Summer Vacay Part 1

I wanted to start off with a picture from last year's vacation to Ruidoso taken in the same spot with the same baby, only this year she is ONE year older (as are we too, of course, but who likes to think about that).

This was our first family vacation with just the three of us. I guess we didn't really know what to expect. Our hopes were that she would nap a lot and keep herself entertained so we could do what we love to do on vacation...READ. We both had ordered books to bring and were very excited about reading them. Allen's book somehow didn't make it there...among that and other realizations of things that we had left and incidences at the airport, we didn't have great attitudes to begin with.

The flight with Taylor (the 3 of us being crammed into 2 seats, for cheapness sake) wasn't all that we hoped it would be. Taylor's greatest fear, I'm convinced is being pinned down, not able to move and go where she pleases. (This makes for lovely times at the doctor's office...) So this situation on the plane was not one that anyone envied. She wailed toward the end probably less than 5 minutes, but I guarantee you that was the longest 5 minutes of my life.

And I'd like to add that traveling with a baby is just very HARD. You are talking about toting along pack-n-plays, carseats, strollers and then during the check having to take off everyone's shoes. I mean, seriously, what could possibly be in that tiny baby shoe?

Anyhow, that will probably be the last time we travel with a toddler. When she was littler it was easier, but now it's a little too much to handle for both of us. Although she did do MUCH better on the way back with her own seat. Don't get me wrong, Allen and I were having to put on an entertaining show for her (books, songs, games, etc...people probably thought we were crazy singing, dancing, playing peek-a-boo), but she kept entertained.

So all in all the travels taught us a LOT about our own attitudes and how WRONG they were! I think our reactions to those hard situations are the Lord's way of showing us if we are really growing like He desires us to and how we think we are (in our own prideful eyes). Glad He brought us back to Him from the get go. That actually provided the best possible outlook we could have had for our little once-a-year getaway. It actually got things started off RIGHT! Praise God, He really knows what He's doing, huh?

I will leave you with some pictures and continue where I left off later, after the loads of laundry disappear, the emails are all deleted and the blogs have all been checked.