Rocky Road Trip

We spent the past four days on a mini-vacation to Monterey, and while I could gloss over the less-than-perfect parts of the trip and make it sound like a flawless endeavor, I'm instead going to reveal some ugly truths about vacationing with two children: namely, that it bears zero resemblance whatsoever to vacationing withOUT children, or even with just one child, and that it is, above all else, exhausting. We did have a good time, though, and Keira had a blast! Bear and I were happy to give her such a fun experience, especially since we feel like she's a little neglected in the Fun Department sometimes, now that Elliana is here.

Day One: "Drive-Drive-Drive For a Long Time"

We had to rent a car (we got a Nissan Murano) because my car is still possessed and Bear's had two bad tires that we couldn't get replaced in time.

Off we go!




We got Keira a portable CD player, in hopes of not having to listen to Dora songs the entire way, and she did put the headphones on for a few seconds...


...but then she decided she'd rather turn it up full-blast and listen to them like this:

...which negated the purpose of them, but was pretty cute.

Here she is, fake-sleeping in the hotel bed after we arrived:

Our girls!

It was already almost bedtime when we arrived, but Bear took her downstairs to feed the fish and turtles in the little pond at the hotel:

I'm sure the fish really appreciated the way she fed them, which involved tossing one tiny kernel of food at a time into the pond and yelling, "Uno! Dos! Cuatro!..." as she did it. (Twelve hours away from "Dora" and she already forgot "tres." What a travesty!)

Day Two: The Monterey Bay Aquarium

Grammy and Grampy drove down and met us at the aquarium the next day:

This is Ellie's "I'm go' bite-choo up!" face, which she does when she's hungry and which is always accompanied by a dolphin-like shriek. I love it:

I ended up getting a souvenir shirt from the aquarium, because Elliana had a diaper explosion that left my previous outfit unfit to wear...and she later spit up all over the souvenir shirt, too, so apparently she had an itinerary of her own for the day!

Day 3: Dennis the Menace Park and Santa Cruz Boardwalk

That morning, we met our friend Melanie and her little boy, Charlie, at this awesome park. How cute is this?? (Not pictured: two conniving and "awwww"'ing moms directing this moment)

Bear and I took turns hanging out with Ellie while the other played with Keira...here she is enjoying the rolly slide (whatever that thing is called):

At the boardwalk, Bear and I continued our "divide and conquer" strategy (which we use constantly here at home, too) to make sure Keira got to have fun while Ellie got fed, changed, fed, changed, fed, and...changed. I'll go ahead and skip over the details of Mondo Diaper Explosion Number Two. And all "number two" jokes in general.

I love that Bear squeezed himself into this car:

She couldn't figure out how to pull back on the handle and hold it to make the helicopter go up, so ours was the only child whose copter flew at ground level, but that didn't seem to bother her!

And Ellie had some fun of her own, sitting in the big-girl stroller for the first time:

Day Four: "Drive-Drive-Drive For Eternity"

There are no photos of the drive home. If there were, they would feature things like Elliana screaming her head off, Keira asking umpteen bajillion times to go back to the hotel (which she called her "apartment" for some reason), me contorting myself--in a seat belt, mind you--to nurse Ellie while Bear drove because there were no places to stop in sight, Ellie having Diaper Explosion Number Three, me asking Keira to "please be a litle bit quiet so Ellie can sleep" about 658 times, Bear getting a speeding ticket, Elliana screaming her head off some more, us barely getting the rental car back before closing (and forking over $6 per gallon for the fuel we didn't have time to refill), and Bear and I agreeing that perhaps it will be awhile before we attempt another family road trip. How's that for an ugly truth?

For some reason--probably because Bear and I took almost this exact vacation together a few years ago--this trip really highlighted for me how different life is now that we're Bears With Cubs instead of Just Bears. Constant togetherness, relaxation, and romance were all off the menu this time around, and "you do this while I do that" was the main theme, even down to sleeping arrangements: one of us sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room of our suite with Keira, while the other got the king-sized bed in the bedroom with Elliana, and then alternating the next night.

Am I complaining? Not really. While the trip wasn't always ideal for Bear and I, and while we're both so exhausted we can hardly move, it was a change of pace for us and a ton of fun new experiences for Keira. Vacationing as Just Bears will be possible again someday, and vacationing With Cubs will get easier as the girls get older. And one thing Bear and I did get to share during the trip were many, many smiles and laughs at the silly and adorable things the girls did, which is worth the sacrifice of Bear Time, for now.

So, to end on a positive (giggle-worthy) note, here are two videos:

Keira singing along with her CD player (and totally singing the wrong words)...


...and Elliana's first giggles!