Family Vacation 2015 - Days 10 & 11 - Home at Last

Finally! We're home. Not that I wanted to be home instead of vacation in Florida. It's more like, after 17 hours of being in a car with a 2 year and 2 month old, I'm so happy I'm home. 

Overall it wasn't a terrible experience. I'll start at Friday morning. Early Friday morning. Around 2:00 am to be exact. That's the time when me and Melody woke up to a screaming toddler. Every once in a while Rylynn will start yelling and is completely inconsolable, yet not fully awake. We can only assume that she is having night terrors, and we are told she will grow out of them. Until then, we have to try and calm her while she cries and screams and refuses to listen to us or calm down. Mostly because we didn't want her to wake up Denver, I took her upstairs to watch some TV hoping that would distract her and she would calm down. She fell asleep quickly after that and we just slept there. 

We got up around 8:00, then got our breakfast, and headed out to the beach.

Rylynn had a great time smashing sand castles and finding shells and running away from the waves. Also, Denver made it out to the beach for the first time! You can tell how excited he was... 

This was the only day that we were ALL out at the beach at the same time :)

Melody and I aren't huge beach people, but when you see how much fun your kids are having, it makes it hard to leave. You can't just say "Okay, we have to go back for lunch". That means nothing to them. They could play at the beach for days without eating. It forces you to be more creative. Bribing them with things like "We can go swimming in the pool" seem to be more affective, even though you're already at the ocean. 

We headed back for lunch and naps, but Rylynn decided she didn't want to take a nap. I did though. I was going to  have to drive through the night, so I NEEDED a nap. I slept for about 2 hours, which probably was not enough, but I was happy to get that much. 

For dinner we had mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey casserole, and AMAZING apple and peach pies! Rylynn decided she would take her nap while we ate and fell asleep in her high chair. After she finally woke up at about 7:45, she played hide and seek with Mollie, Erin, and my mom. While they played that, Matt, Ryan, Dad and I played a game where we try and bounce coins off the counter into a cup... About 8 feet away. It's amazing how a simple game can entertain us for so long. We were playing for a while and none of us had got one in. After a while my dad put a dollar on the counter and said "First one to get it gets the dollar". Now it was serious!( not really) But about 10 minutes later I got it in the cup and won the big prize :) 

It was about 9:00 pm by now and after Melody nursed Denver we were ready to head out on our 13 hour drive home. We got the car packed up, said our goodbyes, fueled up, and we were on or way around 10:00 pm. 

The trip started pretty good. When we fueling up I knew that I would be driving through the night so I would need caffeine, so I got two Monster drinks. Melody sat in the back in between the kiddlings and tried to help Rylynn fall asleep. Finally, at about 1:00 am, Rylynn fell asleep and I had consumed both my Monster Energy drinks. Trying to load up on liquid caffeine may not have been the best idea, since now we had to stop about every 45 minutes so that I could go to the bathroom. But, both kids stayed asleep until about 3 am when we had to stop for gas and Denver woke up. Melody fed Denver while me and Rylynn went inside the travel plaza so I could use the bathroom, of course, and change Rylynns pee-soaked clothes. I grabbed some coffee since the affects of the Monster drinks were wearing off and, once Denver was done, we headed back out. Rylynn and Denver fell right back asleep and Melody got to sleep a little too. At about 7 am we stopped to feed Denver again and I was feeling pretty tired by that time. We decided to switch and Melody would drive so that I could sleep. When we were on the road about a half hour I woke up to rumble strips. I looked at Melody and she said we better stop and both get some sleep. We stopped at the next rest stop to get some shuteye, but the kiddos had other plans. When we stopped both kids woke up. So we ended up feeding Denver again and switching back so that Melody could sit with the kids and entertain Rylynn. 

We were hoping to not have to entertain Rylynn too much. In preparation for our long Journey we had purchased some movies and tv shows on the iPad to keep Rylynn occupied. That was money very well wasted. Her short attention span ended up just causing Melody to have to change the movie or game or show about every 15 minutes. 

