Memorial Weekend, Day 1

For Memorial Day Weekend, we planned a short, two night trip to Solomon's Island, about an hour and a half drive from where we live.  We were anxious and excited for this trip because it would be our first family vacation with just our little family, and it was also an experiment to see how sleeping all four of us in a room together would work.  We really enjoyed our vacation together and had so much fun just hanging out as a family.  As for all of us sleeping together in a room...well, we forfeited our second night in the hotel...does that tell you how well that went?!  (more on that later)

We left Saturday afternoon right around naptime, hoping both kids would have more of a chance of sleeping on the way there (my kids, especially Leah, do not fall asleep easily in the car).  The drive there was smooth and there was such a feeling of excitement being on our first family trip (Dallin had come down with a cold and pink eye two days before our trip, so there was a slight fear the trip wouldn't happen...thankfully, his pink eye cleared up after 48 hours and his cold was mostly gone by Saturday).  

The first thing we did when we arrived was walk along the boardwalk and enjoy the hot, hot sun (we were all perspiring a lot by the time we got back to the car...especially since Leah insisted on being carried quite a bit of the way, which didn't help with the heat).

Dave had worked in this area for a couple years in his previous job, so he was slightly familiar with it.  He had driven the two-lane bridge in this picture numerous times (and it always scared him!).

Sometimes Leah has such a knack for making Dallin laugh

Chasing the duck

Heading back to the car ("C'mon, Mom!")

In such a hurry...

Run, Leah, run!

Must. Not. Stop.

Finally tired.

LOVE this girl.

 

After walking a bit, she decided it was time for her to push Dallin in the stroller.

She pushed him quite a ways (I was there to help steer the ship).

After arriving tired and sweaty back at the car, we headed to our hotel where we planned on settling into our room and then getting out to the pool as quickly as possible.

Leah insisted it was for her to pull around this bag.  Everyone we passed commented on how the bag was bigger than her.

  

We had to assure people that she wanted to pull the bag because you couldn't tell from her actions.  She was grunting and groaning the whole way to our hotel room.  It made for a very long, slow walk.  But every time I tried to help her, she got very put out.

Finally in the room and resting from her hard work.

Dallin had to get some refreshment, too!

Dressed and ready to go to the pool!

Love the glasses askew

I love this picture of Dad taking care of his girl

Here we go! (always love the ruffle bum)

It took her awhile, but she finally warmed up to it.

In the end, Dallin and I had to leave Leah and Dave at the pool.  Leah did not want to leave (her favorite thing to do was walk laps around the pool and interact with everyone).

After getting cleaned up and dressed, we headed out to dinner and then to Target to get another pack and play (the hotel had promised us a crib, but didn't end up having one when we got there...we had one pack and play with us, but decided to purchase another one just in case it didn't work out for one of the kids to sleep with us - we were so glad we had it!).  We also went to the grocery store to get some breakfast food for the morning and found they had a grocery cart with a kid car in the front - and the kid car had two steering wheels.  Perfect!  I don't think Leah and Dallin have ever enjoyed a shopping trip so much!  That was arguably the highlight of their trip...they love those cars.

So the plan for that night was to go through the regular night time routine and then just relax on the bed and watch some family favorites (mainly re-runs of "Good Luck, Charlie").  I mean, they had to drop at some point, right?  I'm sure at SOME point they would have, but after a couple of solid hours on the bed as a family, things still looked like the pictures below:

 Leah and Dallin kept getting each other fired up and would NOT calm down.  Finally, around 11:00, we gave up...we couldn't figure out how to calm them down on the bed, and we were too tired to wait for them to totally run out of steam.  I put Leah in her pack and play, Dave put Dallin in his, and we stood watch at our respective posts until everyone quieted down for the night.  It took nearly an hour before Dave and I dragged ourselves into bed and crashed...but not for long! Leah and Dallin both woke up multiple times during the night and woke each other up, so basically anytime anyone woke up, Dave and I both had to get out of bed to quiet down both kiddos.  Then around 4, Dallin got up and decided he wasn't going back to sleep right away.  In order to keep him from waking up Leah, I pulled him out of his crib and just held him until he was finally asleep again.  It was about an hour and half before I crawled back into bed for another few hours.

What a night!