And so beings another year of tradition

We made it.  It was a rough day trying to get here, but we finally made it to Santa Cruz.  We left the house at 3:30 and made it here finally at 8pm.  We wanted to turn around when the traffic came to a stand still.  The kids were all crying and dinner time was fast approaching.  We decided to stop for food.  After dinner, we checked the traffic again.  It was still showing stopped traffic all the way to the summit.  We went home to get the kids into jammies.  Malachy was upset.  We had left the house with the promise of going to Santa Cruz.  now Mal thought we weren't going to go.  Jake and I gave each other the "suicide mission" look, loaded the kids back into the car and hit the road.

Mal and Ruthie break in the hammock
(aka, the hampster as Mal refers to it)

We were coming down 17 on the Santa Cruz side and the traffic let up.  I could smell the ocean air.  2 out of 3 kids were still awake and crying off and on.  I was calm anyway.  Santa Cruz has that effect on me. .

By the time we rolled into Santa Cruz, our very full Swagger Wagon was loaded up with baby gear and 3 very, very tired kids.  Mal and Lailah had fallen asleep.  Tegan of course had not.  Lailah woke up when the car stopped.  She needed to be back asleep. Bed time was rough.  The house is full of baby dangers (stairs, concrete floors, uncovered outlets, floor lamps and sharp corners.  We have 3 conflicting kid schedules and girls who are still recovering from 6 shots each and lots of teeth coming in.

The day of packing with grumpy kids and the drive over here made me long for the days of taking vacations without having to lug around cribs and high chairs and strollers and bottles, binkies, toys and books and the potty. It was so much stress.

Jake and Howard waste no time getting goofy
How cute, matching shirts!

I long for the days of simpler travel, but really I am so excited to experience Santa Cruz in a whole new way.  We used to come and go eat at all our favorite haunts, invite our friends over and hang out at the beach drinking beer not worrying about anything.  Even the last year we came when Mal was a baby was relaxed and care free (we skipped last years vacation because there the girls were due any day). Santa Cruz used to be a very different type of vacation for us.

It's stressful and it's hard, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else this week.  It's the first year Mal is going to remember going to Santa Cruz for our annual beach vacation.  Although they won't remember it, the girls will be on the beach and on the ocean for the first time.  I know we are going to look back on it and remember having a very hard, but wonderful great time.  This is the stuff memories are made of.  I am looking forward to a week of new memories in our same old vacation spot.