Wednesday, October 14, 2009

On the road again...and again...and again...

Carter has been quite the travelin' man lately, or should I say has been dragged along and forced to sit in the car for hours on end to endure long weekends away from home with his mommy...ohh its not that bad! This really has been the most jam-packed few weeks we've had in a while and being able to relax the past few days has been HEAVENLY...for me at least!

Two weekends ago Carter took the 2 hour long trip just south of us to go visit his Aunt Megan. When I say 2 hours, what I really mean is 2 hours just to get moving and 2 hours there. As luck may have it, my car ((ahem...the husband's old work van)) was really in the mood to mess with me that day...not only did it run out of gas not 5 ft from a gas station but it REFUSED to go over 35 mph on the highway when driving over bumps...seriously...what highway does not have bumps?! So there I was, speeding along at an astonishing 35 mph, in a little mini van, equipped with an unusually large ladder rack, for a good hour or so until I finally had the common sense to take a "less rocky" path. Needless to say we pretty much flew the rest of the way there! This was my first trip alone with Carter and I was apprehensive to take such a long car ride with him but he was wonderful the whole way...cheerfully yelling "Dada Car!!!" at every semi...should I be more concerned that he thinks his dad is a truck driver? or that he thinks the truck driver is his dad? ....that's a whole other post ;)

Our bad luck pretty much set the tone for our visit with Aunt Megan, and all the plans we had made for our visit quickly came to a halt when the roaring winds and unusually cold weather set in....but that didn't stop Carter from having fun...

he traveled deep into the frozen depths of the refrigerator.......he scavenged the cupboards for food...ya know because I starve him...


...and he even taught me a little bit about parenting...

All in all it was a much needed, low key visit...and we ALWAYS have fun with Aunt Megan...Oh and he even got to meet Elmo when we got back...(we may have been more excited than him...)

But I'm not done there and if you're still reading this you either have less of a life than I do or I really am that interesting...let's go with the latter... :)

So...this past weekend we all piled in the car...at 9 at night...and drove for 5 hours to a little cabin nestled in the woods for a nice little family vacation. Oh, but nothing is that easy for us...our 5 hour trip quickly turned into and 8 hour extravaganza as my sleepy husband downed can after can of monster energy drinks only to stop every hour to pee, and ya know stretch his legs, smoke a cigarette (ugh), and "re-energize"...why didn't we leave earlier you ask? Yeah...I found myself asking that question the whole way there. The real reason we left so late was because we wanted Carter to sleep the whole ride up, unfortunately Joe got off later than expected and Carter thought it was time to party...so he danced and clapped and "talked" our ears off the whole way there! We arrived at 5 am...got settled and Carter to sleep by 6 am...and were awake by 8 am. Ahhh now thats relaxation!

By the time we got moving it was at a really awkward time between breakfast and lunch...so we drove and found an Applebee's...yeah real original of us...and had lunch...right as they opened. It was actually pretty cool, it was set over the water and specialized in a lot of fresh seafood, Carter enjoyed the view...

After lunch we walked down by the water, although it was extremely cold and windy, and watched the boats...

And then we took a trip to "The Farm"...which actually ended up literally being a farm and not just a clever name for a petting zoo...imagine that! Among many of the cute animals..these two were my favorite...
and this was Carter's favorite part...and he now has an unhealthy obsession with pumpkins..(as you will notice in the photos later...)

After being terrible parents and prying him away...kicking and screaming...from the pumpkins, Daddy and Carter took a little stroll


Doesn't get much cuter than this!

The Farm was way too much fun and we were all beat...but we couldn't pass up a playground! So we stopped for dinner right near a playground and set Carter loose!
You'd think it was winter! But it is, in fact, the middle of October...and freezing!! Isn't he just too cute? Reminiscent of A Christmas Story...all stuffed into his winter gear!! And the next day...it actually snowed!! So our...I mean my...plans for a cute little fall outfit for Carter went out the window, but how could I resist playing dress up??Ah! I could just eat him up!!!

Moving on... We went to breakfast at a place called "The Rusty Tractor" and got to eat farm fresh eggs! Carter, on the other hand, only wanted jelly...
Drawing attention from everyone around, Carter promptly began putting on a show...and his innocent act..
..later we discovered he was storing pancakes in his pockets. After breakfast, we decided to brave the cold and forge on with our plans. With a bundled up Carter in tow we walked the streets of the cute little downtown area for Pumpkin Patch fest...yet, I must add, there was not one pumpkin patch there! The cold weather didn't seem to have an effect on Carter, he was still happy and smiley...stopping only for a moment to figure out how to accomplish the task of drinking his "ba ba" with mittens on
We then went to a Cherry Orchard where Carter discovered LOTS of pumpkins...((but no cherries))...and went a little nuts...

and no....this is not a posed picture...it took both of us a an apple cider popsicle to get this kid out of the pumpkins..or whatever those are!!

That night we had a nice dinner at a cozy little restaurant where we met a man who played violin in a very well known orchestra (forgive me for not remembering the name) for 40 years! They were a very sweet and interesting couple who were also from the same area as us! And of course...Carter couldn't resist goofing off...
For our first family vacation, at least with just the 3 of us, it went surprisingly well..and we can't wait to do it again..even though now Carter refuses to take off this hat...
...and he can't pass a pumpkin without an overwhelming urge to sit on it...
...i think this weekend was definitely a success :)