The Thomas Family: First Family Vacation

Last weekend we ventured out on our first family vacation. Yes, it was only for the weekend. But that was enough.

A friend of mine was getting married in Dallas and I thought that would be the perfect little weekend getaway for us. Only three hours from home? Well, Little Pirate goes four hours between feedings, so I'm sure that'll be super easy! Only one full day and two nights? Sure, no problem! Hanging out in Dallas for the weekend? Awesome, we can do a lot of fun stuff!

I was wrong. Oh, so wrong.

Let's start with the fact that I woke up Friday morning (the day we left) feeling like crap. Headache, cough, congestion, runny nose. It wasn't pretty and it lasted all weekend.

We hit Dallas just in time for 5:00 traffic on a Friday night. And Little Pirate was completely done with being in the car seat at that point. He cried/screamed/wailed the entire last hour of the trip.

Once we finally arrived in town, our plans for the evening were to walk around Grapevine Mills Mall and have dinner there. We hit up the Rainforest Cafe for dinner first. I thought Little Pirate would love seeing all the different animals there. Nope, wrong again. I'd never been there before and didn't realize how incredibly loud and noisy it is. How is any child not terrified of that place?? Little Pirate was fussy the entire time. We then attempted to walk around the mall for a little bit, but that didn't last long with an overtired, overstimulated baby. We quickly headed back to the hotel exhausted.

On Saturday morning we met up with a local Chelsea FC fan club to watch the game with them. We were told they meet up at a restaurant. But guess what...wrong again! They meet at a bar where there's smoking. Yes, we took our baby to a smoking bar. And for some reason he was allowed in...still haven't figured that one out. Needless to say, we did not stay there long at all.

Saturday afternoon was pretty much just spent laying around at the hotel and trying to get Little Pirate to take a nap.

Then it was wedding time! But it was raining. Traffic was horrible. We were late. Little Pirate was in a very good mood during the ceremony and thought it would be a good idea to blow raspberries during the vows. He then was not in such a good mood during the reception. Again, overtired and overstimulated. About 45 minutes in he choked on a snack and vomited all over me and the hubs. Yeah, we left right after that.

On our way back to the hotel the hubs got a phone call from his friend whom he's helping coach a high school soccer team. You see, in order for us to take this weekend trip to Dallas the hubs missed the teams first tournament. Which they won. In overtime with PK's. Against the team that hadn't given up a single goal in the entire tournament. Yeah, it was a great game and he missed it all. I was so sad for him. He was very nice and fine with it, but I was still sad.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel as early as we could and headed home. We were ready to end our mini-vacation.

But really, for all the things that went wrong, we still had a good time. The hubs and I had a great time on our drive there and back just hanging out and talking. We got to see some old friends and have lunch with them on our way to Dallas. Little Pirate slept all night long both nights in his pack 'n play. I was very proud of him for that. On Saturday night, after the wedding, the three of us got to swim all by ourselves in the hotel pool. Little Pirate was quiet enough with his raspberries during the wedding that just the people around us were able to hear and, thankfully, laughed. He also caught the attention of the photographer and hammed it up for a few pictures that I'm sure are adorable. We found a very yummy place to eat in Dallas called Fuzzy's Taco Shop. I got to see a wonderful friend get married at an absolutely beautiful wedding. And I'm sure I could go on.

We had a wonderfully, exhausting first family vacation. But I don't think we'll be taking another one anytime soon. Unless, of course, grandparents are on the trip as well!