Family Matters, My Girl, My Girl 2.0

Weekend Away

There’s a reason we travel so rarely.  Actually, there are two and their names are Avelyn and Jolie.  We made the five hour drive to Vancouver this past weekend to celebrate Steve’s mom’s 60th birthday and even though the ride was almost shockingly civilized (thanks to an electronic fart machine keychain-I’m not even kidding- and our portable DVD player) the rest of the weekend was exhausting.  Don’t get me wrong, it was fun.  Just a very tiring version of fun that involved hauling around 8 tons of gear and junk for the kids and dealing with night-time wakings (by both girls) and the insane traffic of the big city that made the kids go nuts.

We had a great birthday party on Friday night and Steve’s mom was beaming:

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The next day we went to the aquarium and that was a hit.  Avelyn was filled with such wonder and excitement over all the marine life.

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Jolie was a tad tougher to impress.

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There was some movie watching, some Starbucks consumption, and some bath-time tea parties at Nana’s house.

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It was so nice to spend time with family, as a family.

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I just don’t think we’ll be road-tripping it with the kids again for a while.

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17 Comments

  • A white coat! You are a brave woman.

    I’m still amazed that my parents regularly took my brothers and myself on long (think 12 hour or more) road trips. And those were the days before fart key-chains. I think.

  • Traveling with kids = pure torture. It’s a 2 1/2 hour drive to my in-laws, and that’s the farthest we’re willing to go.

    I love that polka dot sweater of Avelyn’s!

  • I didn’t hear the phone ring.

  • Yep, portable dvd players are life-savers for long trips! And a kechain fart machine? I’m going to have to look into that.

  • Oh, man, time traveling with family, and then the time spent with said family is so precious, but I sooooo know how tiring-precious it is. You’ll never regret the efforts you make to be with family (or at least we never do), but MAN sometimes it’s so hard to rally. I mean, it’s a MAJOR energy expenditure to travel with kids.

    It looks like you had a lovely time… and our kids are usually amazing in the car too. USUALLY.

  • I LOVE your new coat. How very unwise to choose cream whilst mothering two children under three. And yet so very very lovely.
    MILF ATTACK!
    PS. Megan has that same polka dot sweater. How very alike we are in our tastes.
    See you soon!!!

  • Traveling with the kids ranks up there with sticking a fork in my eyeball…

  • We went to the aquarium (like the couple of kids we are) when we were in Vancouver and loved it. Were they doing the dolphin show while you were there?

    (I’ve been keeping up to date on your WW goals and I have to say you look lovely, babe.)

  • Oh I so feel your pain…we did the same trip this summer with our 3…to the aquarium and through all the traffic…I don’t know what we were thinking. But you look very calm and lovely!

  • koooodoooooooos!

  • I’m THRILLED you made the trip down & it made my week!

  • Your family is so cute, but all I kept thinking as I read this post was ‘what kind of insane mother wears a white coat?’
    Very stylish Amanda.

  • Just curious….to whom is Avelyn texting in the top photo?

  • wow avelyn looks just like her uncle in that 1st photo!

  • Boy – Steve sure does look like his mom! Traveling is such a mixed bag – horrible sleep and eating but such great memories!

  • I’ve tagged you in a blog game. Here are the rules:

    1. Link to the person who tagged you.
    2. Post the rules on your blog.
    3. Write six random things about yourself.
    4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
    5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
    6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

  • A five hour drive gives you lots of street cred and pushes you ever closer to super hero status. By the way you made my list of favorites this year. It’s not the Nobel Prize or anything but it should get you into fancy restaurants.

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