At the end of July, we took Morgan on her first ever trip, and our first ever Family Vacation as a family of three. We drove five hours to Chicago and stayed with family.
She was a little antsy in the car, but we expected that. This was her longest car trip of her life so far, so I came prepared with lots of snacks, drinks, books, toys, and Cocomelon on my phone if nothing else would soothe her.
When we finally arrived at my aunt & uncle’s home, Morgan took no time at all warming up to her cousin Dylan and jumped right into playing together.
Morgan did not sleep super well that night, and kept groaning with teething pain. As a result, I hardly slept either, because I was worried about my girl.
That Friday morning, Morgan woke up boiling hot, and feeling pretty yucky. She has a whole slew of teeth coming in, and the poor girl was congested and in pain. She was very snuggly (which is totally not like her!) throughout the day and moody. We tried to keep her distracted by taking walks in the wagon, going to the park, and swinging in the back yard.
She had a low fever off and on, which we controlled with Tylenol and Motrin. My aunt’s friend so graciously brought over teething rings for Morgan to use & these magic teething tablets. The dosage is a little crazy (every 15 minutes for the first hour, then every hour after, until relieved) but, I’m telling you, these things were purely magic. After that first hour, her energy and her appetite started coming back (it may have helped that we gave her pasta and chocolate ice cream!) and she started to visibly feel better. Hallelujah!
She got a good night’s sleep Friday into Saturday, and woke up feeling probably 75% better. Not 100%, but it was definitely an improvement!
We dressed the girls in matching swimsuits and planned to go to the neighborhood pool for the afternoon. When we got there at 10:45 AM, we discovered that they were not letting in guests until 12PM, Justin, Morgan and I walked the couple blocks back to my aunt and uncle’s and swam in the backyard until then.
We killed time by snacking on Doritos, and feeding them to the squirrels too! The squirrels in Oak Park are hysterical, and not afraid of people at all. Morgan so desperately wanted to hand feed this one. My aunt and uncle said they once saw a squirrel get a piece of leftover pizza out of a trashcan and eat it like a human.
We walked back up to the neighborhood pool at noon and swam for almost two hours- which is plenty for a 16 month old! Because let me tell you – she was fearless when it came to the water. We didn’t even use her life jacket, we just took turns holding her. She loved running under the spraying fountains in the baby pool with me, and jumping off the ledge of the big pool to Daddy! Safe to say, some swimming lessons will be in our near future.
After the pool, we headed back to the house and Justin, Morgan and I all took naps. I woke up and got ready for dinner, and then it started storming. My aunt pushed back our dinner reservation an hour to wait out the storm (and Morgan was still napping anyway) and thankfully it cleared up just as we were getting ready to walk to dinner at One Lake Brewing.
We sat at a table on the rooftop and enjoyed delicious pretzels, burgers, and fish & chips paired with local brews. I think Justin’s favorite was a beer called LANDO.
When Morgan was tired of sitting at the restaurant (a feeling I’m sure all you parents can relate to) we offered to take Dylan to the park we passed on the way, while my aunt and uncle stayed a bit and and finished their drinks.
When we got back to the house after the park, we played some more in the basement. Morgan played with “Papa doll” an inside joke about how my grandpa looks like Mike Ditka. Meanwhile, Dylan, Justin and my uncle Dan raced head-to-head in MarioKart races.
The next morning we said our goodbyes, but not without one last photoshoot!
Despite Morgan not feeling her best, we still had a great trip! Morgan already misses “Deedee” (Dylan) and we are counting down the days until our next visit, which hopefully will be for Thanksgiving!
Thank you, Casey, Danny & Dylan for the hospitality!
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