CJ's First Road Trip!

This past weekend, we loaded up the car and headed to Flagstaff for a few days. Thanks to the generosity of a family at Matt’s school, we were able to stay in a cabin with CJ’s godparents (and our dear friends) Tim & Lisa. As we planned for the trip, I was so excited. We were going to Antelope Canyon on Saturday, Sedona on Sunday, and taking lots of opportunities to just relax. About a week before the trip, I realized that I was going to have to pack for a baby! Holy cow…

So I did what any Type A person would do, I made a list. I mentally went through the day, and wrote down everything that we use. As I wrote, I could not believe how much goes into the day of a baby. When you are at home, you take for granted the fact that everything is right there at your fingertips. Even getting him ready for daycare wasn’t that bad because I didn’t have to worry about activities or a bed. A road trip was a whole different scenario!

At one point, I definitely got a little concerned that we wouldn’t have enough room in the trunk. Mind you, we were taking our SUV, so there should have been ample space for all of the luggage. I put all of the “necessities” in a stack on our bed, took one look, and realized that I would have to cut it down. After some work, I got it down to a manageable size, but there was still a lot of stuff. The Pack & Play, Bumbo, and Boppy were necessities in my mind. We needed places for him to sleep, eat and relax. Unfortunately, he did not like sleeping in the Pack & Play, so we had to use his car seat at night. Not ideal, but it did help with his congestion (we think from the altitude change). Other than food, diapers/wipes, clothes and blankets, we really didn’t need much else. I think because we have so many other baby items, we feel like he can’t live without them. I just had to keep reminding myself that as long as he is clean, rested and fed, he’s a pretty happy guy. We didn’t need to worry about bringing much else. After all, his favorite “toy” right now is a burp cloth.

Ultimately, we had a great time. Even hiking wasn’t difficult with him, although those baby carriers make you really hot. While we didn’t have all of the luxuries of being at our house, we had enough to get by. It was a nice trial run. This summer, we’ll be traveling to two weddings (one includes flying), so we now have a better idea of how to prepare.



I hope that we continue to do things like this. I really want CJ to experience as much as possible, even though he is just a baby right now. Hopefully, we can get him used to going different places, so that he stays somewhat flexible with his schedule. We’ll see…