Eventually we made it to Virginia and stopped to feed Denver at get breakfast from Chic-fil-A. After breakfast we got stuck in terrible traffic on 95. Once we got through THAT traffic we hit more traffic around the DC area. By this time Rylynn was tired of being in her car seat and Melody was trying to sleep but Rylynn wouldn't let her, and I was just trying to stay awake. It felt like we were never going to get home. After all the traffic we stopped at one last rest stop to use the bathroom and change Rylynn out of more wet clothes. We were only about an hour and a half away from home and the finish was in sight. 

We ALMOST made it home when Denver went from sleeping to screaming in .3 seconds flat. We pulled into a bank parking lot, fed Denver and started back on the road in hopes that we would make it home at last.

And we did. At about 3:00 pm we finally made it home. After a 13 hour trip turned into a 17 hour trip, we were finally home. We unloaded the car and at about 4:00 laid down for some much needed rest. 

Melody woke me up at about 7:00. But, instead of feeling well rested, I felt worse than I had before. My throat was sore, my nose was running, and my head throbbed. It probably had something to do with driving 17 hours and only get 5 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours. But, we got some dinner, relaxed, watched part of a movie, and finally passed out around 9:30 pm in our own beds.

Thoughts on the last two days- It went a lot better than it could have, but I don't think I'll be attempting a drive like that again with a toddler and a newborn. 

Thoughts on the trip- there was a lot of reasons not to go on this trip. It was too far. Our kids are too small. It's too much stress and hassle. But, in the end, it was all totally worth it. Creating countless memories and spending time with family. There were times of extreme stress and exhaustion, but spending time with family highly outweighs all that. Also, it's easier to be inconvenienced a little when you see the joy on your child's face. But, maybe next time we won't have to drive so far to see that joy :) 

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read these posts. I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into our lives, our joys, and our difficulties of parenting. We had a great vacation and I was happy to share that with you :) Thank you to our family and friends for the continued support in raising for and caring for our children :) Most of all, thank you Melody for being an amazing mother and partner in this journey :) 

Love you all,

Ryan

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 9 - Why do we even try?

There's those days, as a parent, that you wonder why you even try. The kind of day where you do all the preparation you can so that it goes well, and it still ends up in the toilet. Today produced an event such as this. 

It started as your typical day. Breakfast, swimming, lunch, afternoon naps, etc. But, little did we know what dinner time had in store for us. We should've learned our lesson a long time ago, two years ago to be exact. On our family vacation 2 years ago we went out to eat one night during the whole vacation. We went to a local eatery and everything was fine until right when we got our food. Rylynn was only 6 weeks old at the time and decided it was the perfect time to get upset. We tried to prepare and had brought a bottle of milk, but she wouldn't take it, of course, and I scarfed down my food and me and Melody ended up in the car the remainder of the time at the restaurant. It was an awful, stressful, and disappointing experience. But, that was then. This was going to be way better. We fed Denver immediately before we left so we had a solid three hours, but we brought milk and a bottle just in case. And we brought snacks and toys for Rylynn to have while we waited for our food. We went to a local place called the Salt Water Cowboy. It was a cool little place with a great view. 

But, again, preparation was pointless. We had realized that we forgot to bring the wipes on our way to the restaurant. Oh well. How likely is it that either will have a dirty diaper in the short time we were going to be there? If you want an actual percentage... 100%. According to a recent study: 2/2 babies will have dirty diapers in a restaurant if wipes are forgotten. Oh, and this happened just before we got our food. We actually didn't even know about Denver's because Rylynn was acting up so bad we were trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Then, after Erin bravely asked another parent at the restaurant for some wipes, Melody went to go change Rylynn's diaper and found that she had a huge, terrible, bright red rash all over her bottom. That's right about the time when Denver started to become inconsolable. So, Melody struggled to change Rylynn's diaper while she screamed bloody murder and then came in and saw Denver and me having a terrible time and decided we just better go, and I imagined the restaurant slaughtering the fattened calf in celebration of our departure. 

I don't think we, as parents, are unique to a situation like this. But, when going through it I think to myself "Why do we even try?". Is it worth it to leave our house and risk a situation like this to pay for food? Eating out is one of my favorite activities, but sometimes you wish you would've just sat out.

