Fifty-Fifty

Kurt took this past Friday off from work and we headed down to cape cod for our first overnight trip with the twins. This is what I'll call our fifty-fifty vacation (what else would you expect with two babies right??). I'll call it this because I'd say about 50% of the vacation was really fun and 50% was a little bit hellish.

We were up bright and early Friday, fed the babes and they napped during the drive down. Our first stop was at Friendly's for some breakfast for Mama & Dada. This was only Maddie & Aidan's second time in restaurant high chairs (oh do I miss those convenient infant carriers they outgrew) and it went exceptionally well - cheerios are an excellent pacifier when in public.

After breakfast, we stopped to visit my high school friend Nicole and her kids as they were on the cape at her parents house for vacation. Maddie got a little enthusiastic at the kiddie pool in the backyard and we had to do an outfit change, but otherwise it was a nice visit.

Then we figured we'd try for an early check-in at the hotel and get these little ones into the pool for some rip-roarin' fun. Of course the hotel was fully booked and we were out of luck. It was M&A's lunch time, so we decided a picnic lunch on the hotel grounds was our best option.

Moments before major breakdown at daddy's expense:

In an attemp to use our time wisely, I decided I'd get into my bathing suit in the hotel's changing room while Kurt fed the babies their lunch. The experience was apparently a bit frustrating as the first thing I saw when I came back was Kurt repeatedly hitting his palm against his forehead. I guess as soon as I turned the corner, Maddie & Aidan begain screaming, spitting food and grabbing each other. Ah the joys of twindom!

Once that fiasco was over, we figured a nice dip in the pool was WELL deserved. We survived the neverending battle of clothing changes with two exceptionally squirmy and (frankly) quite pissed babies. Off to the indoor pool we went with our inflatable boats (the inflation of which is a whole other sordid story). And guess what...the babies LOVED the pool. I have never seen Aidan so excited about anything in his 10 months. They kicked and splashed and watched all of the big kids. They were in there for almost 2 hours and would have stayed longer if not for the 3pm check-in.

So we dry the babies off and cart them down to our room - which of course is literally the room farthest from the pool. Maddie & Aidan have never been in a hotel room before, so we let them wander and cause trouble (oh that's right, most hotels don't baby proof, do they...UGH).

They look innocent, don't they?

After showers, another clothing struggle, and a hotel room floor dinner picnic - we hit the road to go to the beach and put M&A's toes in the sand for the very first time. We located a lovely, uncrowded beach and spread out our new, fancy, water resistant family blanket. We took the babies to the water's edge and Maddie really seemed to love getting her feet wet and didn't mind the sand a bit. Aidan on the other hand refused to put his feet down and would pull up his legs and scream each time we tried. I think perhaps he was a bit overtired from lack of nap. Hopefully this is the case, because Kurt will be HORRIFIED if one of his children doesn't like the beach.

Wind whipping through his hair...yes, sand...NOT SO MUCH!

Bedtime was closing in on us, so we packed up and made the drive back to the hotel. Kurt asked me "do you smell that" and we just assumed there would be a nice little package waiting for us when we got back. I opened Maddie's door to carry her into the hotel and she was covered in puke. She must have vomitted during the drive and that was the lovely smell Kurt referred to (which was not so easy to remove let me tell you). That was the point where I hit my limit and declared this "the biggest mistake we ever made" and we are "horrible parents" (I get a bit irrational when frustrated and overtired).

After some soothing words from Kurt (for me, not Maddie), we cleaned up our little girl, gave them bottles and put them to bed. THANK GOD they went down fairly easily and slept the entire night through in their pack 'n plays. WHEW! The only downside was, despite being a "suite", the two "rooms" were basically one and we had to keep the lights and tv off so as not to wake the sleeping babies - and the door to the outside was in their "room". We were trapped and hadn't had our dinner yet! Such is the life of parents I guess.

The next morning we got up, did our normal rituals and decided to take the babies to Chatham. They'll nap in the stroller we thought. Of course we chose the most humid and hot day EVER to do this. After a sweaty and frustrating bottle feeding experience at the park, we decided to throw in the towel and head home in time for lunch. Why it never occurred to us that a Saturday late morning would be a time of heavy traffic, I really can't say. An hour and 10 minute drive turned into an almost 3 hour one and Maddie & Aidan were not pleased to say the least (notice I have no photos from day 2 of our trip).

Finally we made it home, cranked up the a/c and tried to get back into our normal routine. And boy were we glad to be home. Although I must say, despite my negative attitude (which Kurt says I really need to work on), our overnight was a success. It is going to be alot of work anytime you travel with two 10 months olds and we did have some really great and memorable family moments. That being said, no more overnights for us until next summer - at the earliest!!!