Our Epic Family Vacation 2010

I must warn you before you start reading, this WILL be a LONG entry. I want to write about EVERYTHING we did and what I remember before I forget. So you can say I am writing this for myself so when I look back in a year or ten years from now, I will remember our first family vacation ever!!

Now that I warned you, I will begin the trip...

We left on Saturday 5/8/10 at around 10 AM and headed towards Atlanta for the night. The first thing on our long agenda was to stop at a rest stop for lunch and have a packed picnic. This worked out awesome and saved us some money by packing some left over stuff we still had in our house that probably would have gone bad while we were on vacation. So we got to a rest stop right past Lexington and got out our blanket and our cooler and just hung out and ate and crawled around. Other than it being very windy and a little chili, it was a perfect start to the vacation.






After our lunch, we got back in the van and continued on our journey. Luckily Joanna's parents let us borrow their van which has a built in DVD player, which Grace would not have survived without. Speaking of Grace, she did AMAZING! She was so good in the car rides and barely made a sound. Noah on the other hand wasn't as great. If he wasn't eating, full or sleeping, he was yelling to get our attention. Scratch that, he was SCREAMING to get our attention. But none-the-less we made it.



We got to Atlanta at around 5:30 PM which was great time, only about 7 and half hours with two young kids to get to Atlanta, that's pretty amazing if you ask me. We park the van and take our bags into the Holiday Inn that I booked on priceline a few weeks prior. I wanted to stay Downtown because I thought it would be a cool experience and it was very close to Zoo Atlanta which we would be going to in the morning. I booked the hotel for only $45 on priceline.





After we got all settled in to our hotel, which was quite nice with two double beds, we headed out on foot to a local restaurant. We ended up at Ted's Montana Grill. It was SO GOOD. I will talk more about it on my food blog, but the people were so nice and loved our kids and the burgers were easily in the top 5 burgers I have ever had. After Joanna and I enjoyed a nice burger and beer each and mac and cheese for the kids, we were all full and it only cost us $45 including a generous tip since they deserved it. We walked back to our hotel and were in bed by 8 PM, after about an hour or so of Noah freaking out and screaming since we were all RIGHT there and he wanted to play with us, he finally closed his eyes and went to bed. We needed our rest for a long day ahead of us.





The next morning we got up around 7 AM, got ready and headed downstairs for breakfast. We ate at the hotels buffet since the kids got to eat for free. It was pretty good, I just got an omelet and I think Joanna did too. Grace and Noah got the buffet for free, so of course Grace got loads of bacon (she can't get enough). After the $20 breakfast, we headed back to the Van to head down the road to the Atlanta Zoo for the morning. We got 50% admission because we are members of the Cincinnati Zoo, so it only cost us $20 for all 4 of us to get into the Zoo. We got there right when it opened around 9:30 AM. The first thing we noticed about the Zoo was that it was a lot smaller than the Cincinnati Zoo. We headed right for the kid area and Grace fell in love with the seesaw. Unfortunately, from then on, that is all she wanted to do. We continued on to see some animals, but Grace just wanted to go back to the seesaw. A lot of the animals weren't open yet because we got there so early. The best part about their zoo are the Panda Bears. They make a big deal about it and the exhibit lets you get within a piece of glass of the pandas. We were literally touching the back of a panda while he leaned up against the thin glass while the railing we "had to stay behind" was only a foot from the glass. It was crazy and it was a cool experience for everyone. Other than that there wasn't anything too interesting. They had a lot of monkey's and they did have some Timon and Pumbas (meerkats and warthogs), which were pretty cool to see. But after countless times of trying to get Grace interested in the animals, we headed back to the playground so she could play on the seesaw some more. We stayed till about 11 AM and then headed back on the road. We picked some Wendy's up for lunch and just continued to drive trying to get as far as we could while the kids were tired and hopefully sleeping.












We arrived at our beautiful house in Florida at around 6:00 PM, feeling victorious. We brought all our stuff in and got settled. With beer in hand, we admired the house and the views. Everyone was tired, so it was an early first night while I headed to the grocery store for some food for the week. I picked up a frozen pizza for dinner and everyone was in bed by 8 or 9 PM.






The next day was our first "real" day of our "relaxing?" vacation. We had a normal cereal breakfast and went swimming in the beautiful private pool. That was probably the best part of the house, the part that we had our own pool and could swim in it whenever we wanted by just walking to our backyard. We did make it to the beach the first day and realized quick that it took a lot just to get to the beach and hang out there. Having to drive to the beach, bring everything we need for the four of us and then try and relax on the beach just wasn't going to happen easily. Grace once again was great and was very manageable, but Noah on the other hand just wanted to eat the sand. He realized that he liked the way sand tasted once he put his thumb into his mouth which had sand on it. From then on, he just started grabbing handfuls of it and trying to eat it. It was very bizarre and not sure how anyone could enjoy it. Grace never wanted sand in her mouth, but I guess boys are just different. After I had enough time to completely burn my knees and back, we headed back to the house for nap time.








Most of our days in Florida consisted of just hanging out, eating store bought food and swimming in the pool and making one trip to the beach per day. The only days that were different were the ones where Carley Kramer came over and then the day we went to Disney.

Carley came over on Tuesday and stayed from about noon to 6 PM. We laid out and talked while the kids were napping and then we went to the private beach but only stayed for about a half hour because it was very windy and Noah continued to just eat sand and be miserable. That night was the only night we ordered any food. We got some pizza and wings from a local pizza place (we like to try new things on vacation). The wings were too spicy for Grace even though I got mild wings (she usually loves wings). The pizza was pretty good, but nothing that I would really recommend for anyone else to get while down there. After Carley headed home for the night, we just hung out and headed to bed early since we would have the most magical day ever the very next day.




