TRAVEL

Whew. Traveling with a toddler is quite an experience. We've made a few trips the past few months and each required quite a bit of time in the car. If you didn't already know…toddlers aren't a fan of being strapped in a confining area for any length of time. Mine also doesn't like the sun in his eyes.

We traveled back to VA over Christmas and it was wonderful!! We had a blast spending time with family and friends. We also spent 13+ hours in the car…EACH way.

We've done this drive a number of times and I was especially dreading this one. I probably spent about as much time complaining about it as it took us to do it :) Grant is at such an active age that I thought it would be a disaster to strap him into his car seat for over 13 hours. He completely surprised me and this drive went better than I thought it would. I think it helps to keep my expectations low.

What helped? SNACKS. Grant ate his way through the better part of 6 hours in the car!  You're not allowed to judge until you've been in the car for 13 hours with a toddler who won't watch the iPad. No matter how hard I try.

3 hours in…



What else?  STOPS.  A pre-nap stop at a McDonalds playplace. Grant was thrilled!

This is such a nice sight when on a road trip :)

Gas stations.  Everything is more exciting when you're 1 1/2.

The way home was good as well but not quite as pleasant as the ride down, plus a bit more cramped.   I spent the majority of the ride wedged in the back between the car seat and Christmas gifts. Doesn't it look comfy?

Sweet boy…He's surprisingly tolerant of all we put him through.


Car laughs from Chelsea Tedder on Vimeo.

Our next trip was back to VA again…this time with Aunt Meg instead of Matt to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. I was so confident this trip was going to go well. I should have learned that keeping the expectations low is key.

Our plan was to fly from VT to Washington, DC then drive the 3.5 hours to Lynchburg. We weren't checking bags which meant our mountain of carry ons plus car seat had to move with us the whole time.  Rookie mistake.

Our 6am flight was delayed for over 3 hours due to frozen pipe issues (oh Vermont…how I love you).  Have I mentioned before that January was really cold?

Grant was excited to look at the trucks and planes…for all of 30 minutes.

3 flights out that morning were delayed, which made for a chaotic cluster at the ticket counter. Sigh.

Eventually everyone cleared out except for us. And of course our stuff.

We tried to get creative.

It failed. I can't remember if this was taken after his hand got stuck in the purell dispenser or before.

There are no pics to capture me carrying an overtired, screaming Grant through Reagan airport to the rental car (via escalator, busy arrival traffic, and shuttle bus) in a football hold. There are no pics to capture the tears on the drive back up to DC because Meg was too busy holding up her scarf for 2 hours in an attempt to keep the sun out of Grant's eyes.

I did get this one on the flight home.  He's not sleeping.



On another note, our time in Lynchburg was amazing. My dad was so surprised and excited that it was well worth it :) More on that later...



OK. Our 3rd trip was short in comparison. 3.5 hours up to Mont Tremblant (Canada) in the car was a piece of cake compared to the other 2. We're learning.

No travel pics but a sneak peek of the fun :)

I'm not unrealistic.  I know travel is SO hard for little ones and we put a lot of demands on Grant the past few weeks!  I don't blame him a bit and think he did pretty well considering all we asked of him.  I'm just glad he gets to hang at home for a while :)