Family Vacation! Part 1

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Mommy.
Daddy.
Baby.
Way more luggage than necessary.
Those are the ingredients to our first vacation as a family of three! I was so excited for this day. The day that we got to take a family vacation. Sure Seth and I had been on lots of vacations together, but I wouldn't call it a family vacation, per se.
I'd been looking forward to this day for what felt like forever, but was really only a couple months. Our first family vacation, our trip to New Mexico to see my friend Tara, her husband Jonathan, and their son, Declan. Declan was born in January 2012 and Seth and I (and now Mason) had still never met him! We were originally planning our trip in September 2012 (when I was still on maternity leave - I viewed it as free time off lol) but things didn't end up working out. So March 23, 2013 ended up being the big day! We debated flying vs driving and decided we would rather drive because 1. we could stop in Arizona and see Seth's cousins and 2. it would probably be cheaper then getting plane tickets and then renting a car.
So March 23rd we were off! We wanted to leave super early around 5am or 6am so hopefully Mason would sleep in the car for a bit. We ended up leaving around 6:40am after last minute packing and loading the car. The drive was really nice and there was only a little bit of traffic.

We pulled off to go through a drive-thru to get some breakfast and coffee about an hour in but pretty much drove as far as we could before we needed to take a potty break.




Mason had been doing AMAZING up to this point but I thought he might be getting hungry by now so I sat in the back for a bit and fed him. Seth had planned out our trip to find gas stations and how far he could drive on each tank of gas and we were doing great except one thing... he got gas the day before and didn't account for the driving he did after he got gas. So... we get back on the road after our pit stop and at some point the gas light comes on. Seth doesn't tell me but later calmly says... can you look up to see where the nearest gas station is? I look on our gas buddy app and nothing shows up. There is pretty much nothing for miles. Not good. So he calculates that we could probably turn around and get back to where we came from... but we have to wait for an exit...which I see none of. So we drive and drive and come up on an exit... we've probably driven 15 miles and I'm afraid to drive back to where we came from. I tell him to just keep going... all the while I am crossing my fingers, toes, arms, legs, anything that can cross that we don't run out of gas.
We FINALLY (after what felt like F.O.R.E.V.E.R.) come up to a gas station. We didn't run out of gas!!!!!!! I could not be happier. We fill up the tank and it fills... 19.5 gallons.
19.5 gallons?
Seth told me his truck had a 18 gallon tank so now I'm really confused. I tried to look it up and I think it's 21 gallons but it must be some reserve to a reserve to reserve or something lol. No matter what, I am just SO happy we made it there. I don't care about the math.
Now I love Seth dearly but I told him if he ever did that again... you get the picture. (I'm sorry Seth, I had to tell the story... I love you! Thank you for getting us to the gas station!)
After we got gas, we stopped at Subway across the street for lunch and just hung out a little and let Mason out of his car seat.
Don't worry... we were parked. We would NEVER drive like this.
Mason is always in his car seat when we drive.
We finally arrive in Scottsdale after about 5-6 hours after we left home and we are so happy to see Seth's cousins Alexis and Ricky and their 3-year old twin boys Brody and Grahm. We haven't seen them in forever and when we do, it's usually for a holiday or family event so it was nice just to spend some time with them and hang out. We hung out at their house for a while, Mason took a real nap, we got some sandwiches, and then went to see a Spring Training baseball game. Seth has been DYING to go to one, especially the Angels (though we didn't see an Angels game) so when his cousin Alexis asked me if we wanted to go, I asked him and his eyes LIT UP and he said OF COURSE!!!! So that night we went to the Colorado vs San Diego game.
And the next day, we were off to New Mexico! Stay tuned for Part 2!

DESIGNED BY ECLAIR DESIGNS