We survived our first road trip

Our vacation, on the whole, went really well. The biggest problem was that Claire was not content to hang out in our campsite and repeatedly wandered away as quickly as you could bring her back kicking and screaming. So that and the whole sleeping thing was annoying, but I was prepared for the whole sleeping thing. Steve declared that he missed the trailer and from here on out would prefer to use it, except if we’re backpacking.

The kids were amazing during the longest legs in the car, it couldn’t have gone more smoothly. I’m not trying to shove sunshine and rainbows up your butt, either, it did honestly go very well. When they were getting a little antsy, it was typically for a very good reason like they were sitting in a pile of poo and it was starting to get a little bit irritating.

We had a lot of fun, too. We got to go boating in Creston with Steve’s oldest brother, we hiked and beached and explored the backside of Columbia lake in Radium, and picked cherries and sat on the beach and rented jet-skis in Herold Park. Seriously good times. You should all take your kids on a two week road trip!
Being back in the real world hurts, and we’re still completely off our schedule and back to square one trying to teach Claire how to fall asleep on her own, but somehow we’re further ahead on the potty training with Callum (thanks Ben-Ben!).
Overall opinion: I’d do it again.

5 Responses to “We survived our first road trip”

1. michelle says:

   July 14, 2009 at 1:38 pm

   I am tired….wish we were still at the lake:) 2 more weeks…….
2. Tarrah says:

   July 14, 2009 at 7:04 pm

   wow, I’m impressed!
   how exactly DID the sleeping thing go? I’m wondering in case I ever get the urge…
3. Amber says:

   July 14, 2009 at 9:44 pm

   oy.
   well, first we put Claire to sleep. Literally, one of us would take her to the tent and lie down with her and bounce her and sing to her until she was dead asleep. Then we’d transfer her to the playpen. Once that parent left the tent, the other parent went into the tent with Callum, and read to him, and cuddled him, and sang to him until he, too, was dead asleep.
   This, sometimes, took until 11 pm or later…
   Kind-of ridiculous, we don’t sing and rock Callum to sleep typically, but we couldn’t put him to bed first and just leave him in the tent to fall asleep on his own because it took him too long to get to sleep, meanwhile Claire would be crashing and she isn’t the kid that will fall asleep around the fire – she’s too excitable. Once she WAS asleep, we couldn’t leave Callum alone for fear he’d wake her up….
   I think the whole two weeks they slept through the night, in the tent, once. In Creston we stayed in a trailer and the kids slept through the night for the first few nights, then Claire started teething…
   Callum was also teething, but it doesn’t appear to be a big deal.
4. marnie says:

   July 15, 2009 at 3:33 pm

   OK, I’ve been on Facebook too much lately… I was looking for a “Like” button. Glad you guys had a great time! We’re potty training and sleep training too, with intermittent hotel stays. Blech.
5. Suzy says:

   July 21, 2009 at 11:30 am

   Sounds like a wonderful trip – lots of happy memories!