We rode home listening to 2 screaming children. When we got back we decided to deal with the older one first because she was truly in pain. That was obvious. You can tell just by the cry if a child is grouchy, in pain, sad, faking, etc. and this was serious pain. The short version is that it took both me and Melody to pin Rylynn down to change her diaper and put cream on her, and we were struggling. Little kids can really get strong when they're in pain and you're making it worse. But we got her new diaper on, got her calmed down, and she was good... For now. The little one was easier... Change him and hook him up to mom. Finally, all was calm again. 

Our family was very supportive and helpful through the ordeal. When they finished eating and came back to the house we were blessed by Erin and Mollie with 2 milkshakes :) While savoring my milkshake I almost completely forgot about the whole thing :) But it wasn't too long until I was reminded again because Rylynn had a dirty diaper :/ Once again it took both me and Melody and a lot of muscle just to change her diaper. We felt so bad for her. I was trying to calm her down while Melody applied to rash cream and I was right up at her face talking to her. She was just screaming and I could see the immense pain and terror in her eyes. She wouldn't look at me. She was just looking up and, even if I was deaf and I only saw her tear soaked little eyeballs, I would be able to tell how much pain she was in :( But, we made it through that and an hour or two later she finally dozed off. Luckily, Denver actually slept that whole time. Of course, I don't blame anything that happened today on the kids' behavior. Of course they would be upset. One has terrible rash and doesn't want to sit down and the other is hungry and has a diaper filled with poop. I'd be upset in either of those situations too and I feel awful for both of them. All we can do is try to remain patient and solve the issues. The patient part is way harder. 

I'm trying not to be a pessimist, but all I can think about is our upcoming 15 hour (or more) car ride and how uncomfortable and irritated Rylynn will be if she has this rash. Luckily, my mom roped me into playing a card game with the family and, for a short time, I was pleasantly distracted by the laughter, jokes, cookies, cream puffs, and love that surrounded me. Even though I did absolutely awful during the game, it was worth it. 

Thoughts on the day - What do we learn from past experiences? If we would base our decisions on our last family vacation dinner outing, we wouldn't ever go out to eat with kids. Ever. But, do we keep trying to go out even when it constantly bites us in the rear? I don't know. All I know is that you can pray for us in several ways.. Patience in difficult times. Healthy, rash free, happy children for a loooong drive home. And that we would trust that God will work in our lives and help us through all situations. Thanks! And please keep us in your prayers over the next 2 days :) 

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 7 - Finally got ice cream!

This is going be a short post since I have to wake up at 5:00 am tomorrow to go to Walt Disney World and it's currently 11:53 pm. Tomorrow is gonna be a magical day. A long day. Hopefully a day filled with fun and adventure. But, I will give you all the scoop on how that goes at end of day tomorrow, and I think that will be a long post. But you can pray for us and Matt and Erin and our families for safety, good attitudes (from all of us), good weather, and a great time :) thanks. 

But now for today...

Today was one of those vacation days that just fly by. This seems to happen far too often on vacation. It usually takes about 3 days to actually forget about work and relax. In this case it took 6 days, and there's a problem with that... All I can think about is the trip back. I try not to dwell on that and just enjoy the here and now. Enjoy having talks with my wife without all the stress of work and schedules. Enjoy playing with my daughter in the pool and watching her interact with her cousins. Enjoy holding my son and watching him smile at me, or gas bubbles, who knows. But, from what I'm finding out, these moments go by way too fast, like days on a vacation, and I need to make sure I soak 'em up. 

We pretty much just relaxed all morning. No pool. No beach. Just played inside and enjoyed the A/C. There was talk of going into Old Town of St Augustine, but plans changed. After lunch we got some naps and both kids actually slept at the same time!! I got to read and Melody got to watch her HGTV shows :) That was excellent :) 

We made hot dogs, cheddar wursts, and Mac n cheese for dinner and then all headed out to go shopping. We just meandered around the outlets and got Rylynn some new swimsuits. Then, finally, we had ice cream!! It was not nearly enough but I was happy to get that Hershey's Choco Mint Chip goodness in me. 

We headed home and got ready for our big day tomorrow. Made sure the car seats would all fit in the van. Got the bag ready for an all day adventure. Informed my parents on how to care for Denver all day. Which is just awesome that they are willing to do that for us and we are sooooo thankful for them and Ryan and Mollie and their willingness to help us out :) One thing that was another blessing was we found two strollers at the beach house we are staying at. One is a two seater and the other a one seater. Just what we all needed to not have to rent strollers from Disney World. That was quite a last minute blessing discovery :) 

Now we are ready to go and ready for bed. 

