Vacation Plans

The next few days are going to be relatively busy ones as Matt and I start preparing for our vacation. We leave on Sunday for a tour of Texas. Actually, most of the trip is for practical reasons that just happen to fall around the same time. We're just throwing in a few extras to turn it into a real family vacation--our first.

We start out in Austin next week. Matt has a class he has to take for work that has to take place at National Instruments in Austin. He is allowed to take Patrick and me along since the hotel costs the same for three people as one. That makes the first leg of our vacation somewhat inexpensive.

From there, we head to Matt's hometown of Big Spring for his brother's wedding. That should be lots of fun. Patrick hasn't been there yet (outside my belly anyway). It will be great for him to see his grandparents again, and this time on their home turf. We're also excited to introduce Patrick to Matt's dog from before we got married. Matt's parents have been taking care of Leda until we're able to take her back. (I think Matt's parents are getting kind of attached to her, though. I can see how that could happen.)

We'll stay in Big Spring for close to a week. During that time Matt and I are planning to spend a night in Lubbock--away from Patrick. We both went to college in Lubbock with part of that time overlapping, and somehow we never met. It will be neat to share our different memories of the same town. We're starting to get a bit nervous about leaving Patrick for a full night, but we know he'll be in the best of care with his grandparents. I have a feeling we'll be making plenty of calls to Big Spring that night, though!

From Big Spring, we'll drive to Dallas, making a stop in Abilene on the way. My brother lives in Abilene, and it looks like we'll be there on his birthday. How could we pass up the opportunity to spend some time with him on his birthday? We're not sure yet what we're planning to do once we get to my parents' place in Dallas. A few options we're considering include another night away at the bed and breakfast where we honeymooned and perhaps a day at Six Flags. We're both roller coaster junkies and haven't gone to an amusement park together yet.

The whole trip should be lots of fun. Right now, it's just fun thinking about it and planning for it. Our list of errands and things we need for the trip keeps growing, and with it some minor stress, but most of these are fun things. We need lots of little things for Patrick. For example, last weekend we bought him that smaller, more portable stroller. We're also accumulating the things he needs for swimming, since the first hotel has a pool. Speaking of that, does anybody know where we might find a swimsuit small enough for him? The smallest size I've found is 12 months, which is definitely too big for him.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on so long about our upcoming vacation. It's probably not nearly as interesting to everyone else as it is to us; that's just what is on my mind most right now, since it's just around the corner.

I've had this video ready to put on the blog for several days now and just kept forgetting. Here, Patrick is standing up on Matt's lap. He'd been standing for a long time, so his legs keep giving out, but you can still see how strong he's getting.