On Wednesday, we headed out after Noah's first nap around 10:30 AM, to go to Disney World!! Grace could not have been more excited about going. We walked right into Magic Kingdom right as a parade was happening with music playing and all the Disney characters dancing around. It was very magical and a great way to start the day off. All she wanted to do while we were there was see the REAL princesses. So that is where we headed as soon as we got there. We had to decided to see the princesses or Tinkerbell and friends and she chose Tinkerbell first. After waiting, I would say, about 45 minutes, we finally got in and it was totally worth it. Thank goodness we had our iPhones to keep the kids entertained while in line, but once we got in, they completely forgot how long they had been waiting. We met Fawn (I think that is how you spell it?) and she fell in love with Noah right away, they did a pretty good job at spending time with both kids, but at some points I was worried that Grace wasn't getting enough of their attention, but she didn't seem to mind at all. She was just admiring and taking everything in. After meeting Fawn we moved down the line to see Tinkerbell! Grace could not stop jumping she was so excited. Tinkerbell joined in with her by jumping around in circle with Grace. After Fawn was done with Noah and gave him a nice kiss on the forehead which left a mark, I took him over to see Tinkerbell, he instantly fell in love. I set him down on the floor and he just watched her and laughed. Tinkerbell fell in love with him too, calling over Fawn to watch him laugh. They sat down on the ground together and took some pictures and I gave Noah to Tinkerbell and he put his thumb in his mouth and would have stayed there all day if I would have let him. Even when I tried to pick him up and carry him away, he tried jumping out of my arms to get back to her. We moved on to see the final Fairy, Terence. He was one of the Fairies that Grace actually wanted to see because she remembered him from the movie. He gave them both pixie dust so they could fly back to the mainland and become normal size again (I forgot to mention that they shrunk us on the way in to meet them, because they obviously would have been too small to talk to if they hadn't).








After that we walked around and did some fun things like walked through Mini and Mickey's house (separated houses of course, they don't live together, that would be silly). We road on dumbo, road some magic carpets, road the merry-go-round, drove some cars, went on "it's a small world" and Winnie the Pooh (which Grace thought was too scary). All in all it was an awesome day.




At the end we headed back to see the Princesses and get a treat, we thought it would be the perfect way to end the day. It only took close to 15 minutes to get through the princess line because they don't really play around with the kids like the Fairies did. Grace didn't seem to mind, she was loving her life when we walked in and saw Cinderella, Jasmine and Sleeping Beauty. Jumping up and down and hugging each one of them, she will be talking about it the rest of her life. After we saw them we went into the store and picked out Grace's new Sleeping Beauty nightgown. We left Disney World around 6 or 6:30 PM feeling very accomplished. By far Disney World was the highlight of the trip.





When we woke up Thursday, we decided that it would be our last day in Florida and we would pack up and head out Friday morning. I got back on priceline and booked us a hotel in Chattanooga for the ride home. I got us another hotel but in downtown Chattanooga this time for $45 at the Sheraton Hotel. This hotel was REALLY nice and had everything we could have asked for. It had a heated indoor pool and the MOST comfortable bed I had ever slept in. We headed out Friday morning at around 8 AM and got to Chattanooga around 6 PM. We encountered our first bit of traffic on this drive, but couldn't really complain because it wasn't too bad and we didn't hit any other traffic the entire trip.



We got settled in to the hotel and then we headed out to a place I found on urbanspoon before we even left for vacation. It is called the Terminal Brewhouse. It probably wasn't the best decision since it was sort of late and we had just been in the car for 8 or 9 hours prior. It was an awesome place, but probably not for a 10 month old. The food was good and Joanna fell in love with the sweet potato fries and some sort of BBQ dipping sauce and Noah and I split a pizza. I got the beer sampler, but couldn't get in the mood to drink and enjoy the beer, it just had been a long day and Noah didn't want to be anywhere but his bed. So we ate quickly and headed back to the hotel where Grace and I went for a swim while Joanna put Noah to bed.





This hotel was much better because Noah and I got our room upgraded to a suite (because we, ok he is so cute) and it had two separate rooms where we could set Noah down in one room while we hung out in the other until he went to sleep. It was a much smoother night than our first hotel experience and we were all sleeping by 9 PM.



The next morning we headed to another place I found on urbandspoon as being the number one breakfast place in downtown Chattanooga. It was called Aretha Frankensteins and it was a cool little place. It was in the middle of a small street with cute little houses. I thought we were lost and Garmin didn't know what she was talking about, but we found it and it literally was a little house with a wrap around porch and a concrete front yard with a few tables on it and a bar on the inside. I would LOVE to go back down there for a weekend with just adults because I think this place and the Terminal would be awesome places to just relax and enjoy the food and beer at. While we were at breakfast we saw a bunch of local nurses coming and going from their night shifts. The food, by the way, was AMAZING. Joanna and Grace got some french toast to share and I had some and it was the best I had ever had. I got a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and a side of fried potatoes which was also very good. The only thing bad about this place was they were understaffed and it wasn't made for kids at all, especially tired kids. It took a long time to get seated, get waited on and a very long time to get out food after ordering, but it would have been fine on a slow morning where I went to relax after a night of drinking with my friends, and the food makes up for all the bad things anyway.




After breakfast I officially declared our epic vacation, over. All we had to do now is drive 5 hours home. We made it home on Saturday at about 4 PM and immediately started playing with Brady and Carly, our neighbors. It was good to be home, everyone agreed.

I will never forget our first family vacation. Looking back on it now, I can't believe how much we did. We conquered 4 cities in 7 days and had a blast in them all while only spending close to $1000. We took a ton of pictures and hopefully we will never forget our adventures. The most important thing is that we all made it home safety and we are all in one piece.