Good morning! I hope you’re having a great week so far. Is anyone on spring break? My mom is a teacher on spring break and she and my Dad are in Costa Rica right now. My husband and I were planning to go there last year, but then found out I was pregnant a few weeks before we were set to go and cancelled because of the whole Zika thing. I still really want to go there some day and am looking forward to seeing my parents’ pictures and living vicariously through them!
While no spring break trips are happening here, I do have quite a few things I’m looking forward to over the next few months:
SPRING!
Okay to be fair, it has kind of felt like spring here for the last couple of months. With bluebonnets and wildflowers everywhere though, it now feels official. I’m excited to be spending more and more time outside with the little guy. Being outside in the sunshine makes me so happy.
I got a baby pool and the cutest swim suit for him at Target and it is pretty much the best thing ever. I don’t have any pictures of James in the pool yet because he can’t reliably sit up by himself so I’ve been holding him up. As soon as I can though, I’ll share a picture of what may be the cutest thing ever 🙂
Camping
Two years ago, we went camping on the beach at Padre Island National Seashore. Because it’s a national seashore, there are no hotels / trinket shops, etc. lining the beach. While Texas beaches are by no means world class, this is a pretty nice one.
We’re going to attempt to return this year for James’s first camping trip. I’m super excited and mildly terrified at the same time. We will have a hotel in mind for a backup plan for sure.
The main thing I’m concerned about is naps. James still very much needs naps throughout the day to function, but he is often too excited to nap when he is somewhere new. He will sometimes fall asleep in the Ergo, so that’s my backup plan if he won’t nap in the tent.
James’s Baptism
James is getting baptized at my childhood church in Houston on Mothers Day. I’m excited to for the baptism itself, and also to celebrate my first mothers day. My little brother is flying in from Chicago, so that will make it extra fun!
Family Time this Summer
I know I just said I’m excited for spring, but I’m also excited for summer because my mom and sister will be off from work for much of it. They will be able to visit for longer stretches of time and I’ll take James to Houston too. I’m excited to take him to the Houston Zoo, and maybe the aquarium. I don’t have a copy of it, but one of my favorite pictures from when I was little is of me noticing the giraffes at the zoo for the first time – I can’t wait to see James’s reaction to the big animals!
Trip to Wisconsin
We’re planning to take James to my husband’s home state of Wisconsin for the first time this summer. My husband’s parents haven’t seen him since he was about three weeks old, so this should be super exciting!
He’ll also get to meet my best friend Ali for the first time. Wisconsin is so beautiful in the summer and hopefully we’ll go to my husband’s family’s lake house where I spent my “retirement” for part of the time too.
Visiting a New National Park
Visiting national parks is very high up on my list of favorite things to do. I have a goal of making it to every national park, at least in the continental US (there are so many beautiful ones in Alaska and Hawaii, but I’m not sure it’s realistic for me to go to each of those).
My husband and I actually got engaged at Denali National Park in Alaska!
We’re taking a trip with my mom (and hopefully my Dad if he can make it with work!) to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor in Maine this August. We’re renting a cute little house right on the water that’s only a mile from the town center. I’m already dreading the flights a little bit (there are no direct flights, so it will be a long day of travel for a baby), but I think the trip itself will be really fun and relaxing. I’m excited to go hiking and kayaking and eat lots of lobster and ice cream 🙂
I didn’t realize how long this list would be; I have a lot to look forward to over the next few months!
Do you have any fun trips coming up?
Any advice on camping with a baby?
Has anyone been to Maine? Any recommendations?
7 Comments
I am not a big camper but I loooove the beach and grew up in a tiny beach town. Everyone says the sound of the waves acts like white noise for babies, helping lull them to sleep. This wasn’t not our luck with L sadly when we’ve gone but he did love it!! Ergo always works though 🙂
Haha that’s funny, we actually use an ocean white noise app at home when he sleeps, so I had some small hopes that that may help. He’s used to blackout curtains though, so I don’t really foresee him sleeping well in the bright sunshine. I think it will be car or ergo naps for a couple of days, but hopefully it will be worth it!
Good luck camping! I have never camped with a little one, but I did grow up camping! I am loving those bluebonnets – my husband is from TX and everytime we’re in town in the springtime I love seeing them along the highway and out in the fields! They are so pretty! have a great weekend!
Thank you! I can’t get enough of the bluebonnets. I grew up in Houston, where there aren’t as many, but they’re everywhere here in Austin and I love it!
Camping on the beach sounds amazing! I have never done that but Chris wants to go camping this summer, and I’m totally going to recommend we spend at least one night on the beach. We are going to a little beach town about 2 hours away for Memorial Day that I am really looking forward to. Have a great weekend. 🙂
I’ve only done it once, but it is pretty amazing to wake up to the sound of the ocean! We went camping once in Michigan, on Isle Royale – it was amazing, but I know it’s still pretty hard to get to from a lot of places in Michigan. Have a great weekend!
I have been to so few National Parks, it is embarrassing! I have slept on the beach, but the one time that I did it started to rain on my group and we had to rush to our cabins, lol. I haven’t camped in so long. My husband isn’t a fan, but I actually am!