Travel Baby Steps

 Me: 2019 was rough. Quite possibly the most challenging year of my life.

2020: That's cute.

2021: Hold my beer. 

2022: What do you say we kick off this year with a stomach bug during a 3 day power outage? Nothing like puking your guts up by the light of a headlamp to start off the year on the right foot. 

So...yea. I know I'm not alone in saying the past few years have taken a lot out of me. In many ways it feels like I'm in a tumultuous surf and every time I come up for air I get knocked down by another wave. For awhile I just couldn't seem to get any footing or momentum. The way I describe it is, I never have a *surplus*, of time, of energy, of patience. Like I am just constantly in survival mode day-to-day and there is no calm space to plan for the future, including travel. 

Covid was a convenient excuse as well to just put it on the backburner and never leave the house.  Juliet's poop withholding also made leaving the sanctuary of our home an undesirable prospect. When my parents planned a mountain getaway in Tenessee for their 40th anniversary over New Years, Jonathan and I both felt a ton of trepidation. When we saw Covid cases and flight prices skyrocketing, those trepidations went up right along with them. But I hadn't seen my siblings or nephews in a year and I didn't want to miss out on seeing them and celebrating with my parents. So against our intuition, we boarded a flight from SFO to Nashville. 

One of our specific reservations was the fact that Juliet was now 2 and therefore required to wear a mask on the 4.5 hour flight. I'll let y'all guess how much a young 2 Juliet liked wearing masks and what her response was to 'you have to wear it.' 

Um...yea. 

So I had anxiety about this, especially as we had heard horror stories of families getting kicked off flights for toddler non compliance (I'm sorry y'all- maybe I'm on the wrong side of history for saying this but masking toddlers still seems insane to me.) . Luckily, Juliet was highly motivated to go on the plane and since I let her know that she couldn't get on the plane without her mask, she happily wore it until I could start doling out snacks. 

Our flight crew were super laid back about it and told me it's really just the boarding and deplaning where they have to enforce it but for very young kids they understand how hard it can be. Thank you! I was so relieved that this was their attitude! Juliet did better on the fight than I expected, so that part when smoothly. 

When we touched down in Nashville we had a 3 hour drive to the mountains. I wasn't able to get in touch with any of my family all day and finally got text from my brother when we were 15 minutes away saying that my mom was sick and quarantining in her room. Um...sick? During a Covid surge? In a house with 16 people? My alarm bells were going off full force! We'd been traveling all day so we proceeded with the plan to stay at the house that night. My mom ended up having a nasty stomach bug and not Covid. So...good news? 

Also, the house was a great setup for the big kids. However, Juliet is kind of a maniac in the best of circumstances. In our house we have certain 'yes spaces' where we can contain her and relax a bit but this was not the case in a 3 story house so the first day was a lot of me just chasing her up and down the stairs and keeping her away from my Mom's room. I don't think I sat down once! 

Our first day was mainly just recovering from travel and grocery shopping. My sister's fam took Forest on a little hike with them and Juliet had fun exploring outside the cabin with her 'best friend' aka 'that little boy' aka her closest-in-age cousin, Elijah. 

The next morning one of my poor nephews got hit with the stomach bug and my sister's family rightfully said- peace out! They drove home to Florida before anyone else ended up sick. We were bummed to not get more time with them. We decided to take our little family into the Smoky Mountain National Park and do a little waterfall hike. This was certainly the highlight of the trip! 

Forest had a blast rock climbing along the way and Juliet was very impressed by the powerful waterfall. Tennessee sure is beautiful! 

The next morning I woke up to a quiet house and a world blanketed in snow. 

It was a sweet and peaceful moment until I realized we had no power and therefore, no coffee. 

We had a fun morning of playing in the snow with the kids and pups, but when we didn't regain power going into nighttime the charm started to wear off! Jonathan and my uncle Jay ran into town to stock up on flashlights (and headlamps!) which was a godsend. 

Here the days start to blur together but I'm pretty sure that night I started to feel unwell. I was sleeping in the room with Juliet (since we didn't have a monitor in the no power situation) when I felt the stomach bug hit full force.  My sweet brother heard me puking in the middle of the night and brought me gatorade and dramamine. I moved to an open bedroom with a bathroom next to it (did I mention we were all sharing bathrooms? I felt awful to be spreading my germs but had no control over it). I spent a few hours puking with a headlamp on until the sun came up. When people realized I was sick they basically all packed up and ran for the hills. 

We still didn't have power (or heat..or water) and I was literally too sick to get out of bed. We still had 3 days until our flight out but everyone else could drive home. Jonathan took Juliet to a hotel but my parents and Forest stayed with me one more night while I recovered. 

