Our First Family Road Trip: a Recap

We did it!!!

We officially survived our first family road trip.  And I shouldn't say we survived because what we actually did was DOMINATE our first family road trip.  I'd love to take credit for the domination, but all we can really do is thank our precious daughter for being a little angel.

We departed early Thursday morning after packing (far too) thoroughly for a four day getaway.  We packed loads of diapers, too many baby clothes, excessive blankets, and we even managed to squeeze this little nugget into our suitcase... 

Totally joking of course, but she was definitely a good sport when Daddy tried to pack her up!  What a goof.  After this little stunt, Abigail put on her finest traveling outfit (and the first dress she's ever sported).  What can I say, she wanted to look her best on her first big family outing!

The first stop on our family road trip was San Luis Obispo where we visited with Abigail's great-grandparents, ate an amazing feast, enjoyed some glorious weather and took some fun photos...shockingly enough, Abigail slept the entire way from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo, making the first part of our trip even better! 

Pop-Pop & Shereen, thanks for a WONDERFUL time!  We love you guys!

After SLO, we continued on our adventure and headed down to Thousand Oaks where we spent more time with family (we love family!)...we stayed the night at "Hotel Sandman" with Aunt Lynn, Uncle Paul and Alix where we enjoyed a couple long walks (my fav!), more delicious food, totally sinful sticky buns and great conversation.  Oh, and yes...Abby slept the entire way from SLO to Thousand Oaks...once again, thank you Abigail!

And thank you Aunt Lynn, Uncle Paul and Alix (woohoo for you being home at the same time as our visit!) for an amazing time!

After a leisurely morning at Hotel Sandman (well, leisurely for some of us...Travis was working the entire morning), we loaded up the car and headed off to Santa Barbara for a weekend at Bacara {Check out our stay two years ago HERE}. 

Abigail wanted to be the first to test out the bed...

Then Mommy and Daddy joined her!

And although the weather only held up on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, we managed to venture back out to the beach where we took this picture two years ago...

Here's our updated version from this weekend...

And here are a few more pictures from Abby's first trip to the beach.

The rest of the weekend was wonderful.  Abigail continued to sleep well, eat well, and only cry a little bit.  She's becoming more aware of her surroundings all the time.  She even manged to be a little angel for the babysitter (yes, we had a babysitter...two nights in a row so we could attend the events of the weekend!). 

Here are a few shots from Mommy and Daddy's big night out!

And while Mommy and Daddy had a great time attending the Carnival themed event the second night, we were both more than ready to head back to our room and hang out with Abigail...as I said last week, it's amazing how much can change in two years.

We're so incredibly blessed and love our life more and more every day...Abigail has introduced a whole new dimension and neither of us could imagine our lives without her.  I mean seriously...look at this face!

After our amazing time in Santa Barbara, we made it home safely on Sunday afternoon and hung out with Abby...I think she had a great weekend too because she gave us this bigggg grin that could have made the grumpiest person on earth crack a smile.

Stay tuned for our next big travel adventure which will include a FLIGHT to DC! 

If you have any tips and tricks for flying with a 3 month old, we'd love to hear them!!!