Vacation - It's a Family Affair

A couple of weeks ago, we had the annual Rankin family vacation. (not to be confused with the Griswold's family vacation!) This year we were off to Hilton Head for the week. After attending Smith and Addison's birthday party on Saturday, we got on the road in what we were hoping would be an enjoyable car ride. After several shoulder tightening, stress inducing, solo car rides with Carter, I decided to borrow a DVD player from a friend in hopes that it would keep him entertained and perhaps he would choose not to scream/cry at mommy the whole time and mommy wouldn't have to sing for 2 hours straight to keep her head from exploding. It didn't work. BUT, Scott was with us, so at least we had one parent to drive and one to constantly feed new toys to the back seat to shush the whining.

We finally arrived and enjoyed some awesome family time. I don't get to see Scott's family very often, so it's always fun catching up and seeing how all the kiddos have grown. I really think I'm building up a tolerance for all the noise that comes with a family that large. I'm not sure if having a child has anything to do with that, but I'm sure it does.

We went to the beach every day that I was there. Carter loved the water and the sand, although after about an hour he was ready to go inside for some snoozing. It was definitely a little bit different than my typical vacationing where I take a book and my Ipod and lay out on the beach all day. We also took a brief outing to the outlet stores which is always fun. We had wonderful dinners every night, because each couple was responsible for a different night of dinner. We also got some amazing family pictures, because Sean has taken up photography as a hobby! YAY! For a novice, he really has a amazing eye for pictures.

We normally vacation during the first week of August every year which happens to include Ardy's (my mother-in-law) and my birthday. So on Monday night, we shared a birthday dinner, had two cakes, and received lots of sweet cards from the family. Scott's mom even made me an Ardy Rankin original bracelet for my birthday! I love her jewelry making hobby too! (Such a talented family!) Then on Tuesday morning, Ardy took all of the girls out for coffee and pastries at a local bakery to celebrate my birthday.

Tuesday night I had to leave to return to Columbia for work. Since I've only been in my position since January, I don't have a lot of time off saved up yet, and I didn't want to use everything I had in one shot. You never know when you'll have a sick child and have to stay home, so I wanted to keep a few days in reserve. I had been dreading this since the plans for the vacation had been finalized. I was going to come home, and Carter was going to stay on vacation with daddy. Up until this point, I hadn't even spent one night away from Carter. And here I am going to be without him for FOUR nights. Needless to say, I was a little bit of a mess when I was telling them both goodbye. But I got got on the road, called a friend and dried up the tears.

I had something planned for every night, so I wasn't just sitting at home missing my baby. I actually did pretty well I think. Scott and Carter came home on Saturday morning. I smiled a little on the inside when Scott was recounting the remaining days of vacation and telling me how difficult it was by himself because Carter didn't want anything to do with anyone else (I've definitely been there on more than one occasion). He also thought that Carter was missing his mommy and boy I can relate because I was missing that little guy too.

But all in all, they survived, I survived, and it was a great vacation. Next year though, I'm staying the whole time, even if I have to take unpaid leave. We'll just have to deal!