Summer Work Trip
Work trip? Jessica, don't you stay home? Oh yes, friend, I do. But when you take your three very young kids to the beach, it is not considered vacation, (because there is no actual rest) it's considered WORK. But when you've been holed up in your house for 8 weeks with a newborn and 2 toddlers and your friend who also has a new baby tells you she booked a last minute trip to the beach, you also book a last minute trip to the beach! Even if you never leave the condo, at least you have your friend to talk to while you drink champagne and nurse your baby, whereas at home, you only have yourself to talk to while you drink champagne and nurse your baby.
The only problematic thing about booking a last minute vacay right before July 4th is that there's only a 2/2 left and your baby will have to sleep next to a toilet in the master bath, but this is a small price to pay in order for you to getaway. Besides, the acoustics are actually great in restrooms so the tile plus sound machine will make your baby sleep like a, well, baby.
Once you book your trip, the excitement of knowing fun beach time with friends is in your near future gives way to panic when you realize you now have to buy a bathing suit. A BATHING SUIT! To WEAR! In PUBLIC! You start to think this trip is a terrible idea after all & quickly read the cancellation policy. You then remind yourself you haven't had adult conversation in 2 months & taking this trip is non-negotiable so you immediately order a suit online. After you try it on, you realize the absolute worst thing you can attempt to buy online postpartum is a BATHING SUIT, so you get your mom to watch the kids and you head to Dillard's to see what hilarity will ensue there. After trying on every style there is, and looking 4 months pregnant in all of them, you buy the brightest neon floral one piece in the junior section that looks like it belongs in an 80s teen beach movie & go home and drink champagne. Because you bought a bathing suit. In the junior section! After having a baby! None of this really matters since you'll be covered up in one of your husband's XL fishing shirts the entire time, but you should celebrate nonetheless! #likeyouneedareasontodrink
After you check bathing suit off the list, you only have eleventy billion more things to pack. The enormity of all you have to bring to accommodate your 3 children will overwhelm you, and you will once more visit the cancellation policy of your rental (there isn't one, you booked it 6 days in advance). After loading up the truck Beverly Hillbillies style, your neighbors will assume you're moving, not merely taking a 4 day trip to Galveston, but that's ok. Better safe and stuffed to the gills than sorry!
My girlfriend has driven to Florida with her three kids this summer TWICE so I figured we could handle the hour and a half to Galveston. Aside from having to stop 30 minutes in to feed the baby and change a pull-up that was somehow already soaked through, I'm happy to report we arrived without incident & the trip was so much fun! Good friends and a steady flow of alcohol didn't hurt either. One word of caution - if you're down at the beach with all your kids (Yay! You made it out of the condo!) and it appears like it's going to rain, IT'S GOING TO RAIN. Do not roll the dice here. One second you'll be snapping the cutest family pic evah, and the next your hubby will be tearing down camp like a Cat 7 is coming, and you'll be carrying your three children like a pack animal across the bridge struggling so much that the stranger behind you offers to carry one of them. She seems fairly nice and only smells like booze a little so you let her hold one kid until you get to the outdoor showers. The sky may be about to open but who wants all that sand tracked in?
NOTE: When it's time to leave, you will most definitely forget something. My friend left her wedding rings at a vacation house one time & quickly returned to get them. I merely left my hair dryer and straightener. Luckily, I'm not using either of those things on a regular basis these days so this loss was somewhat easy to bear. Amazon (creepily?) reminded me the last time I bought a CHI straightener was in March of 2010 so I figured if I were to misplace my flat iron after eight years then return on investment was pretty strong.
Before we left, an Instagram post told me that vacation is just yelling at your kids in a different city. This is mostly true. Your two year old isn't going to NOT act like a two year old just because you're by a body of water now. But your kids need a change of scene, and so do you. So whether you can get away for a night or several, do it! You will booze too much, put the kids to bed too late, and wear your baby 200 hours, but it will definitely be worth it.