Thoughts on today- I really need to try and think about each moment. It's not that long that we get to be in this stage of parenting. Yes, it's hard. But there are so many things that make it an amazing experience. It's hard not to focus on the negative and my prayer would be that I would be more patient and optimistic as I continue to learn this parenting thing.

 

See ya soon Mickey!!!

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 6 - A Support System is Key

Today finally felt like a day to relax. It's hard to recap your day when it feels like you didn't do much, which is a good thing. 

It started off a little rough when the baby woke up at 6:30 and decided to stay up. I was obligated to take him upstairs since I wasn't the one you had to get up through the night and feed him. But, Matt and his four year old daughter, Maddie, were already up and playing, which I guess means I can look forward to at least another four years of getting up at the buttcrack of dawn on vacations. 

Once Melody and Rylynn woke up we had breakfast. Waffles! Mmm. And then Rylynn, Jordyn, and Maddie all played while we just hung out, 

until about 10:30 when we hit the pool. At one point we were ALL in the pool, except for Mollie, sleeping the day away. Oh, to not have children... 

It's interesting how long children can play in a pool and not get bored. They will just go on and on and on until you drag them away screaming so they can eat lunch. You tell them that they have to eat lunch, but they don't care. And really, you might not either, because YOU want lunch, because you're starving, because you had breakfast at 6:30 am, because they decided to get up at that time. But, you can't just leave a two year old bobbing around in the pool, even with Frozen-themed floaties, just so you can go have some fine Kraft cheesy cuisine in peace. Parenting is all about forgetting what you want and doing what your kids need, which usually is not what they want, which makes it even harder. 

After lunch we had our naps. I took a short nap so that I could get some more of my hilarious book read, Tina Fey's Bossypants. I had just settled into the couch to read when Mollie and Ryan came in and decided to watch Psych on TV. Reading is fun. But watching TV is just easier, and I'm all about relaxation efficiency. After too short of a time, Denver woke up, so I hung out with him for a little bit. It's nice when you're at family events because you never have to fully deal with the baby. Usually there's at least one other person who wants to take them off your hands for you, which can be a real attitude saver. Anyway, so between me and other members of my family we were able to keep Denver content until Melody woke up and was able to feed him again. 

Now it was about that time when its too close to supper to start a major activity with the kids. For that reason, you're left with trying to entertain a 2,4, and 5 year old for an hour without getting wet, dirty, sandy, changed or ice cream. Luckily, family is here again to come up with interesting ideas. Mollie came up with some ball game that, in the end, resulted in much weeping and gnashing of teeth. But, the girls enjoyed it long enough that we got to dinner. 

For dinner we had a fiesta! Taquitos, tortilla chips, salsa and bean dip, and pineapples. Taquitos are way too easy to eat and I'm glad I didn't keep count of how many I ate, because that would be depressing. I don't know what it is about parents eating, but infants know! They can't figure out not to scratch their eyeballs with their fingernails, but they KNOW when their parents are about to eat, and that means it's time to need to be held. It would be okay if you could sit down and hold them and eat with your other hand, but they would prefer you to stand. So now you're standing and enjoying your endless stream of taquitos. But, again, family steps in and offers to hold my baby so I can eat, and I'm back to being a happy person :) 

Later on, we went to the beach so we could play bocce and the kids could get sandy again. Everyone had a good time. Especially Erin. She must be on a secret, underground professional bocce team. She whooped us! We played a total of three games, and she played in two of those games, and she won both times she played! Ryan's Reviews And Ramblings will be the first sponsor for Erin Lehman when she goes pro!! 

Then it was back to the house for some more swimming in the pool and then bedtime for the kiddos. The adults played games together and the laughter rarely stopped. 

Thoughts on the day- it's such a blessing to have family that are there to help you as a parents. Our support system has been so key to raising our children, I have no idea what we would be able to do without them. Thank you all!! 

