Vacation With A Toddler

Princess has blown me away these past two weeks.  We had the "pleasure" of driving from Colorado down to Austin, Texas.  I thought the car ride was going to be complete hell, as Princess does NOT like to be cooped up in the same spot for long periods of time.   She's full of energy and is at her best when she can run and skip and jump around all over the place!

I planned our trip out thoroughly, including buying a travelng dvd player so that I could bring all of our disney movies with us for another form of entertainment.  I planned rest stops and breaks by the length of each dvd.  When a movie would end, we would pull over and either get a snack, a potty break, or just get out and stretch our legs.  It worked miracles at keeping her happy!

She would only fuss as we got to the end of the day of driving, and then a bit again in the morning when we would have to climb back in the car.  I broke the trip into three days to get down to Austin.  We stayed at a hotel the first night in Amarillo, a good friends house the second night in Floydada, and then a hotel again the third night, and arrived at my mother in laws in the morning on the fourth day.  We spent a few days sight seeing around Austin, and then my father in law drove us to Lousiana to meet the rest of my husband's family.  (Another 6 hour trip, I thought Princess was going to lose her mind!)  We stayed there for two days (where I met my husband's cousin, and realized we are so similar.  I wish we lived closer, because I think she and I would be fast friends).  She's due with a little boy this month, so when we got back to Austin, I picked out her baby shower gift (which I will post here once her baby shower is over!).  I will give a mini spoiler though, and say that I featured some of her products awhile back in my blog! 

Teaser picture:

We drove back to Austin, and have been here again for the past three days.  My father in law bought Megan the coolest toddler pool in the world, and we've spent the past two days playing in it.  Megan even learned how to say "pool"!  Sadly, we have to start heading back home today.  My kitties have got to be missing us terribly.  It will have been almost two weeks that we've been away by the time that we get back. 

We're planning on staying in a hotel in Abilene tonight, getting to my friends again tomorrow in the very early afternoon, then staying with them until Friday morning, and leaving out to head home.  I'm going to drive the whole way in one shot, because I want to sleep in my own bed!

Overall, traveling with a toddler (at least with my precious toddler!)  has been mostly a breeze.  If anything, I feel terrible because I know she's bored out of her mind, but she's been a little angel in the car!