Road Trip

We just got back from our first family road trip! It was a great weekend of fun and family and Ridley did surprisingly well.

We left Friday evening after Philip got off work. Ridley cried a bit on the first leg up and we thought we were going to really be in for it. But we stopped and grabbed some quick dinner that allowed me to nurse and change her. After that she did pretty well. I sat in the backseat and played with her a little and then Philip and I changed places after the second pit stop. Towards the end of the trip (it was about a six hour drive total), she just fell asleep and rested until we arrived in North Wilkesboro.

We stayed that night with my great Aunt Evelyn. She has an RV camper on a mountain campground that is anything but a plain ol' RV. It's more like a small trailer. Aunt Evelyn calls it a "park" model. It was super cozy and comfortable. Ridley didn't sleep through the night once we were settled, but she only woke once and wasn't too fussy. We spent the next day (Saturday) helping Aunt Evelyn cook and talking/catching up. It was wonderful, and Ridley really enjoyed getting to know her Nana Evelyn.

That evening we went to a local church (across from the elementary school where I went to kindergarten and first grade) to have our family dinner. Everyone in my family from my great grandparents and down are welcome to this dinner. That means a lot of people since my great grandparents had seven children! I wish more could have made it, but there were still cousins and aunts aplenty (someone pointed out that our family is good for producing females--definitely true). Among the family that made it: Aunt Nancy, Evelyn and Shirley, cousin Cindy with her family, cousin Lindsey with her new addition, cousins Jessica and Tabetha with their families (Tabetha has another one on the way...a boy!), and cousin Sheila.

My cousin Cindy has a posting on her blog about the dinner and about meeting Ridley that really touched my heart. Here is the link: Soulshine-cindy

Isn't she incredibly sweet, loving and wonderful? And aren't Ridley and I lucky?! Cindy put it a bit more eloquently than I can, but I too felt it was special for Ridley to meet her family and for her family to meet her. (I will post pictures soon under a holiday posting, but for now check out Cindy's post with pictures!).

The next day we had an even larger family lunch (from my great great grandparents down) over at our family church (Bethany). Nana is buried there along with my great grandparents and great uncles. Aunt Nancy and Aunt Evelyn keep their graves full of flowers year round. I helped them this year while Ridley was in the car with Philip to change all the flowers over to winter/Christmas flowers. Then we had a large buffet style lunch with the extended family before heading back on the road (mmmm...southern country cookin'...yummy).

This time we only had to drive a couple of hours down to Gaffney, SC. That's where my dad's side of the family lives. Ridley cried a little on the trip, but fell asleep and let us make pretty good time. Mimi Hilda had everyone over to her house that evening and I don't think I held Ridley all of 20 minutes the whole night! Everyone loved meeting her, holding her and playing with her. I couldn't even begin to name everyone at this family get-together! But my uncles were there and so were all of Mimi Hilda's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren! And of course my dad, aka the new Papa John was also there to dote on his first and only grandchild! Ridley loves her Papa John.

There was so much excitement going on that night, Ridley didn't fall asleep until 1:00am! I thought I had her down around 11:00pm, but I walked back into the bedroom soon after putting her down and there she lay, staring at the ceiling content as could be. I just had to laugh. But once she fell asleep, it was another full night! She didn't wake until about 9:30am.

We headed out on Monday around noon and really had an incredibly smooth trip back. Ridley slept almost the entire way back. Our only stop was in Chapel Hill to eat at PF Chang's. Ridley got to nurse and get changed and we got to sit back and relax a bit too. Of course that night after we got home, Ridley didn't sleep well, but how could she when she had slept all day?!

I wish we could have stayed longer with everyone. I look forward to making another road trip with Ridley when she's a little older. Maybe we'll take a trip with warmer weather next year.