Last week Jesse and I decided to go to St. Augustine (about a 40 minute drive from our home) for 2 nights. We have friends who have a camper there and were more than kind enough to let us stay there. Our agenda was eating and relaxing. That was it. The weather forecast was very favorable so packing was going to be a cinch. We were going to go to dinner for Jesse's birthday the first night, hang out the second day and go to dinner again that night, and come back the next morning. Simple. The one catch was this: Cassie was going. We were excited about our first trip as a family. But I'll admit I was a bit nervous too. I was getting off work at noon on the day we were leaving so I thought we'd be on the road no later than 1pm. When I got home, I began to pack what I thought would be a small bag with just a few things. But as I began to think about it, Cassie spits up on me at least once a day,(it's a special talent of hers) on my shirt and pants. So that turned 2 packed shirts into 6. And maybe, while on the trip, she would spit up on my jacket, so I'd need to bring a couple of those too. Fifteen minutes later, I looked like I was going to Breckenridge all over again. Jesse was the same. Then there was Cassie's luggage. Her clothes were just like ours. But Cassie doesn't just NEED clothes when going out of town. What first was packed was her stroller, then her pack-n-play, and let's not forget her swing. Our little Cassie needs her swing. Actually, Jesse and I need her swing. It's Cassie's natural sedative. Then there were her bottles, burp cloths, diapers, wet wipes, and EEEEEVVVVVVEEEERRRRYYYYTTTTTHHHHHIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGG else.
So an hour and a half later, when it was all said and done, the back of our SUV was filled to the brim. But we were on our way and we were excited. By the time we got to the camper all Jesse and I wanted to do was nap, but Cassie had other intentions. She was far too jazzed for her first trip to sleep right off the bat. So we unpacked and hung out. The excitement was palpable.
We went to dinner the first night and Cassie was great. She never fussed once. We celebrated Jesse's birthday for the first time as a family and we loved every minute of it.
Later that night we were able to put Cassie to bed at her normal hour, but, being that it wasn't her "normal" environment, her wake up time came early and she wasn't so quick to go back to bed. In short, it was a long night. The next morning we ate breakfast and literally stared out the window for a good hour. It was 11am before we started on our day. Throughout the day I was thinking that it would be better if we cut our trip short. "We should go back home tonight" I thought. Why stay the second night only to go home the following morning? Why not just have dinner in St. Augustine and head home afterwards? It made sense. I proposed the idea to Jesse by convincing her that Cassie would sleep better, and in turn we would too, if she was bsck home. To my relief, Jesse agreed. We were going to go to a fun restaurant of our choosing in St. Aug and casually make our way back home. No fuss, no muss.
After a day of shopping and eating we were exhausted. We headed back to the camper and in my exhaustion, I began re-packing everything. And it wasn't just our stuff that I had to pack up, I had to clean up the camper too. It ended up taking longer than I thought and as fate would have it, as soon as everything was good to go, Cassie got hungry. So once she was fed and changed, Jesse and I were more tired than when we first got back. As we sat in exhausted silence we began to talk about what restaurant we wanted to go to. At this point hunger had been far surpassed by fatigue. Food was a luxury that I would easily trade for rest. Although ever restaurant was one we would typically like, nothing sounded good. We went from eating at an authentic St. Augustine restaurant, to a chain restaurant that we could get in and out of rather quickly, to what we finally decided on: coming into town we saw a Wendy's on the main road. We could eat and be back on the road in no more than 15 minutes and it was exactly on the way home. So that's what we did. We finished off our first trip with our daughter with one of the most depressing dinners we've ever had.
Now that we've had time to reflect on the trip, we truly did have a great time. I'd have to say it was more of a learning experience than anything else though. What I love though is that it doesn't matter where we go for trips now because it's all new to us. A simple lunch at a food court is excited because it's with our daughter. A camper is like a luxurious penthouse suite because we are vacationing as a family. I can't wait to see what our next trip is like. I just hope I don't have to pull a trailer to haul all of our luggage.
Oh, and here's Jesse home after our trip, finally getting that much needed rest:
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