After a good hard sleep that night I felt ok enough to pack up our things and head to Nashville. We'd spend the night there before heading out bright and early the next morning. I still wasn't feeling great so even though Jon picked out a great restaurant for dinner I just ate crackers and nursed a sprite. I was so ready to be home! 

The next morning it was blizzarding in Nashville and we were anxious our flight would be cancelled. 

We were actually impressed with how equipped the airport was to de-ice the planes and since our plane was already there and our flight crew didn't have covid- we took off pretty much on time. And got home *just* in time as Forest got hit that night with the stomach bug followed quickly by Jonathan the following night. Juliet threw up once the same night I got sick but she seemed fine otherwise (so I'm told- Jonathan mercifully kept her away from me while I was sick). 

So yea, guys, Tennessee may have given us the stomach bug, but it did not exactly give us the travel bug! Jon's parents were supposed to come visit right on the heels of that trip and we just had to make the tough call to cancel. We needed time to just rest and recuperate. They rescheduled for Forest's Spring break and we were looking forward to doing some staycation activities with them, especially since Juliet was doing so much better with her pooping issues. Unfortunately Jon's mom ended up tearing her meniscus right before their trip so we had to postpone again. 

So it was 2 weeks before spring break and we had zero plans. After reading Forest's journal entry from the previous year's spring break we knew we had to make it somewhat exciting. 

Hmmm..what could possibly top the excitement of a baby's butt rash? 

We decided to still do some staycation plans but also visit the nearby Great Wolf Lodge for 2 nights. 

taking the long way around

This trip went muuuuch better than Tennessee. Still, we were off to a rocky start when our google maps told us that what we thought would be a 50 minute drive was actually a 2 hour drive. Apparently they closed down the interstate! Luckily we started our navigation route as we were leaving the house and were able to reroute through the country. The drive still took forever but at least it was scenic. 

It worked out since our room wasn't ready by check-in time anyway. Great Wolf Lodge over Spring Break can get kind of busy! We still managed to grab a quick dinner at the resort and the hit the water park before bedtime. It was easier to play man on man coverage due to our kids' very large age gap so I was on Juliet duty while Jon did some of the more adventurous rides with Forest. 

They had great little toddler area with 4 slides that honestly kept Juliet entertained for an hour at a time. For her, that is saying something. She normally has the attention span of a fruit fly. She was bubbling over with joy the whole time! 

Her second favorite thing was the wave pool. The wave pool was Forest's favorite water park feature as well. 

He also enjoyed the wolf tail which Forest says "it drops you into the water slide like a trap door in Minecraft." (He literally just typed that. So grown up.) But Forest's most favorite resort feature wasn't the water park at all. There is an interactive game the kids can play with a magic wand called MagiQuest. It's like a scavenger hunt interspersed with challenges on various tucked away screens. 

In addition to the water park Juliet really enjoyed the character meets and making her very first Build-a-Bear (well, technically Build-a-Wolf). We were shocked that out of all the glittery outfits, bathing suits, and accessories, she ended up choosing jeans and a white t-shirt for her wolf. Very out of character for her! 

The trip was not without it's hiccups. We'd heard reviews that since the resort opened during Covid, it has been constantly understaffed which leads to issues like slow service, late check ins, and no clean towels at the water park. We experienced all of that but since we were expecting it, I didn't find it that obnoxious. We went over Spring break as well so I expect it was more crowded than usual. I wish we'd known to just bring our own beach towels, because it wouldn't have been a huge deal to do so. 

We found the food to be good quality and surprisingly affordable- but maybe that's because of where we live. We were able to feed our family of 4 for $30 which we definitely cannot do in Danville! 

There was a mini fridge in our room so we were able to keep snacks and sandwich fixings on hand. We got a 2 bedroom suite with a big living room where we set up the pack n play. It was very comfortable and quiet. 

slumberpod is still the MVP of traveling with a toddler

I think we will definitely go back to Great Wolf Lodge. Juliet actually begs to go back every single day! 

It makes me kind of miss Texas where there were little water parks at all the community pools/YMCA/gyms. She would really love that! 

At the end of the month we have plans to spend a week in Maui! We are waiting to see how that trip goes before planning anything else, but I'm hopeful that with Juliet's increasing maturity and her progress in poop training, along with lower Covid restrictions/protocols that we will maybe start getting our travel legs back. Forest and I just got hit with *another* stomach bug so hopefully that means we will be immune at least through our Hawaii trip? Please Dear God!