Vacationing with a 6 month old. Those who have gone before me in this particular journey, know what's coming next. Those who are yet to vacation with a 6 month old, let this help prepare you! :)
We ended up packing our whole house up, or so it felt, to go on vacation. If it wasn't for Jon's truck we would seriously have ended up renting a moving truck. I say that and laugh, but while we were "islanding" we did come across a few families who had U-Haul trailers parked alongside their vehicles. A year ago I would have not understood that...today I do. Everything we packed we were grateful that we did. We could definitely have used the baby swing but we did pretty good with just the baby bouncer. On the way down we also bought Chloe a little pool. That was $10 well spent! Took her a few days to get used to the waves, so while she was acclimating we would let her play in her little splash pool that we took down to the beach with us. Before we left we bought a beach tent - this was also dollars well spent! Kept Chloe out of the sun and away from the beach winds. A single trip to the beach had a tendency to become a monumental effort - beach chairs, beach mats, tent, baby pool, towels, sunblock, extra diapers, extra baby outfits, umbrella...baby. Try carrying all that with the number of arms the good Lord gave us. But she LOVED the sand - ate a few mouthfuls for good measure too. The water was pretty cool, she thought, but only after we had given her the accurate number of days to test out this new weird cold bath water experience.
Beach time was limited dramatically. After about day 2 we were exhausted from lugging all the beach stuff back and forth, so we decided to just enjoy the bay front instead. Our house was on the bay, western facing with THE most incredible evenings. So instead we put Chloe's pool up on the deck at the house, and had immediate access to everything we needed. While she napped, Jon and I sunned like lizards. When she was awake - she was in her bouncer, in the shade, enjoying an outdoor bounce. It all worked out once we realized that we would not be laying out on the beach long enough to cook a skin cell.
We also took to long walks around the island. Chloe adores her stroller. In fact I think her love for her stroller is a top 5 in her life. We walked when it was cool, we walked when it was hot - we taught Chloe how to drink out of a water bottle too. She thought that was so much more grown up than drinking out of her sippy cup. Each time we walked, she fell asleep. So on those afternoons when she thought a nap was for newborns...we'd buckle her up and off we'd roll...and soon she was snoozing.
Jon and I are so accustomed to vacationing freely - no worries, you just GO. Working around the heat, the sand, Chloe's feeding and sleeping schedule, really makes you ensure the activity you're about to partake in is WORTH IT! So we only did about a one hundredth of what we normally do. But watching Chloe's initial reaction to the ocean was so much better than floating around in the ocean for 2 hours as just the two of us...or seeing her dig her little toes in to the sand and kick like crazy for 10 minutes was so much better than the past where we would lay on the beach sunning our bods for 8 hours! The change, although dramatic, is worth it. It's also humbling.
While I have ten thousand pictures I could put up to go alongside this blog, I can't as I'm sitting hundreds of miles away from those cute adorable pictures - and hundreds of miles away from my little family. I'm traveling on business this week - spending my first night away from Chloe. Daddy has Mommy duties until Thursday evening. . .and Mommy is going to. . .perhaps sleep a full night for the first time in 7 + months?
In the mean time, you can check out some pictures from our vacation, if you haven't already. From past blogs you'll know that I tag my most favorite pictures as Shutter Candy - Shutter Candy has expanded, officially. I've captured tender life moments over time, and why keep this to myself, when everyone has tender life moments that they'd like to capture too? Take a moment to "like" me on Facebook by searching Shutter Candy or click here .This will give us an opportunity to connect.
We ended up packing our whole house up, or so it felt, to go on vacation. If it wasn't for Jon's truck we would seriously have ended up renting a moving truck. I say that and laugh, but while we were "islanding" we did come across a few families who had U-Haul trailers parked alongside their vehicles. A year ago I would have not understood that...today I do. Everything we packed we were grateful that we did. We could definitely have used the baby swing but we did pretty good with just the baby bouncer. On the way down we also bought Chloe a little pool. That was $10 well spent! Took her a few days to get used to the waves, so while she was acclimating we would let her play in her little splash pool that we took down to the beach with us. Before we left we bought a beach tent - this was also dollars well spent! Kept Chloe out of the sun and away from the beach winds. A single trip to the beach had a tendency to become a monumental effort - beach chairs, beach mats, tent, baby pool, towels, sunblock, extra diapers, extra baby outfits, umbrella...baby. Try carrying all that with the number of arms the good Lord gave us. But she LOVED the sand - ate a few mouthfuls for good measure too. The water was pretty cool, she thought, but only after we had given her the accurate number of days to test out this new weird cold bath water experience.
Beach time was limited dramatically. After about day 2 we were exhausted from lugging all the beach stuff back and forth, so we decided to just enjoy the bay front instead. Our house was on the bay, western facing with THE most incredible evenings. So instead we put Chloe's pool up on the deck at the house, and had immediate access to everything we needed. While she napped, Jon and I sunned like lizards. When she was awake - she was in her bouncer, in the shade, enjoying an outdoor bounce. It all worked out once we realized that we would not be laying out on the beach long enough to cook a skin cell.
We also took to long walks around the island. Chloe adores her stroller. In fact I think her love for her stroller is a top 5 in her life. We walked when it was cool, we walked when it was hot - we taught Chloe how to drink out of a water bottle too. She thought that was so much more grown up than drinking out of her sippy cup. Each time we walked, she fell asleep. So on those afternoons when she thought a nap was for newborns...we'd buckle her up and off we'd roll...and soon she was snoozing.
Jon and I are so accustomed to vacationing freely - no worries, you just GO. Working around the heat, the sand, Chloe's feeding and sleeping schedule, really makes you ensure the activity you're about to partake in is WORTH IT! So we only did about a one hundredth of what we normally do. But watching Chloe's initial reaction to the ocean was so much better than floating around in the ocean for 2 hours as just the two of us...or seeing her dig her little toes in to the sand and kick like crazy for 10 minutes was so much better than the past where we would lay on the beach sunning our bods for 8 hours! The change, although dramatic, is worth it. It's also humbling.
While I have ten thousand pictures I could put up to go alongside this blog, I can't as I'm sitting hundreds of miles away from those cute adorable pictures - and hundreds of miles away from my little family. I'm traveling on business this week - spending my first night away from Chloe. Daddy has Mommy duties until Thursday evening. . .and Mommy is going to. . .perhaps sleep a full night for the first time in 7 + months?
In the mean time, you can check out some pictures from our vacation, if you haven't already. From past blogs you'll know that I tag my most favorite pictures as Shutter Candy - Shutter Candy has expanded, officially. I've captured tender life moments over time, and why keep this to myself, when everyone has tender life moments that they'd like to capture too? Take a moment to "like" me on Facebook by searching Shutter Candy or click here .This will give us an opportunity to connect.
