Blakely's First Vacation!

So a few weeks back we went on our first vacation with the babe.  We wanted to go to a place that wasn't cold and where we could walk around with her in the stroller a bunch.  I was okay with flying but we decided to just drive since we needed to take so many things for Blakely.  pump, stroller, car seat, packn.play....

We picked New Orleans.  It is about an 8 hour drive...without a 5 month old.  I have been twice but I was a teenager when I went.  My husband has been many times.  We have been wanting to go there for a while so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  

We decided to bring my mother in law with us just so she could stay in the hotel and watch Blakely if we needed her to.  This turned out to be an AWESOME idea :)  

We drove down there on a Sunday and it took us about 9 hours...not too bad with a baby!  Blake did GREAT in the car.  I was totally prepared for her to be over the car seat after about 4 hours, but she wasn't.  My mother in law stayed in the back with her and entertained her and played with her.  They had a blast.  When we would stop, I would nurse her and change her diaper.  Then Lonnie would walk around with her while we got gas and all went to the bathroom.  Once we were done it was back in the car seat for the next 2-3 hours.  She only got fussy once and that was when we were 20 minutes away from our hotel.  But, who am I kidding, I was fussy too!

Sunday night we just got room service and let B play on the bed way past her bed time.  Since she had been in the car seat all day, she was really wanting to stretch out and play.  So we let her.  We took the pack.n.play for her to sleep in. I was a little worried about this too since she hasn't slept in it...oh, EVER!  But she did great every night.  She woke up a little earlier than normal a few mornings but I just put her in bed with us and she would go back to sleep.

Monday morning we walked all over the Fren.ch Quar.ter and then stopped at a little place and had lunch.

It was great and B slept through our lunch.  Then we walked along the river and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  

That night, all four of us went out to dinner.  We had a great time.  We took a cab so me and Lonnie got to enjoy a few adult beverages...YIPPEE!!

She got beads...

Mama got beads too ;)

This is the first time we had to take her out of her car seat at a restaurant...she did so good once we did!

On Tuesday we decided to go to the aquarium.  But first we needed lunch.  Bob (mother in law), me and B went and found a place for us to eat along the river while Lonnie stood in line to get the BEST.MUFFALETTA.EVER....  I do not kid...it was badass....and huge... 

The line to get in the aquarium was 43586 people long.  I don't know if it was like spring break in Louisiana or if it was because it was kinda rainy that day but GEEZ...everyone was there.  They opened up some new lines and we got in pretty fast.  Then all of the sudden I got totally stressed out.  It was hot in there with absolutely not air circulation.  There were a million kids and all I could hear were coughs and sneezes.  Blake was completely asleep and I started wondering why in the hell we were even there.  Why were we exposing her to all of these unnecessary germs?!?  So we left...after we paid to get in.  Lonnie wasn't all that happy about it and I'm sure Bob thought I was crazy.  I kinda thought I was crazy.  But, I just had no idea there would be so many people in there!  So we walked around some more and did a little shopping.  

 She did wear her fishies to the aquarium for 5 minutes :)

That night Lonnie and I went on a date.  Bob stayed in the room and put Blakely to bed.  We had a fantastic dinner and an even more fantastic bottle of wine.  It was so so so so nice!  We then went out on Bour.bon Street for a little bit...that was interesting :)

The next morning we went to Bren.nen's for brunch.  I ate so much I was sick...seriously.  It was so yummy I just couldn't stop eating!  We took B in the baby bjorn and not the stroller.  Bad idea.  We were there for a really long time (my only complaint) and she got sleepy.  She didn't get TOO fussy but we had to entertain her for most of the time.  

After brunch, we ran back to the hotel to get the stroller and then went shopping on Maga.zine Street.  Blakely was out before we even got out of the hotel.  

We did a ton of walking that day and were all worn out so we decided to stay in for dinner.  Lonnie went to the store and made us and awesome cheese plate, with salami, apples, 4 cheeses, almonds, and a few other things.  We enjoyed it on our balcony overlooking the Fren.ch Quar.ter.  It was a great evening in!

This was the view from our balcony.  

The next day we got our car and drove through the Garden District.  It was so beautiful...the houses, the trees, all of it!  

Then we were going to tour a cemetery but it closed at 3...we got there at 310.  Sad face...  I was looking forward to that...

Lonnie and I went out to dinner together that night as well.  I had shrimp and grits....LOVE!  

We drove home on Friday, the day before my birthday.  Blakely did great on the trip home as well!  I was so proud of her.  It was a great trip leading up to my great birthday!  B was such a good traveler and I know we will be taking her many more places.  I am already trying to decide where to next!  She spent a lot of time in her car seat and her stroller but she was just happy and looked around at everything...taking it all in.  

 I am so glad we took this last minute trip.  It was great to spend time with my little family.  It was especially great to see how well Blakely did when she was out of her normal routine.  I didn't stress about keeping her on the same schedule...I  just tried to go with the flow, we were on vacation after all.  It was also great to have 2 date nights with this handsome guy...

I am so lucky...