How You Know You Are on Vacation With a Baby: Our Experience

We just took our very first vacation with our sweet baby Isaac. We went to the Oregon Coast: a hidden paradise and a favorite of Josh's family. My brother-in-law made the comment that "it's a place where it doesn't seem like very many people have discovered it yet." I have to agree. I felt I could walk down miles of beach with no one around or have my own private cove. It was really fantastic, but with that said we did bring Isaac. And vacationing with a baby is really a different story. I thought I would write down a few of the funny experiences we had while traveling with Isaac.

#1-Prior to going on this trip we were trying to decide between flying and driving. Not only is driving cheaper, but everyone assured us that Isaac was young enough that he would sleep for most of the journey...after 14 hours of trying to entertain with "woowoowoowoo"sounds, contorting our faces into any shape we could think of, shaking any or all objects(ramen noodle bags, sun flower seeds, chip bags, toys, etc.) in front of his face, and stopping every two hours to play and nurse...we were beginning to think flying might have been the better option. It ended up being a fun adventure, though and I might even do it all over again just for the laughs we had.
This picture is my favorite: Isaac loved stopping and looking out the car window. Don't you just love that face! I can't get enough of it!

#2 Isaac did finally manage to fall asleep for awhile at which point I began navigating us through Portland, Oregon while Josh was driving. Josh's phone has a GPS system which we were following. After taking several different exits toward Salem, Tiggard, and Beaverton;coming into town and driving in circles through one way streets;we were stopped at a stop sign and Josh asked me for the next direction. The GPS only said: "Beaverton, OR." We had put the end point as Beaverton so rather than going through we had driven straight into town adding about another hour to our already very long drive! Back on the freeway we went. Oh, and did I metion that this was all during rush hour traffic? I guess you had to be there on that one.

#3 By the time we were about half an hour from the coast Isaac woke up screaming for some food. I fed him, but then immediately jumped out of the car to use the bathroom. I couldn't hold it any longer. We weren't at a rest stop, just in a little secluded area so I just had to go and find a place in the trees. However, I wasn't sure of what wild life there was so I decided to just go right behind the car. Midstream I realized I was crouched down right behind the exhaust and was breathing that in so I tried to waddle away, but in doing so I managed to pee all over myself.(I know, gross) I came back into the car and began changing Isaac's diaper who was aimed right at me and peed all down my front. For two days I had managed to keep myself clean from all bodily fluids and in the last half hour became covered in it!

#4 One morning we were headed south to check out Cape Perpetua and some light houses. I was making some peanut butter and honey sandwiches for us(try keeping yourself clean doing that while driving) and upon finishing I looked into Isaac's carseat. For a second I wondered if I had spilled peanut butter all over him, but then my wisdom got the better of me and I realized what all of that orangish/brown stuff really was all over him. Isaac was sitting in a puddle of pooh. We pulled over into a pasture to clean up where we were being swarmed by bees and Isaac was wearing a bright and colorful shirt. Ugh.

Josh is cleaning up Isaac after the major pooping in the carseat. I am in the back cleaning the carseat! What a mess!

#5 Wednesday morning it was drizzling rain outside. We decided to head up North towards Ecola State Park and Oswald West. We drove into the state park and thought we would just take a little walk around. When we got there it was no longer just drizzling it was pouring/dumping rain. Why we didn't just begin heading home I will never know, but I guess we thought we could still manage to have a nice stroll in the rain. We bundled up Isaac, got on our coats, pulled out the umbrella and began to head out. A soon as we were out of the car the umbrella went inside out. Isaac began screaming. What baby likes being cold and wet? You would think at that point that we would have gotten back into the car...but no. We trudged on. About 20 feet later we realized how stupid we were being and went back. We are still amazed we made it 20 feet!

#6 The last day we were there we decided to go to Oswald West and Ecola State Park again because we didn't get to do it before with the rain. Now to get to Oswald West there is a little mile hike down to the beach. We didn't realize that part of it was fairly rocky and difficult to get through. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we had brought with us a baby bjorn, a carseat, and a stroller in an attempt to get Isaac down comfortably. I ended up carrying Isaac in the bjorn while Josh hoisted the carseat and stroller over the rocks, logs, and muddy turain! I wish I had a picture of this but I don't. It was hilarious to watch!

This is on one of our walks down a beach that no one else was on! My two handsome boys!(Notice in any picture where Isaac is in the bjorn he is sucking on the front of it: classic Isaac!)

This was on the drive home. We had gotten out of the car to watch Multnomah falls. I think Isaac was getting pretty fed up with being in a carseat.

Watching Multnomah falls.

Our hike down to Oswald West! It was really gorgeous despite lugging so much with us. The beach there was spectacular!

And there he is sucking on the front...


This was at Ecola State Park. It was really incredible! We had a little family picnic right at this spot! Can the view get any better?

And there is Isaac sucking on the front of the bjorn yet again!

My sweet little family.(Oh and check out Isaac sucking on the front of the bjorn =0)

This is one of the light houses...actually the tallest one on the Oregon coast! My legs were burning after that long flight of stairs!

What a handsome guy!

We found this sign on the way to Oregon and had to get a shot by it!