It’s been almost 3 weeks since we left South Lake Tahoe, and it feels like a positive whirlwind of visits here in New England (and the obligatory doctor and dentist appointments).
We drove from South Lake Tahoe to our friends Lisa and Sean’s home in Davis, CA on June 29th, and they have been gracious enough to keep our car for the past several weeks. After spending just one evening with them (grilling out and drinking some of their delicious wine), we hopped our jet plane across the country and left about half of our stuff behind. Figuring out the packing regarding east coast vs. west coast stuff was a new wrinkle to our “packing up” process this round.
While our Pumpkin has been quite the valiant road traveler for the past 9 months, this was her first “cross-country” 5+ hour plane flight. She was rockin’ it out through the airport, sporting her sun hat and sunglasses, and everyone was saying that she looked like a movie star trying to go incognito. No question this gal is developing her own sense of style.
But, most important to these two traveling parents… while she didn’t nap at all (shock!)… she also didn’t cry. *Whew* We really have hit the goldmine with our little girl. I’m not saying she doesn’t cry… but (provided she’s had enough sleep) she’s so beautifully resilient. I do think there are a few things that we did to prepare for this trip that helped.
For those who might want to start traveling more with your toddler:
- On the days leading up to your trip, prioritize kids’ bedtime and naps (and yours as much as possible ;).) Sleep is the best way to be less emotional and overwhelmed for everyone!
- Small set of highly packable and non-messy toys (water wows, coloring book & crayons, felt pieces) – Pumpkin spent easily an hour or more just taking some of the felt pieces we had in a ziplock bag out of the bag and putting them into our empty plastic drinking cups on the plane.
- An iPad pre-loaded with both short and longer videos – She watched Mary Poppins quite happily (while playing with the aforementioned cups) for almost 2 hours, and we occasionally let her watch a 10-minute Winnie the Pooh episode if we really just need her to calm down and hold still for a few minutes. (No Judgment!… sometimes you “do what you gotta do” to get through crazy travel days.)
- Snacks & sippy cup – always! And we packed her Bentgo lunch box full of some favorite things which was a fun meal on the plane.
- Pack your kids clothes in a small, zippered tote bag and buy a car seat bag – Car seats fly free on every airline, and I just tossed her tote bag of clothes into the seat and put the whole thing in the car seat bag. Saved us an additional $30/flight of checked luggage fees and left more room in our own bags.
It was a long, travel day starting at 7am on the west coast and not arriving at our final destination until after 1am on the east coast (15+ total travel hours), but it went reasonably smoothly the whole way.
Fun Family Time
We spent the first day with Brian’s family having a fun summer grill out and playing in the backyard with Memere & Pop Pop’s new swing set. Mostly it was just nice to enjoy to chill time with family catching up on life, stories, and watching the two toddler cousins play together and figure each other out
Then, we were so grateful to be able to borrow my mother-in-law’s car for our 2 weeks in Massachusetts, so we drove up to Salem, our home and beloved stomping grounds. We spent July 4th with my parents, who were delighted to get a chance to play with our Pumpkin for a whole day. We had a lunch picnic at Lynch Park in Beverly, relaxed at their home during nap time and chatted, then went to Salem and listened to the orchestra concert on Derby Wharf with a great music lineup including show tunes, Disney songs, pop music, and some classical classics (Aaron Copland’s Hoe Down and the 1812 Overture).
We decided to take the risk and let Pumpkin stay up late to see her first fireworks, and truly no regrets. She LOVED it! “Fireworks, boom!” She’s been talking about them almost every day since then.
We rather paid for it the next day with a few more meltdowns than usual… but *shrug* you make your choices and live with the consequences. No regrets.
New England Summer
I truly love those perfect New England summer days, and we got several of them during our 2 weeks in Massachusetts. I was able to spend one of them up in Rockport, MA getting some work done while Pumpkin spent time with her old nanny at the Peabody Essex Museum having a BLAST! The temperature that day was almost perfect by the ocean, and I snapped a bunch of nice photos of picturesque Bearskin Neck.
We also enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in Essex, MA taking a river cruise with my parents and having dinner on the riverfront. I had never taken the Essex river cruise, but it was a lovely tour including some of the local history, pointing out wildlife along the way, and just enjoying the estuary sights.
However, I think my favorite day was spent with our Massachusetts MomTribe friends at Endicott Park for our “Toddlers Turn Two” birthday party. This MomTribe met through the local hospital mom’s group because we all had our babies within a few months of each other. Particularly during my first year of motherhood (and even more so during my emergency gall bladder surgery and the 3 months of recovery that followed last year)… these women were there for us in ways that I can never repay or be adequately grateful for. Seeing them all again for such a fun, playful, joyous day… and even more watching how much their LO’s have grown in both size and personality was a real delight!
Meeting at Endicott Park was someone else’s moment of brilliance because what could be more thrilling for a pack of nine 2-year-olds (and some older/younger siblings) than having a playground, snacks, cupcakes, and farm animals to enjoy on a beautiful summer day.
Add in some lovely afternoon happy hours together just me, Brian, & Pumpkin at a few of our favorite Salem breweries (Notch & Far From the Tree), and several trips to Melt which is still my current favorite ice cream anywhere. Makes for an awesome summer trip home.
As I write this we’re back in CT wrapping up our last few days of family time before we hop our jet plan back to the west coast for our road trip from California to Tacoma, Washington. So, I’ll look forward to sharing those stories with you in our next course update. Truly, as wonderful as it’s been to see everyone, if very briefly on this trip, I’m very excited about getting back to our travels and exploring the Pacific coast from San Francisco to Seattle (and beyond) in this next few months.
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