The Part-Time Poet: First Family Vacation--The Beginning and the Beach

We've been back from vacation a full week now and it's taken me about that long to fully recover. I have to preface this post by saying I had a great time and would go again in a heartbeat, but man...I was so not prepared for how the definition of vacation changes when you have kids.

Before kids, vacations were spontaneous, adventurous and uber-relaxing. After kids? Well...not as much. Oh...we had adventure alright. This is the only vacation that I've ever had to make a stop at the emergency room after all, but that's not exactly the kind of adventure I look for on a vacation.

Let me just start from the beginning.

We chose Galveston, Texas because it's the shortest driving distance to a beach. With a three year old, a three month old (with bassinet, bouncy chair, car seat, and all the other crap a baby needs) and a tight budget, it seemed that driving was going to be our best bet. Now...I've been known to say "If it's longer than a four-hour drive, put me on a plane!" so you can imagine how thrilled I was to be driving 13+ hours with two children in tow. But we planned to start the drive around bedtime to get the longest stretch out of the way while both of them slept. And the plan worked fabulously until we had to slam on the brakes and a bag flew out of the back and hit Bennett at 4 a.m. After Ryan and I completely lost our shit (him because he'd packed the car, and me because I was driving), we realized Bennett was completely fine. He had the tiniest bit of a bloody nose, but we went to the ER anyway, because we're those people. Better safe than sorry, right? The good news about the Atoka, Oklahoma ER at 4 a.m.? No waiting! Bennett, of course, smiled and cooed and completely charmed the doctors and nurses who confirmed that yes, he was perfectly fine. Perhaps I can send a video to the insurance company so he can charm our way out of part of the bill, which I'm sure will be a small fortune.

Even with that little nightmare of a detour, we only ended up arriving in Galveston about 2 hours later than we'd predicted. We met up with my mom and stepdad who joined us for the week and pretty much ensured I'll never go on another family vacation again without the Grandparents in tow. They were such a great help with the boys, and Ryan and I even got to have a movie date on vacation!

As soon as we arrived, Gavin wanted to head straight to the beach. We'd been talking about going to the beach on vacation for so long that I think he'd just had enough waiting. We were here now. Let's go to the beach! We headed straight there, and watching him look out into the vastness of the ocean for the first time was one of the highlights of the trip. He was understandably mesmerized.

So mesmerized, in fact, that the next morning, we went again, this time with suits on so we could play in the water. Unfortunately, when you're three, waves crashing into you isn't really that appealing...it might even be a little terrifying. He did get more adventurous as the week went on, though, and terrified me when I turned around in waist-high water to see him wading in after me with no life jacket on.

Though the Galveston beach isn't the prettiest I've seen (sandy water and seaweed galore), Gavin could have cared less, which made the rest of us appreciate it that much more.