Road Trips With a Baby

-

I'd Rather Drive


It's no secret that I love road trips. I bought my car in 2007 as a graduation gift to myself. It had 21 miles on it, 7 years and 140K miles later, it's still going strong. We've driven my little Honda from Arizona to Washington to Florida and everything in between. I'd love to do the retire and drive an RV around the country thing, but Matt isn't having any of that. We've compromised on driving around the country but in a luxury car with nights in a hotel. In any case, if the end location and the states in between are places I've never visited before, you better believe we'll be driving to get there! I'm a sucker for tourist traps, Starbucks city mugs, and making sure I visit ALL 50 STATES. I'm at 31 so far, and this move to the East Coast will definitely help me knock out a bunch more. 

ANYWAY, this blog is about my Jellybean, so the point is, at just 5 months old, he's already been on several road trips! Between driving from Texas to Virginia, a trip to Pittsburgh, another one to Philly, and the weekends up in D.C., my little man is going to be quite the little traveler. We're looking into a trip to Ohio this fall, a road trip up to New England  next fall, and a trip down to the Carolinas for golfing and beaching too. By the time this little one can run around, he'll have been up and down the eastern seaboard. The life of a military brat sure has its advantages! 

Pittsburgh 


Our first real family vacation/road trip was to Pittsburgh to see Matt's cousin get married. It was a short weekend, but Jellybean got to meet Dad's side of the family and he was loving all that extra attention. It's funny, when you have a kid relatives automatically beeline for the baby and you become an afterthought. That's all good with me, I want this little man to know how much everyone loves him! 

We were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful Pittsburgh is. They definitely don't call it the city of bridges for nothing, and we loved that everything was yellow. I see why Tara loves that color so much. Her wedding was at PNC Park since her and her hubby are mad Pirates fans. It was one of the coolest wedding venues we've ever been too. 
Dancing Shoes 

Exploring Pittsburgh

These two boys are so goofy

Such a great wedding! 

Yellow bridges everywhere. 


Philadelphia 


I'm a huge Civil War  history buff. Matt, well he loves his WWII history. I attribute my civil war interest to reading Gone With The Wind and then watching the movie Gettysburg in 8th grade. From then on, I was hooked. So naturally, living in a part of the country that is so rich with Civil War and Revolutionary War history, I'm going to be dragging Matt around to various battlefields and historical points of interest. Let's just say he's not really excited. But, as military members, I think it's only fitting that we honor those that came before us and honor the history of the country we're willing to go to war for. When a four day weekend opened up for us, I eagerly went to work planning a little family road trip. 

First stop, Gettysburg. Second stop, Philly. We were really pleased with the small town of Gettysburg and the different battlefields we could explore. The tributes placed around the town commemorating the turning point in the war were remarkable and I loved seeing how much this small town embraced it's big role in American history. Unfortunately, Matt's allergies were acting up big time that day. We had to limit our outdoor time, but that hubby of mine was a good sport since he knew how excited I was to see the battlefields/museum. 

Continuing on with our celebration in American history, we went to Philly. I dragged my little family around that city to visit the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and all other landmarks that paid tribute to our country's first capitol. I will admit that on the list of cities we've visited, Philly doesn't rank very high. Perhaps if the art district hadn't been closed down for a huge music festival, we may have enjoyed it more. I just don't see us going back to check it out though. 

On our way back to D.C., we stopped by New Jersey to visit Stu, an old friend from college, and his very pregnant wife Brittany. Being new parents and seeing new ones about to emerge, all we talked about were babies. It was definitely very different from the conversations Stu and I would have in college! 
Highlights from Philly. 

The first Husky game of the season was that weekend so we dressed appropriately! 

Highlights from Gettysburg. 
Stu and I went to UW together and spent way too many hours studying for our weather degrees.
He's now a new daddy to a sweet little girl! 

Road Tripping with a Baby 


Overall, going on a road trip with Jellybean is relatively painless. He'll have his occasional crying fit, but the kiddo loves riding in the car and will fall asleep if he has a clean diaper and full belly. Grateful that my little man is happy in the car, because we are a driving family and he fits in just fine.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Very Sick Holiday

-
Image
I've been meaning to write this post for a minute or two but kept getting distracted with...life. It's funny- you want to write about life events but more life events happen to prevent you from playing catch up! The holiday season of 2017 was a rough one for the Moran family. It was rough. Seriously rough. Matt's parents came by for Thanksgiving and left with the flu that turned into pneumonia. So that already had me on edge. We live in a small house and it's cramped for our family of 5, add two more adults and it's basically impossible to have any personal space. My children go to daycare, and that place is horrible for sickness. They do what they can with the handwashing, sanitizing, and requiring immunizations but they can't catch every moment a kid touches their mouth then touches a toy. And the rules don't require that kids with runny noses or colds stay out because, well, then they wouldn't have a business right? So the series of events that lead
Read more

Losing the baby weight

-
Image
The lose weight this year resolution might be the most cliché one of all right? Am I really going to be THAT person? #sorrynotsorry ya'll but I am. I had Henry in September and got down to my pre-Henry weight in less than 3 months which was totally awesome. Woohooo, go me! I lost 15lbs in October, 10lbs in November, and 5lbs in December. UGH WHHHHYYYYYYYYYY. Sure, the Holidays probably had something to do with, and also going back to work and not having as much time to go to the gym during the day, and possibly the shorter days meaning less walks/runs because we leave the house for work and it's dark and we get home after work and it's dark. The excuses can go on for days. I could work out more when the kids go to sleep but that would mean that Henry cooperates and goes to sleep when the older two do. And that also would mean that I don't fall asleep with Henry because that's what happens 75% of the time. Unless I have homework to do, in which case, I make Matt wak
Read more

The Same Ole Problem

-
Image
Working Mom Problems  Last night Jellybean woke up crying in his Pack N Play. Naturally, I went to pick him up and was alarmed when his skin felt too warm for comfort. I grabbed his ear thermometer and the panic quickly set over me when his temperature read at 100.7 degrees. Granted, that's not something to be too worried about for a 6 month old. It's just a mild fever right? Except the present scares with babies getting sick all over the country jumped to the forefront of my mind. The new fears that have come into my life since having Jellybean are paralyzing and I struggle with them everyday. Seeing my little one's temperature rise doesn't make that any easier.  That sleepless night, I meticulously watched over him and took his temperature every few hours. In the morning, his temperature dropped to 99 degrees. I had a pretty important planning exercise meeting at work in the afternoon, but figured a morning in bed with mama and then the daycare later in the day
Read more