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 5 - Late to bed and early to rise

Days on vacation are long. They start early and end late. Sometimes way too late. There's a few reasons why this happens. For some people, mostly older people, they want to get the most out of their day. It's breakfast and coffee at 6 and then 18 hours later, when everyone is going to bed, they're wondering who wants to play Rook. I think I'm doing pretty good when I get up at 8! But then my parents get back from the beach after watching the sunrise. My theory is more along the lines of...  If I want to see the sunrise, Google has some great images I can check out.
Another reason the days can be long is from kids. It's hard to get the kids to bed at a decent bed time on vacation. They're jacked up on fruit snacks and want to play and swim nonstop. That leaves us with very limited time to do anything for ourselves after the time they are both in their beds and out of our hair. And it doesn't matter how late you put the kids to sleep, they'll wake up before you want them to. You got to be very careful. I've learned to sneeze into my pillow anytime after 5:00 am if I want to sleep any more. If I can't find anything to muffle my sinus spasm than I'm sure to hear a "bessooh dadda" and then I know I'm up for good. 
But, no matter how much sleep you get or don't get, vacations can be tiring. I always like to have a day after I get back from vacation just to relax at home. And then I think "I could have saved a lot of money if I would have just relaxed here at home this whole time". Honestly, I would hate to get back from vacation and have to jump right onto work the next day. I need that vacation - - > real life buffer day, or I'll have real-life culture shock. 
I say all this because I was up at 6 this morning and it is currently 1:15 when I'm writing this. That's a long day. But we had lots of fun. Got to go to the beach before lunch. Rylynn loved playing with the sand toys with her cousins and laughing hysterically when a wave would push her.

Later, much like a pack mule, I loaded the chair, umbrella, backpack, towels, and toddler onto myself and walked back to the house for lunch. Im always amazed at how much I can carry when I'm trying to avoid two trips. Same thing with groceries. We could buy 18 bags of groceries, and it's only 20 yards to our front door, but I HAVE to get it in one trip! 

Anyways, got some lunch back at the house. Spaghetti O's and grilled cheese. Rylynn was almost asleep before we could even get food in her mouth, but we made it through lunch and afterwards her and momma both got their naps.
After naps it was playtime immediately. Waste no time. And the cousins played til dinner while me and Matt purchased tickets for our families to go to Walt Disney World on Wednesday!!

For dinner we had some amazing lasagna roll ups that Ryan and Mollie made. I had more than my allotted amount. Sh. Don't tell!

Then we hung out, planned a little for our day at Disney and played games til 12:45. You never know what to expect with our family. There was about a ten minute discussion about how well the upstairs toilet seat fit to everybody's rumps, which involved fully clothed adults taking a try and giving their 5 second review. That's what I love about our families. We get on such obscure topics and it is just a never ending line of jokes.

Thoughts of the day -  It was worth the drive :)  

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 4 - Finally There!!!

We made it!! Finally!!! 

Today we started our vacation. Yes, we technically started on Wednesday night, but that was all just the journey to get to the vacation. Now we are here and we can start relaxing, as much as young parents can. But first, let's take a quick look at our day...

We woke up and got our free breakfast again and left the hotel. I never know if the breakfast is free or the hotel is free with a really expensive breakfast. Hmm. I guess we'll never know. 

Anyway, we were on our way to Hunting Island Beach. It's a State Park, which basically means it's a park that you have to pay to go in. But, this one did have a beach, so it was worth it. The drive to the beach area was beautiful. I don't know if they planned it to be this way or not, but the road makes you wind around trees and bushes like you're navigating through a dense jungle. 

The beach was pretty nice too. Very wide and flat and you could see how far the water had come up at high tide, and it was almost the whole way to the beach access. Me and Rylynn played in the water while Melody and Denver sweated together in a chair. 

She was having a great time, but Melody and her sweaty sidekick were ready to go. We packed back up and got to the car around lunch time and tried to decide where to go while Melody nursed Denver. 

We ended up at the Smoking Planks in Port Royal. We had tried to go there the night before, but they were closed. We both got pulled pork and Rylynn got some mac and cheese. Mine was actually a pulled pork Reuben, and it was quite good. Especially dipped with their BBQ sauces :) 

Back in the car we went to head to our final destination. We loaded the baby up with milk in hopes that we could tackle the last 3 hr 20 min leg of the course in one fell swoop. HA! The kids must've read all the good things I said about them yesterday and decided that shouldn't happen again. It was a headache for sure. I didn't count, but I'm pretty sure I heard the word "momma" a bazillion times, give or take. We had to stop half way though because we only had "cookies" and not "snacks" so Rylynn wasn't happy, which woke up Denver, who wasn't happy, which made mommy and daddy not happy. 

