Sarah's First Road Trip

On September 18 and 19 we made a whirlwind road trip to Mississippi (just outside of Memphis, TN).  It was a bit last minute as we decided about 3 days in advance to meet Robert's dad, Ray, and his wife, Terri, there as a halfway point between MO and AL.  This was Sarah's first out of state road trip, and I was a bit nervous, but I shouldn't have been because she did such a great job! 

On Friday morning we woke up at 7:00 like usual and changed Sarah's diaper and outfit, fed her, and hit the road.  We'd already packed and loaded up the SUV the night before.  Theoretically, it's only a 5 hour drive, but we knew that we could potentially have to make 2 stops making this about a 7 hour trip.  However, Sarah was awesome and only needed to stop once at her normal feeding time around 9:30.  We stopped at a gas station for 45 minutes.  I changed Sarah's diaper while Robert went to the restroom, and then he fed her while I went to the restroom.  This would have been a short 15-20 minutes stop, but you really can't put Sarah in the car seat right after eating unless you want some major spit up action, so we just held her and let her stretch out for awhile.  She started fussing when we were about 5 minutes from the hotel, so we knew we could hold out, but we ended up getting in some traffic and having a screaming baby on our hands for 20 minutes.  Hopefully she doesn't hold it against us forever.

Sleeping like it's her job

I was the entertainer while Robert drove

The hotel was really nice, and we got there just a couple of minutes before Ray and Terri.  We had a suite style room which was nice so we could each have our own space.  The weekend was fairly low key.  I think Ray and Terri got in their share of baby snuggles and ooo's and ahh's over Sarah.  This was Terri's first time to meet Sarah, and Ray hadn't seen her since she was 4 or 5 days old.  We ate Corky's BBQ, and it was delicious!  Sarah did well in the restaurant, and a 3 year old girl next to us kept sneaking peaks and commenting on how cute she is!  After dinner we got ice cream at Baskin Robbins and I had the pleasure of getting peed on for the first time.  Baskin Robbins didn't seem to have a public restroom, so I went out to the SUV and changed her.  Fun times! ;)  

Sarah slept very well that night.  She hadn't ever had a full night in a pack n play before so I was a little unsure, but she just did her normal 3:00am wake up.  We enjoyed breakfast and lunch together and hit the road.  Sarah did just as well on the way home, only having to stop once.  We felt bad that she'd been in her car seat all day, so when we got home we took her for a walk in the Becco baby carrier.  Apparently the travel really took it out of her, because on Sunday morning she slept until 9:15!!!  She's such a teenager.  I'm so pleased with how this trip went, and it gave us hope for our upcoming road trips to KS and PA!

This girl is all set with her burp cloth, pacifier, and fox

We made it home!

Riding in the back with Sarah reminded me of all the time my mom spent entertaining me, specifically playing Barbies, in the back of our yellow Chevy Cavalier station wagon.  I hope Sarah loves Barbies as much as I did, because I'm definitely up for some serious doll time!