub with us - of all the things I should have brought, apparently, that was the one thing Tommy was mad about! He screamed like I've never heard him before so I think it was the fastest bath I ever gave him. The second one went a little better because my niece Alexis was literally dancing, jumping and singing for him in the bathroom while we did the bath. Not sure if it was the "big" tub (and maybe the pool is just too big and overwhelming for him?) that freaked him out but by the end of bath #2 he was laughing and singing back at Alexis. Baths 3 and 4 he was excited...so excited that he was pulling himself to a standing position and jumping around - which makes it very difficult to give a baby a bath!
Scaring everyone with his banging on the table
Sharing a sunset with Aunt Karyn on the front deck of the house
Tommy thought he would make a cute centerpiece...entertaining centerpiece at a minimum!
Tommy went along with all the girls to make some jewelry and do some shopping one day when it was just TOO hot to be outside, even in the pool. He was very good and when he got a little restless I just carried him around. My oh my, 20 pounds is VERY heavy after a while, I am finding!
Tommy's first trip the beach was also part of this vacation. We live 10 minutes from the beach in NJ and this is the first time Tommy got to put his toes in the sand - how can that be?!? He wasn't really sure what to make of the sand, and while he did not cry when we brought him near the ocean at first, he clung to whomever was holding like a monkey, with his legs fiercely wrapped around us and his toes practically digging in for extra security! The water was really rough though so none of us went in too far, and we went back to the house after 2 hours, which is a record for me. Before Tommy, I'd go to the beach for at least 3 hours, and sometimes I'd go for an entire day - by myself. Even when I was pregnant last summer, I would just sit and read my book and wade in...and I have not used my boogie board in 2 years! How things have changed!
Tommy fell asleep for one of his naps sitting up in his pack-n-play...how adorable is this?
Family portrait on the fishing dock across the street from where we stayed
Grandma trying to get some snuggling before bedtime!
Out to dinner; Tommy was quite enamored with the Australian accent of our waitress!
Tommy fell asleep like this while he was playing on the floor one morning!
Smiles in front of the storm clouds on the front deck
John snapped this photo at lunch on our last day - someone was hungry!
The house had seven bedrooms, each with it's own bathroom. It also had a nice theatre room with surround sound, a large kitchen, rec room with pool table, decks that wrapped around 3/4 of the house on every floor, and a nice pool in the back that we enjoyed for several days of the trip...except for Tommy. He would sit and watch everyone in the pool, but the minute we tried to put him in, forget it. He also flipped out when I gave him a bath the first time, as we didn't end up bringing his inflatable bathtub with us - of all the things I should have brought, apparently, that was the one thing Tommy was mad about! He screamed like I've never heard him before so I think it was the fastest bath I ever gave him. The second one went a little better because my niece Alexis was literally dancing, jumping and singing for him in the bathroom while we did the bath. Not sure if it was the "big" tub (and maybe the pool is just too big and overwhelming for him?) that freaked him out but by the end of bath #2 he was laughing and singing back at Alexis. Baths 3 and 4 he was excited...so excited that he was pulling himself to a standing position and jumping around - which makes it very difficult to give a baby a bath!
Scaring everyone with his banging on the table
Sharing a sunset with Aunt Karyn on the front deck of the house
Tommy thought he would make a cute centerpiece...entertaining centerpiece at a minimum!Tommy went along with all the girls to make some jewelry and do some shopping one day when it was just TOO hot to be outside, even in the pool. He was very good and when he got a little restless I just carried him around. My oh my, 20 pounds is VERY heavy after a while, I am finding!
Tommy's first trip the beach was also part of this vacation. We live 10 minutes from the beach in NJ and this is the first time Tommy got to put his toes in the sand - how can that be?!? He wasn't really sure what to make of the sand, and while he did not cry when we brought him near the ocean at first, he clung to whomever was holding like a monkey, with his legs fiercely wrapped around us and his toes practically digging in for extra security! The water was really rough though so none of us went in too far, and we went back to the house after 2 hours, which is a record for me. Before Tommy, I'd go to the beach for at least 3 hours, and sometimes I'd go for an entire day - by myself. Even when I was pregnant last summer, I would just sit and read my book and wade in...and I have not used my boogie board in 2 years! How things have changed!
We had great weather all week; it only rained for part of the day on Friday, our last day. A few of us went out shopping and took a ride since Tommy ended up falling asleep in the car. We stopped for ice cream, and I gave Tommy his first official taste of the stuff, which he did seem to enjoy.
Tommy fell asleep for one of his naps sitting up in his pack-n-play...how adorable is this?
Family portrait on the fishing dock across the street from where we stayed
Grandma trying to get some snuggling before bedtime!
Out to dinner; Tommy was quite enamored with the Australian accent of our waitress!
Tommy fell asleep like this while he was playing on the floor one morning!
Smiles in front of the storm clouds on the front deck
John snapped this photo at lunch on our last day - someone was hungry!The drive home was much better than the drive down as far as traffic. It took us 2 hours to get off the island (one hour more than it probably should have), so total driving time was about 9.5 hours. With stops for food and diaper changes, we were on the road for about 11.5 hours. Tommy was pretty good but I admit I was stir crazy some of the time so I didn't blame him when he got bored!
So our first official family vacation has come to an end, but it was a wonderful time. I will have some separate posts of some of Tommy's antics on vacation to follow shortly!
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