About a year ago we decided to take Aliana to Hawaii. The thought of traveling with a 4-month-old newborn for the first time was scary. After a successful first trip, we decided to go on another vacation when she was 11 months old. We had successful flights to and from Miami. This time we decided to take a road trip with Aliana for the first time. We thought it was going to be a little difficult since she never stayed in her car seat for longer than an hour and a half. When we got in the car, she decided to take a nap after 20 minutes. She slept for almost two hours. We still had another hour to our destination, and it was already dark in the car. I gave her some milk and her bear toy. She was fine for another 30 minutes. Then she started to get cranky. It was time for the songs and her tablet to keep her entertained since the car was too dark for her to play with other toys. Once we got to the house, she was wide awake at 9:30 pm which is usually her bedtime. She didn’t want to go to sleep. After going up and down the stairs about 50 times and running around the house, she finally got tired and went to bed around 11:30 pm. Oh, my husband and I felt like zombies after and we went right to bed too.
Our stay at Big Bear was enjoyable and relaxing at the same time. We timed everything around Aliana’s naps. For some reason, she didn’t take long naps when we were there. All of us went to a little restaurant to have lunch. They served pancakes twice the size of my head and plates call the avalanche full of delicious creamy gravy. In honor of Oktoberfest, we went to a restaurant known for their beers and chugged a couple glasses each. The following day we went on a hike. Aliana’s first hike ever. I thought she was almost ready for a nap when we got to the trail, but she caught a second wind and had a lot of fun. Aliana walked the whole way back! When I saw her walking all I could think of was, where did the time go? She is getting so big way too fast for me to handle.
NEW TRAVEL SOUVENIR IDEAS
My friend had a great idea. From now on every time we go on a trip we are going to buy a children’s book about the place we visited. Since we were in Big Bear, I purchased three books with bears in the stories. Inside each book, I wrote the place we visited and the date, I want Aliana to remember where these books came from each time we open them up to read.
As for myself, I scored on a new trucker hat! It says “MAMA” on the front with the cute palm leaves. I have been wearing it everywhere. When I go somewhere new, I am going to try to find lovely items that represent motherhood to bring back with me.
SHOP MY NEW FAVORITES
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
- The next long road trip we take I am going to bring a cooler to store her milk. When we were coming back home, we had the carton of milk in the car since it would be nice and cool while the air conditioning was on. However, we made a couple stops on the way back and inside the car got hot. We ended up throwing away the milk afterward.
- Bring with us a container to store trash in the car. In three hours we ended up accumulating a lot of waste in the car with our snack food and random junk. Next time I am going to buy a flip top cereal storage container to use as a trash bin. You can just add a plastic bag inside and then throw the plastic bag away afterward.
- Also, Aliana had some stinky poopy diapers, and we didn’t have her diaper pail to throw them in. So we used a couple of the ziplock gallon bags to throw her dirty diapers in at the house and while we were in the car. It worked like a charm, and we wish we brought more with us. I am going to bring more on our next trip, so we don’t have to smell dirty diapers in the room or car anymore.
We plan on taking another trip back to Big Bear with Aliana when there is snow. She has never been in the snow before. My husband and I have been to Big Bear during the winter season and the city is absolutely beautiful with snow. I can’t wait!
VLOG VIDEOS OF OUR TRIP
these videos will open in instagram
