Lilly's first vacation

{hi, my name is Brooke, and I'm ages behind on blogging. forgive me! I am trying my hardest to catch up, so enjoy a flurry of posts over the next few days. hopefully. :)}

Back in July, we took our first family vacation since miss Lilly came along.  We visit Texas every year for the fourth of July, and this year our little firecracker got to join in the fun.  

Enjoy some photos from our trip - the majority of them are phone pictures, I was absolutely horrible about actually bringing my camera around with me.  Shame shame!  

The drive ended up taking us around 13 hours on the way there, and wasn't nearly as painful as I expected it to be with a 4-month-old in tow.  Our angel child slept the majority of the time, and as you can see from the picture below was still all smiles by hour 13.  We just had to stop a few more times than usual, and the stops were a bit longer since she had to nurse, get a diaper change and stretch.  But overall, I would say we have a great little traveler!

We went to a killer Farmer's Market on our first day there.  Lilly enjoyed the view from the sling :)

Lilly also got to experience another boat ride!  She seemed to enjoy it, and didn't even complain about the fact that her life jacket smooshed those cheeks like crazy.  In fact, she fell asleep after the first few minutes.  Surprise, surprise.

Every morning while we were there Grandpa and Lilly went for a walk down to the lake together - sunglasses and all.

We spent a lot of quality time by the lake and by the pool...and Lilly got some great naps in poolside and lakeside as well :)

We also got to see a lot family that we don't get to see very often.  As you can imagine, everyone was super excited to meet Lilly. :)

Here she is with Uncle Butch

And you may remember these two from our wedding, they were our adorable flower girls.  Can you believe how grown up they've gotten?!  

(Lilly was apparently very perplexed by the whole picture taking concept...)

She also got the treat of being rocked to sleep by cousin Jen (mama to the two girls above), who I must say still has that skill down pat.

And here's all the kids at the pool.  Yes, I consider Matt one of the kids. :)

We also got treated to an awesome concert by their band, Campfire Soul.  I'm sure you will be shocked to hear that Lilly slept through it.

Also while we were there, these 2 kids (aka my parents) celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary!  Can you believe that?  They look like they just got hitched a few years ago, don't they? :)  We had a lovely dinner with the family to celebrate.

And then it was the 4th of July!  We spent the day on the lake enjoying some sun and water.  Lilly rocked an adorable bikini, and - you guessed it - a nap on the boat.  This kid sure does sleep a lot...

We went out to see fireworks that night with a big group of people, and had a great time.

Lilly enjoyed the fireworks so much that she slept through them. (Did I even have to say that?  I'm sure you guessed by now that was the theme of this trip for her...)

And then the next day we loaded up and made the drive back home!  Lilly didn't sleep quite as much on the way home, and fussed a bit more, but overall still did great.  I think she really enjoyed her first vacation!  We'll see how she does next year...I'm sure traveling with a 1 year old will be much different than traveling with a 4 month old...

But for now, I leave you with a picture of Matt winning Dad-of-the-Year award and letting her suck on the bottom of his yogurt cup.  Hey, it's better than a beer can, right??