Our Vacation -- Day 1....

If you read my previous post, you'll know that we just returned from a vacation to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. We met our friends, Tammy & Reynold, and their two boys up there. They had driven down from Winnipeg, Manitboba, to meet us there.

We left on Wednesday, the 18th, after Marc got home from work. That first evening, we just drove from home to Kansas City....we wanted to break up the drive a bit from here to Minnesota since we were traveling with a 2 year-old...Though Luke, overall, did VERY WELL in the car, we're glad we split the drive up.

I spent most of the day doing final packing and such....Luke quickly learned how to pull luggage....A task we definitely want him to learn (though right now, he's not quite ready to do it all on his own)....



**And, just to give you fair warning -- the first two days were NOT the exciting part of our vacation, but I feel like they should be documented -- at least for us.

Soooooo, we headed out. Since supper time was quickly approaching, we didn't get far before we stopped along the highway (at a designated little "park" area) to eat. I had packed supper to take along. All was fine and dandy except we quickly had the first tears of the trip (it didn't take long, of course) after Luke had fallen between a picnic table and a park shelter post. Yes, he was fine...But, some much needed "Mommy Time" did make it all better.



From that point on, we didn't stop again before reaching Kansas City. I had packed some "new" things for Luke for this trip.

Pipe cleaners....





Honestly, the pipe cleaners didn't entertain Luke very long. But, I'll save the remainder because someday, he might just be interested.

I then pulled out something Luke didn't realize we had brought along -- a borrowed DVD player for the car. S.C.O.R.E.!!!

I realize there are MANY varying degrees of opinion regarding DVD players in the car. I don't necessarily want this post to be a sounding board for those opinions, but for us, the borrowed DVD player worked out well. Somebody once told me, "Well, they're sitting in the car anyways (as opposed to running around), they might as well be watching something fun and/or educational.

(And thanks, Seth and Sarah, for letting us borrow your DVD player(s))....

Anyways, Luke really enjoyed watching Elmo in Grouchland as well as I Love Big Trains all the way up and all the way back from Minnesota (with a few small breaks from the DVD player).





Thanks to my pickiness and insistence (is that a word?), we stayed in a "suite" instead of a regular hotel room. That way, we were not sleeping in the same room as Luke. That was the BEST THING we could have done. Luke moves around a lot in his sleep (therefore -- he is loud). For me at least, it's hard to sleep in the same room as him. Also, he could go to bed and we could be up with the TV on, etc....Plus, if you do a little research, you can find a suite for the same price as a moderately-priced hotel.

So, for the first night in Kansas City, we stayed in an Embassy Suites.

Luke enjoyed the new "exploring territory."







And again....Our "bedroom"



SEPARATE from Luke's Pack 'n Play....



And, that was our "exciting" first day (I promise -- it gets better)....I am happy to report that Luke slept very well....No getting up in the middle of the night for these two happy parents :)

Stay tuned for the more exciting parts of our vacation....