We exited the highway and found an abandoned gas station to pull into and feed Denver. Melody sat in the back seat to nurse him, and, to give her more room, I took the infant carrier out and put it on the ground outside the car, then grabbed Rylynn and we went for a walk to stretch. We ran around a little bit and then got back in the car because we were boiling to death. Melody wasn't done feeding Denver, so I thought we could just drive to the quick mart right across the road and grab some snacks, and use the bathroom, and change Rylynns diaper. We proceeded across the parking lot, crossed the road, and parked in the next parking lot, all while Melody nursed. No big deal though. I don't think we even went 3 mph. I took Rylynn in and into to the bathroom to change her. 

Grossest. 

Bathroom. 

Ever. 

It was terrible. We walked out and I was just gonna have to change her in the car. But, I was surprised on my walk back to the car by a stranger in a red car who pulled up to me. 

"Excuse me" he said. 

"Yes?" I responded with confusion.

"I think you left your car seat in the parking lot"

Then it hit me... I had never put Denver's car seat back in the car after taking it out for Melody. Somehow, this guy had seen that I had taken it out, left it there, and then tracked me down at the next place to let me know I forgot it. I mean, we would've found out soon enough, but I thought that was pretty awesome that guy took the time. That guy is awesome! And I'm forgetful! 

After that it went okay. Melody stayed in the back with the kids and entertained Rylynn til we finally got to the house. My parents, my sister Mollie and her husband Ryan were already there and my other brother, Matt, and his wife, Erin, and their two girls, Jordyn and Maddie, arrived shortly after. We all got settled in, went swimming while we waited an hour and ten minutes for our pizza to be ready, ate, and then hung out a bit. It's so great to be with family. We are so blessed to be in such a great family that we can all laugh and have a good time together, and our kids just LOVE to play together. It was truly a great time. Although, I did leave out that Denver nursed 3 times in that short amount of time. We call it his evening feeding frenzy. Usually between 7-9 pm he doesn't want to stop eating. Ever. 

By this time I was already pretty worn out from the day, but we still had to get groceries. I went to the store and my parents came too. I got my stuff, took it out to the car and waited for them. While I was waiting, my faith in human kind dropped significantly. I watch a lady load up her car and then take her cart across the parking lot and ram it into a curb directly behind another parked vehicle, causing it to be in the way of that vehicle. The worst part is, if she would've walked that same distance in a different direction, she would have been at the cart parking place!! I don't understand people like this! How can you just push a shopping cart to block a car from pulling out of a parking space and just leave? I don't understand. But, the cart wrangler came around and grabbed it eventually. And then my parents came. Then we went home and I got waaay too out of breath carrying groceries up two flights of steps :/ But, melody had already put the kids to bed, so I gave her a kiss and went to get in bed with this bed hog... 

She makes up for it with her cuteness, so it's all good. 

My thoughts on the day- I'm so tired. Goodnight. 

Family Vacation 2015 - Day 3 - Travel Day

Today was travel day. A long travel day. We got up and had our free breakfast and started packing up to leave. It's amazing how much luggage two adults, a toddler, and and infant can have. It doesn't help that we have to keep hauling a week and half's worth of clothes in and out of the car for just one night in a hotel. Anyway, we got on the road at 10:11and after that... Everything went great. Honestly, it could not have been a better traveling day. I kept waiting for something bad to happen... And it didn't. Well, except for a little issue at lunch. It was a minor issue, but I got to put this in here just for principle. What is up with restaurants NOT having changing tables in the bathroom!? What are we supposed to do? Change them on your filthy floors? Let me know which day of the year you decide to clean your bathroom floor so I can come and have a clean surface to lay my child on! Seriously though! I had to change Rylynn standing up in the stall. It is hard to take pee-soaked clothes off of a crying toddler (again crying because of the loud hand dryers) and then proceed to put a new diaper on and dry clothes, all with the toddler standing. How hard can it possibly be to screw a folding piece of plastic to a wall so that my child doesn't get hepatitis from your floor?!

