Roaming Part II

When Stephen and I realized that I would be on maternity leave still during his spring break, we realized that we should do something epic with our free week of vacation. Well…epic didn’t really happen. We couldn’t think of anything truly epic we could do with an infant in tow and without spending money. However, we did get to spend some needed time with family.

And we did get in some more practice traveling. Naomi does really well in the car…as long as she’s asleep. About 90% of her awake time is spent screaming. Not a car seat fan I guess,  but I don’t blame her – you have to face backwards, they’re not very cushiony, and so restrictive. We learned some useful tidbits. I’ve worked out that it takes about 50% longer to drive places now than it did when Stephen and I were ‘single’.

Next time we’ll have to do better at planning interesting places to stop. This time we stopped at an Urgent Care facility parking lot, a warehouse store parking lot, the side of a highway and a gas station Wendy’s. Not that that these places were too boring – the highway had purple wildflowers and the Wendy’s was tactically surrounded by a raucous bird army. Still, though, it might have been more fulfilling to stop at the museum of Texas prisons or the giant Sam Houston statue or even that pleasant tree-filled rest stop we accidently passed. We’ll have to work on that.

Our time time in Lake Jackson was filled with Naomi being passed between grandparents, Josh vying for favorite uncle, and getting the boys ready for their epic 50 mile canoe trip. We also got in some canoeing, took Naomi to see her first alligators (except she slept through that), went laser tagging, (except that Naomi and I sat in the car and ate) and did a little rock climbing in a Houston gym.

Brazos Bend



Family Pictures (Not extremely successful…Naomi was not in a smiley mood)

After Lake Jackson, we hung out with Dave and Tanya and family in Dallas. Naomi was definitely the center of attention there. The dogs were super jealous. Especially Simba, he didn’t get nearly as much attention from Stephen as he usually does. The young kids were especially interested in where Naomi gets her food. Ethan would tell anyone who would listen that Naomi eats from my belly. At one point, Audrey asked me if Naomi was eating my shirt.




We also got to attend the temple in Dallas. It was the only day then and since that Naomi has really taken a pacifier. I was stressed about leaving her since sometimes she cries the entire time, but we returned to a perfectly pacified baby and an peaceful (well, as peaceful as it gets when there are six kids at home) household. Heavenly Father reminded me that day that He is watching over us; it was a testament to me that the temple was where He wanted us to be that morning.