First Family Vacation

We packed up the car as best as we could, not really knowing what all we’d need, and headed to the New Hampshire coast for our first family vacation!

Zane was non-plussed about the whole thing, Faith was excited and Jerry was non-readable as usual. Zane changed his vote to WAAAA!!! about halfway there, after we’d stopped and wasted his valuable time at a furniture store before proceeding coast-ward. Apparently his sitting-in-the-car timer ran out. We did our best to comfort him while still making progress towards the ocean.

Our home for the three day weekend was a studio apartment above the office/home at Hoyt’s Lodges. The cabins had already been rented out by the time we got serious about making reservations, but that worked out well as the studio apartment was spacious and had a great view of the Atlantic. It was only a couple hundred feet to get to the stony shoreline and about a half mile walk to reach the sandy beach. Here’s a google map of the area.

Once we’d gotten the car unloaded, changed and fed the baby I grabbed him and headed across the road to show him the ocean. It’s rocky so one must be careful of where they step, doubly so with a baby on the shoulder. We made it to the water’s edge safely. Zane wasn’t impressed. In fact he wasn’t happy at all what with the wind and the sun and the smell and the noise.

Strike one.

We’d brought the jogger (it folds!) which turned out essential for our long walks. Lots of walking, good meals, and some snoozing followed. Also lots of crying. Maybe it was the new environment, maybe the long drive down, but something upset Zane’s equilibrium and he had some fantastic (and by fantastic I don’t mean GOOD fantastic) crying jags that we couldn’t alleviate with anything we tried.

After the most intense one he finally fell asleep in the car seat (continuing to emit small sobs sporadically for at least a half hour into sleep) and remained so until we put him to bed about five hours later. He slept a few more hours, woke up and ate a whole bottle (120ml) and passed back out. Woke up at 3am, ate another 120ml, passed back out, and again around 6. An amazing amount of food for him.

That morning (albeit late) we loaded up the baby, smeared on some lotion, and headed to the beach. Being the official (self-proclaimed) Baby Pig I took the liberty of being the first to dip Zane’s toes into the ocean. He’d been on my shoulder gawking at the colors and sounds of busy beach life, while his mom was slowly walking out into the ocean, conditioning her feet to the chilly waters when I decided to see what he thought. I slowly lowered Zane’s dangling feet to the shallow water.

Faith says she had the best view and I believe her. Zane was looking down, my hands under his armpits, as I touched his toes to the salty brine. Zing! He retracted his legs faster than a turtle!

I think curiosity got the better of him as he relaxed his legs and let them enter the water again. A tense moment before he relaxed and started digging his toes in the sand. The video below shows him exploring the ocean with his Mom. The picture at the top of the page is after we got back from the beach.

All in all a wonderful vacation.