Anywho... We drove for about two hours and it worked out so that we were able to stop for lunch (again, thanks Wendy's for not investing in a changing table), fuel, and to feed Denver all at the same time, which was amazing. Then we drove another 3 hours and, right when Denver was waking up to eat, we entered South Carolina and we were able to stop at the welcome center and use the bathroom and feed Denver and run around a bit to let off some energy. Then it was back on the road for another 3 hours til we finally met our destination of Beaufort, SC. 

Yes, we ended up in Beaufort instead of Charleston. Since we are last minute planners, and the fact that we did not consider the amount of people that would be in Charleston for the historic event of taking down the Confederate Flag, there were no hotels available. Plus, after much consideration, we decided that it might not be the best time to try and have a leisure and relaxing time in Charleston with all that's currently going on. 

Since we didn't have a whole lot going on at the time, Melody was able to search for another place to stay. We had already been to Savannah, GA and Hilton Head was too expensive. She came across this island town near Hilton Head called Beaufort that actually had hotels we could afford. Plus, that would only leave about a 3 and a half hour trip the next day to finish our journey to St Augustine. 

Now, back to the driving part... Like I said... It couldn't have gone better. We were pretty worried since we didn't have a TV in our car that this much sitting and traveling with a toddler would be horrendous. But we purchased a few new toys right before the trip and slowly introduced her to them throughout the trek. That, and about a billion stickers, kept her pretty content the majority of the ride :) 

It also helped that Denver slept the entire time! We really couldn't believe it. He would wake up to eat, and then right back to sleep. That was truly a blessing from God. Trying to drive that far with these two kids could have been enormously worse, and we are thanking God for that right now. Also, running around and playing hide and seek at the rest stop helps :) 

We arrived at our hotel in Beaufort at about 6:30. Got settled in and asked the concierge where a good place to eat would be. She suggested a place called Dockside. So we got the kids ready and headed that way as soon as we could, which was 7:45. Fifteen minutes later we were there and the parking lot was packed! It was a gorgeous view across the swampy, marsh area with some large sail boats docked there, and we could smell the water as soon as we got out of the car. We were excited :) We gave the hostess our names and she politely told us it would be about an hour til we were seated. So, quick recap... We ate lunch at 12:00 and now we were gonna wait an hour to order dinner at 9:00. That's not a good plan. We decided not to stay. We were really disappointed we couldn't eat there but we were trying to stay positive. There was a seafood restaurant directly adjacent to our hotel called Gilligans Seafood Restaurant that got mediocre reviews, but since nothing else was open, we headed there. One upside was that on our way to Dockside we went through a quaint little town called Port Royal with shops and restaurants that we decided we definitely wanted to visit the next morning :) 

Pulling into Gilligans we were a little skeptical. It looked a little run-down and outdated, but we were out of options. But, just like He had all day, God provided for us again. We were seated at a booth with an aquarium on the side, which Rylynn was ecstatic about. The restaurant wasn't crowded, which was good because me and Melody had to constantly walk around with Denver to keep him calm. Me and Melody took turns eating our food in shifts while the other held/comforted the infant, and Rylynn just ate and danced and was happy as could be looking at the fish and crabs. This was amazing to us since she had only gotten about an hour nap at around 11:00 in the morning. 

The food was good, it had a great view of the water, and Rylynn actually finished hers with little hassle. We had some issues at the end with slow service and bill issues, but nothing too major. Once again... Could've gone a lot worse. 

Then it was back to the hotel at about 9:45, a little TV, and then sleepy time. Another successful day of keeping our kids alive ;) 

My thoughts on the day - I just could not, and can not, stop thinking about how well everything went. I know that I can't expect this every day or in every situation, but I'm still so thankful. True, we didn't get to do everything we wanted. We didn't get to go to Charleston and we didn't get to eat at Dockside, but I think there are reasons for that. Who knows what Charleston would've been like and I know Rylynn had a waaay better time at Gilligans than she would have at Dockside. And every parent knows... A good experience for your kids is a good experience for you. So, I'm headed to sleep with a thankful heart and ready to see what challenges and joys lay ahead tomorrow :)