Category Archives: Travel

Familia

After a rough January, I decided I needed to see some family, and since I haven’t seen my mom or sister since Enzo’s birth, it seemed like a good idea to visit one of them… so both my mom and I flew to Colorado Springs to stay with my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew.  As a bonus, my brother and his wife drove up from Durango.

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Enzo was super excited to meet his cousins, and he and Dustin were immediately smitten and buddies.  Aubrey warmed up pretty quickly to Enzo and they all got along pretty well considering the age differences.  It was funny to see Aubrey treat Enzo like one of her baby dolls and Dustin was like a big brother showing him all kinds of fun stuff.

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Because of the nice weather (I miss Colorado weather and warm winter days) we were able to go to the zoo.  You can tell how excited Enzo is about his first trip to the zoo. :p

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I think he had fun and he’d look curiously at a lot of the animals, like the giraffes.  I think he was also just busy taking in all of the people as well.  It was fun, though, and we got to see a baby giraffe as well as a baby gorilla!  So cute!

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Their tiger exhibit was also really neat – she was really close to the fence at one point and came right up to see everyone. So close that people had to move because she was… er… spraying everything.  A lady she’s not.

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As for the flight getting there… it wasn’t nearly as bad as I though it would be even though we were one of the last to board because we arrived a bit later then we meant to.  Enzo was a little squirmy and then dozed off for the entire flight.  The flight back?  That was a different story.  The wee man is teething and refused to nap… if you ever want to know what it’s like to fly with The Hulk in baby form, this was pretty close.  Would it have been different had Josh been there?  Maybe not, but it might have been easier to handle with two.

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Maybe the little man was just sad to have left his buddies behind, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s a pretty social kiddo, and considering how much he likes his friends at day care, it’s no wonder he was thrilled to have friends to play with that he didn’t have to leave at the end of the day.

We’re getting a little back on schedule now, though teething is still making him a little cranky and he isn’t napping much. Plus, he may have gotten used to sharing a room with me as ever since we’ve come home he’s woken up in the middle of the night and not wanted to go to sleep… until we bring him to bed with us and he almost immediately passed out.  Yeah, probably not a good habit to get into, but… it’s only temporary? :p

Traveling with a baby and turning 30…

Coming back from vacation is never easy.  Enzo, however, did great on his first real trip, and we couldn’t be happier about that.  Granted, I think a week of vacation is probably all the little man can handle before his schedule gets messed up and he gets cranky.  We’re struggling a little bit getting him back into his routine, but it was well worth it, and I’m sure things will be back to normal soon.

We’ve definitely learned a few things when it comes to travel, like Enzo does best with morning flights rather than late flights.  I could see the worried faces of our fellow travelers when we showed up with our multiple bags and baby, and I admit it made me nervous, and it also made me irritated when Enzo would smile at people and they only frowned back at him.  If a baby smiles at you – smile back!  Sheesh.  Anyhoo, the first flight he made friends with another passenger in our row and handled takeoff fantastically and then proceeded to nap.  When we landed, despite having way too many gate check bags and carry on bags, Enzo sat in his sling hanging off of me like a monkey and was great.  We got on the next plane where he proceeded to fall asleep and didn’t wake up until we arrived in Durango.

We had a wonderful time hanging out with family and getting to see a few friends and, of course,the colors changing.

We drove up to Silverton, which is actually really not stroller friendly… don’t take one as it’s worthless and more pain than it’s worth.  Enzo, however, isn’t always a fan of carriers so we make do.

Now, we often get stopped so people can see Enzo, but I can’t even tell you how many people pointed at him and wanted to see his smile as soon as we put the hat on and carried him around.  This boy is a people magnet. :p

He does have his limits, though, and decided we would not be taking pictures in front of the train.

The trip was short, but long overdue.  Two years?  Ridiculous! A week, and even an hour time change can be a lot for a little boy, though.  Our flight home also had a rough start with a delay of at least half an hour – I think it was more.  While waiting in line, Enzo had a massive blowout and I had minimal wipes on me, and the bathroom was out of paper towels, of course.  We managed, but all I had in his diaper bag were jammies I was going to put him in later, so he proceeded to get overheated and cranky while we waited and waited and then went through security and then I was finally able to change him into something cooler from the carry on. At this point he was hungry and it was past time for his bottle, but patiently he waited.  It’s a miracle we even made our next flight – they held it for us and a couple other people who luckily didn’t have a baby and a ton of stuff to drag with them.  They almost lost our car seat, but surprisingly did not.  Enzo slept on the flight from Denver to Minneapolis, but did NOT wake up happy.  There was a lot of crying as I tried to comfort him as best as I could, but he was not happy and was tired and hungry.  As soon as we got off the plane he perked up, and decided it was not time to sleep despite it being 11:00 pm.  Now we’ve just been trying to get him back on schedule, which has been hard. The past two nights we’ve had a little trouble settling him down despite the fact that he’s obviously tired.  Tonight instead of eating he just wanted to jump… and jump, and jump.

Oh how I love the little stinker.

Oh yeah, and I’m 30 now, which is… odd in a way.  I don’t feel like I’m thirty years old, yet in so many ways I’ve definitely grown up and changed in the past however many years.  Who knew life could be so crazy and wonderful despite the ups and downs and in-between.  I think I can safely say my greatest accomplishment so far is my Enzo. Cliche, perhaps, but so very true.  I haven’t done a lot with myself, and may have had great plans at one point, but for now I’ll consider life a success if I can manage to be a good mom and make sure that our kids grow up to be kind and generous and look back with fondness at the time we’ve spent together.

Two Weeks!

Exactly two weeks until we hit the road… er skies!  Words cannot express how excited I am, though, I can already tell it’s going to be a completely different experience traveling with a baby.  I’m not surprised, but once you really start thinking about everything you need to take plus the things that would be helpful to bring… maybe we should get a pack mule for the airport. :p

Thankfully, we won’t have to worry about the cats as Matt has once again kindly agreed to watch them while we’re away, and we’ve had no messes for a week now, so hooray!  Let’s see if Ziggy can keep it up through our trip.

Seriously, though… sooooo excited.  Was that enough o’s?  Getting out of town in general will be nice, but seeing family and friends is definitely what I’m most looking forward to. I realized that it’s been two years since we’ve been back to Colorado.  How can two years have passed? Where the heck is time flying to?  On that note… how can I possibly turning 30 at the end of the month?  Kind of mind boggling.  So, happy I can call myself a mom, though. If I had a “bucket list” it’s the one thing I would have wanted to cross off before turning thirty.