We had a wonderful time but are finding more and more that vacations with a toddler are mixed with times of pure delight and times of pure stress.
The drive from TN to the Eastern Shore of Maryland is 17 hours. On the way there we stopped through WV to see Bryan's dad and Grandmother and stayed the night. We were able to see some friends of the family and they were able to meet Jackson for the first time which was great. On the way back we drove straight through because the water went out at our house. Jackson was such a trooper and did great with NOT ONE MELTDOWN. Bryan and I were absolutely amazed at how well he did. We are so lucky to be his parents!
In Maryland we ate more steamed, blue crab than seems possible, spent some quality time with family, and even got away on our own some to have Mommy, Daddy, and Jackson time.
It's funny how vacation teaches you things. We learned that Jackson loves the pool, but not when there's a lot of people in it. He is terrified of fireworks, but is absolutely addicted to watermelon. Both of which are staples for celebrating the 4th of July, in my opinion. Hopefully next year will be better when it comes to fireworks. He wouldn't eat any of the crab, so we'll definitely have to work on that in the upcoming years!! No one can be in our family and NOT eat blue crab! :-) I also learned that I'm TERRIBLE at taking pictures. I only got a handful of pictures of Jackson with Bryan and my brother in the pool. I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing that I forget to take time to try and capture the moment on film. I'm vowing right now to fix this. Especially now that I've got a DSLR camera and can learn how to use it to take spectacular pictures.
This vacation also taught me to live in the moment. Don't dwell on the stresses of less sleep and a different schedule, which can cause mini-meltdowns. Instead, enjoy the change because the good times outweigh the meltdowns. Things like - sharing a cup of mint chocolate chip on the sidewalk of a quaint, shore side town, watching your little one run joyfully through a family owned toy store, laughing at the squeals of delight when playing in the pool, and kissing the sticky-sweet, watermelon skin of a little boy that just can't get enough of the stuff.
Plus, vacation with my brother and sister-in-law always makes for good laughs. Here are just some of the things that made us laugh this week:
"Rub in your chapstick. It looks like you ate paste for lunch."
"The drive's not that bad. Think about the positive. See...we don't get to see corn that often."
"What stinks out here?"
"It smells like taco night at our house."
"Surely your tacos don't smell that bad?"
"I think he was referring to the gas emitted after the tacos."
"Oh, ha! Yeah that makes more sense."
"In the summertime he prefers the satin ones bc they're a lot cooler."
"Free Willy!"
I hope you had a wonderful 4th as well!
XOXO
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