First Big Trip

So we recently took our first big trip, a 4 hour drive up north to Vermont. As much as I was looking forward to the trip I was dreading it, our daughter is the most active child I have met. We have a couple friends with girls around the same age (13 months) and they sit and play... Not Hurricane Jordyn, she goes goes goes..We made a two hour trip once and it felt like 4 hours, so I am thinking 4 will feel like 8.

My wife and I come up with a great game plan, pack everything. You name it we loaded it into the back seat, two different sippie cups, goldfish, cereal bars, wheat thins, new toys, old toys, DVD player and books. We kept it simple on the first leg since we would be making a stop at the Harpoon Brewery about two hours in. Don't worry they serve food for the kids. About 45 minutes in she starts shifting and whining a little, so we give her gold fish and pop in Little Einsteins..We were golden for an hour easily and just as she got bored with it we were rolling into Harpoon. Which if you ever stop there I recommend The Vermonter sandwich and Red Squared Leviathan, it's a little heavier in content but goes down smooth.

For the second leg we went straight to Finding Nemo which she loved and put her to sleep for the last couple hours. She seem to like the bright colors even though there was not much music it held her interest till she feel a sleep. I am guessing she was quite tired because even the back dirt roads of VT didn't really wake her up.

My next worry was sleeping at night, she just started sleeping through the night at home and now in a new surrounding with 15 other people 10 of which were sleeping in the same cabin and our camp fire outside her window, I am thinking no chance this kid goes to sleep before midnight. Her normal bedtime is 7 so if we went till 9 not a big deal. It was really only the first night I was worried about because we had to be up early the next day to climb Mt.Washington.

We put her down around 9 and not a peep all night, we got up around 6 and I think she would have slept longer if we didn't make so much noise getting ready. The second night she got up once in the middle of the night, but I think it was due more to a night light issue rather than actually getting up. Third night she slept through till about 7 and then slept in bed with us till about 9. One thing with our daughter is she got tired of her pack n play, she would not sleep in it even at home. So we went out and bought a portable crib, while not as portable as the Pack N Play it does fold nice and she has slept great in it. Well worth the money.

All in all, I worried much to do about nothing, she was good the entire trip and a lot of our friends commented on how great she was. She looks pretty happy in the picture right?  I still stick with "Hope for the best, expect the worse".. We are going to the Outer Banks in N.C next month for a week so I am already worrying about that...