A Very Happy 4th of July Weekend

We took our first long road trip with Tazzy to Tahoe this weekend and so far it's been the best family trip ever. I wrote about our most recent trouble while traveling to LA so now I want to share my good experience since I was a bit anxious about how Tazzy was going to handle the long drive and sleeping away from home.

The car drive up and back turned out to be smooth sailing. Not only did we luckily miss traffic, but we decided to leave the city around Tazzy's bedtime and so she slept the entire 3.5 hour drive. Phew!

The entire family got to sleep in! We realized that the busy street traffic that Tazzy's bedroom faces wakes her up early every morning and similar to what Nathalee discovered (about Nic sleeping in later with black out curtains), Tazzy does much better in a dark room. Just part of city living.. and that makes for another post. 

Anyway, we enjoyed the fresh mountain -- taking long walks, boat rides on the lake, and Josh and I got to enjoy some time with the adults. It was such a nice getaway and a great time to reconnect as a family. I can't wait to take our next family vacation. Some take aways from my trip.

- Hire a babysitter. Find a local babysitting service like We Care 4 Kidz for at least one night so that you can enjoy some adult time. Josh and I went out to dinner with our friends and had a blast.

- Understand what's available to you. For example, we didn't need to bring a pack'n play or toys because our friends that we stayed with had this stuff. The lighter you can pack, the better. 

- Try to keep your baby's nap routine but allow time for adventure! For the most part we planned activities around Tazzy's naps but on one day we planned ahead for being out all day. For us this is important because Tazzy is just a happier baby when rested so she was literally the happiest baby on the block, which makes Mommy and Daddy happy parents.  

- Beware of the sun. Be sure to check out Jennifer's latest post on sunscreen here. We made sure that Tazzy was always wearing a hat in the sun to shade her face, applied lots of sunscreen and tried to keep her hydrated. 

- Again, I agree with Nathalee on the spare bedroom but if you don't have one, try using the bathroom. We set set up our pack'n play along with a baby monitor and sound machine and Tazzy has never slept better. No kidding, two out of the three days we had to wake her at 8am! Too bad I am so used to waking up at 6:30 that I couldn't sleep in. :)