Our very first, on our own, family vacation!

John and I and the kids have been on a few "vacations" together. When Anne was 17 mos old we went on a cruise...with his parents (they were a life saver!). When Anne was nearly 4 and Jamie nearly 1 we went to Disney Land and spent a week in CA visiting friends. Again, his parents helped out. We've stayed over for several one nighters-at a beach, at a cottage on the lake, etc. But nothing long term or by ourselves. We just got back from what we consider our first vacation!

John and I and all the kids went to Wisconsin Dells for 4 days! We got there on Sunday afternoon and left on Wednesday morning. We stayed at an indoor water park and we all had so much fun! It actually wasn't too bad juggling the kids. We picked a water park that was meant for little kids. So Jamie could go on every slide except 3 and Anne could go on every one except one. John and I alternated between one of us holding Libby and watching one other kid and the other going down slides with the leftover kid. Once or twice John or I would take Libby back to the room to put her down for a nap while the other one of us stayed with Anne and Jamie. Libby was (mostly) perfectly content to be held the entire time.

The last day, in the middle of the day, she had had enough of not napping and she screamed her head off, unable to be comforted (even by nursing!!) and we just put her in the stroller and put a blanket over the top to block out all sights and muffle the sounds. She fell asleep with minimal fussing after about half an hour and slept for an hour and a half. After that she was her normal, happy, baby self. After this vacation I think we're planning on going back every year! Next year Libby will be 18 months and although she won't be able to go on any slides, she'll be happy to play in the 2 little baby sections they had (and actually Anne had a blast in the one baby pool which had squirters, slides, and a little playground in it). All in all it was a great time and turned out better than I think we expected.

All of us ready to go! I bought this water sling a few weeks before and boy am I glad I did! And am I glad Libby found a position she loves in it! I was able to hold her without my arms getting tired for hours on end. And it freed up my hands to catch Anne and Jamie at the bottom of slides. Without this sling I think it would have been much more of a frustration to have a baby with us.
Libby in her swim suit. Trust me, she was about 100x cuter in person, if that's even possible!

On the car ride home. Believe it or not, Libby was a great car rider (is that a word?) She slept the first half on the way there and she did cry for most of the second half of the way there. But the way home she slept half of it and was awake the other half and really didn't fuss at all except the last 20 minutes or so. Here she is looking a book (Thank you Nicole-yes this was Anne's baby shower gift-we still have it!).