Vacation of the Western Nation

Vacation. A time where one does something enjoyable. It is generally done away from home, and usually means fun 24/7. Well...I think this description depends on who you are talking to.

Chris and I went on a 7 day excursion that included visiting and staying or briefly stopping in Reno, NV; Boise, ID; Salt lake City, UT; Herriman, UT; and Las Vegas, NV. I can honestly say that I had a really good time, but as the days went on I started to lose momentum. By the time we were in Vegas all I wanted to do was just take a very long nap.

I don't want to go into huge detail as to all the we did and whom we saw, but we did get to visit with Chris's brother, wife and our nephew Porter. The weird thing is that even though this was supposed to be a highlight of our trip we never actually took pictures of the cousins or Jeff and Amy. Why? Who knows. We just sort of accidentally didn't. Good thing they are coming to town sometime soon.

Overall, our vacation was more of an experiment than a vacation. We wanted to know how the baby (and we) would hold up on a road trip. She did very well, and we learned that we need to do most of our traveling in the morning, and that all would be well. But it is very different vacationing with a baby than without.

Here is a list of the things that we miss about traveling without a baby:
1) Both getting out at a gas station and peeing
2) Both getting out a a gas station just to stretch your legs inside the food mart (baby always seemed to be sleeping during these stops)
2) Staying out as late as you want
3) Gambling in Vegas (just seems kind of trashy to gamble with your baby on your lap)
4) Traveling long distances without a care in the world
5) Visiting with friends for as long as you'd like, without interruptions
6) Basically doing ANYTHING without interruptions
7) Spontaneity

Although there was some adjustment, we learned to enjoy our time anyway. Here is a list of what is awesome about traveling with our baby:
1) She laughs and smiles at everything and everyone (even grungy old men in casinos)
2) Watching her play with other kids. Owen kept macking down on her and saying "Her cute!"
3) Just spending time with her is awesome, and Chris really got an opportunity that he doesn't normally get

So our second list might not be as long, but it's not quantity it's quality. If someone told us today that we could go on the vacation of our dreams but it would mean that we would not have had Lenore, I think I can safely say for both of us-No Deal!