First Mommy-Daughter Road Trip!

I've been getting the travel bug for awhile, but we haven't had a lot of spare money to plan a major vacation. (I can't WAIT to take Rose to the ocean, but alas we just haven't had the resources to do such a thing. YET.)   So a couple weeks ago, as Mike was planning a solo getaway to the arrowhead region for some ice fishing, I decided to get a little creative with planning my own vacation. Of course I wanted to go South for some warmth at the end of winter, but instead of the gulf coast I figured that maybe Iowa would be a little more in line with the realities of our financial situation.  My friend Megan (and her family) moved away last fall, and she had given us an open invitation to come visit them in Cedar Rapids. Well, having a trip SOUTH at the end of winter seemed like a great opportunity, even if the initial allure of Iowa wasn't quite as strong as the allure of the ocean. But the promise of a cheap, fun, and do-able getaway was too great to pass up! And such a trip would be my first chance to try some solo travel with Rose -- Mike has taken her to Hayward by himself a couple times, but I've never been alone in the car with her for more than an hour or so - I think Northfield has been our limit.   Once we settled on our road trip destination, I was able to look forward with excitement to the last weekend in March!!

As it got closer, Rose got more and more excited about our "road trip." I don't think she entirely understood what we would be doing, but she knew that I would both drop her off and pick her up from school, that she would have a half day at school, that we would be bringing our suitcases for a sleepover, and that she would get to play with some new friends. Pretty soon she was hooked!  The night before, we worked on packing her suitcase, which she LOVED doing. Then we were going to back some brownies to bring with us, but she was so worried that I hadn't packed yet! I tried to tell her that I would pack after she went to sleep, but she ultimately decided that she would rather help me pack than bake the brownies!

The morning of our adventure, she insisted on bringing her own suitcase out to the car. She was SO excited!

I picked her up at about 1pm, which I thought would be perfect timing since she normally naps from 1-ish to 3-ish. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...  At 2pm we stopped for a quick potty (for her) and caffeine (for me) break, and it wasn't until 4:40pm she finally dozed off. Oy vey!  We pulled in to Cedar Rapids at about 5:20, at which time the change from highway speeds to local roads woke up Little Miss. After a quick consultation with Megan, we decided to meet up at Chick Fil A for dinner. Now, I was a little nervous about it since I'm not a huge fan of fast food, the MN location has never been convenient for me to try, and I'm vehemently opposed to their politics. But now I'm singing a different song because (a) the food was delicious (Rose also agreed!) and (b) the play area was perfect for our three little ones.  And they've stopped supporting anti-LGBT organizations, so it's okay to eat there now, right??

After dinner we went to Megan's house, where the kids (Rose - almost 3, Norah - 4.5, and Henry - almost 2) all played for a little while before bedtime. Rose went to bed like a champ, and I stayed up way too late drinking wine and catching up with Megan - it was lovely!!!

The next morning we saw that Rose and Henry happened to be wearing the exact same pajamas!

Norah was happy to be the star of the pictures!

I was the odd woman out - my pajamas didn't match anyone else's!

After breakfast we went on a "nature walk" in the woods behind their house.

We even got to see deer!!

 

We also played outside for a little while before lunch.

It was so much to see Rose getting along with her friends!!

For lunch Megan also invited over her new coworker (and my former grad school colleague) Catalina. It was so great to catch up with her, and to hear about how her husband Kristian (also a former grad school colleague, member of my intern class, and now personality research bigwig) is doing.

After lunch came nap time...

...followed by some exploration of downtown Cedar Rapids! They have a beautiful public library with a GREAT kids' section.

We also walked around the Newbo Market, and then ate dinner at the Parlor Pub. Rose was so excited to get a Happy Hour drink (root beer), macaroni and cheese, applesauce, AND ice cream for dinner!

(for some reason the picture of her huge smile with all her dinner favorites won't load. Sorry!)

Then on Sunday morning, it was time to head out! Rose had a minor meltdown when she saw a ladybug on the window of our car, but all was well by the time we got to Culver's for lunch. (Remember what I said about generally not liking fast food? Culver's totally doesn't count because they have AMAZING cheese curds.)

And after all the driving we did, Rose definitely needed to get to the park on Sunday afternoon to get in some gross motor activity!

All in all, it was a GREAT vacation. Having something to look forward to certainly helped me to get through the month of March, and it was SO great catch up with Megan. I was surprised that a part of me was sort of envious of the quiet rhythm of life in a "small" town like Cedar Rapids (although not so intrigued that I would actually want to pick up our MN roots!). The trip also gave me some new confidence as a mom: four+ hours in the car each way and only one relatively minor meltdown? not bad! I also learned some skills toward being a better "free range parent," as I could see that having two kids certainly forces one to be less immediately responsive to a single child's desires - I learned to step back a bit and Rose work things out more on her own (such as sharing with Norah) instead of immediately stepping in to mediate. I also learned that I love chick-fil-a, even if I feel immense liberal guilt for professing such a thing. Finally, in one of my discussions with Megan I reflected a bit on the role of social media in my life. For the longest time I thought I was immune to the negative effects of Facebook, but recently I've observed my subjective well-being is inversely related to the amount of time I spend on Facebook - I think this is because I see all the travels that my friends do (even if it's infrequent for any one person, with 100+ friends it can look as if everyone is traveling all the time!) and I start to feel jealous, poor and inadequate. As a result, I've been trying to decrease my time on FB, and instead focus more on my blog. I think this blog functions more as medium for healthy self-reflection (like a journal), rather than unhealthy social comparison. In addition, it allows me to both reflect on recent events (thus prolonging positive experiences, and allowing me to process negative ones) and also to be more present in everyday events (e.g., the "Rose-isms" posts) that I might otherwise forget. Finally, I enjoy writing and photography, and this blog helps me keep those creative pursuits active at least a little bit.  I'm appreciative for my time driving and talking to Megan in order to reflect on all of these topics this past weekend!

Well, it's coming up on my bedtime again, so I will leave you with this final image of Rose in her favorite princess dress-up outfit. Have a great week!