Short and sweet wedding travel

We left Thursday morning bright and early and took an hour and a half flight up to northern California for a wedding. Caiden was as best as he could be...slept the entire time.

We flew in to Sacramento, rented a car and drove 20 minutes to Davis, a small college town. Marc probably said that he felt like the oldest one there 10 times. The wedding was on Thursday evening so we had to hurry and get ready, meet the babysitter and jump on the shuttle bus to the wedding all before 4pm. Meeting the babysitter was going to be a big deal for us, since we've never left Caiden with anyone but family. The groom's cousin who lives in the area hooked us up with a high school senior from the school she teaches at so at least she came recommended. We only had about 10 minutes to spend with her before we had to jump on the bus for the wedding. She was the sweetest girl and Caiden didn't seem to mind at all. No kicking or screaming or anything...ha. He was obsessed with the balcony we had off our room and when we were leaving we probably said bye bye like 15 times and tried to get a million kisses but he wasn't having it...he was just happy to be on the balcony.

His first nap was right when we arrived, before the sitter showed up.

She sent us a few pictures throughout the night and said he didn't have any problem falling asleep...I thought for sure she was just being nice. I pictured him standing up and throwing his blanket out of the pack n play over and over again. But truth be told, he was a trooper and didn't mind sleeping in a pack n play in the middle of the room at all.

This is the picture the sitter sent us a few hours in. Looked happy to us!

So the wedding was in the middle of nowhere at a place called the Inn at Park Winters. Literally dirt roads took us to a beautiful venue you wouldn't know existed if you were just driving by. I didn't take near enough photos...these were the only few I took. 

The wedding didn't shut down until 1am and we didn't get back to the hotel until 1:30am. We fell asleep around 2 and Caiden woke up right on time at 6am. We were parents of the year that morning, let me tell you. We were really wishing that babysitter was still around. Luckily Caiden could tell we needed a nap a few hours after he woke up so he obliged by napping with us at 8:30am. 

After the nap the bride and groom had arranged for a lunch and hayrack ride tour of the groom's parents nut farm just outside of town. His parents own 600 acres of a walnut farm. It's harvesting time so we were able to see how it all went down. The coolest thing was this machine that grabs the tree by the trunk and shakes it until all the walnuts fall to the ground. It literally shakes the ground you are standing on. Caiden enjoyed the hay rack ride and watching the tractor that was pulling us. It was really a great way to spend the afternoon.

On the way back to the airport on Saturday Caiden fell asleep. It was going to be his last nap and we didn't want to wake him up after only 10 minutes so on our way we drove through downtown Sacramento. The only cool thing we saw was the state capitol.

The flight home wasn't near as good as the one there. It was at 4:30pm so around 5/5:30 Caiden was hungry, tired and cranky. He wasn't a complete nightmare but there were a few times where I looked around to see if I was getting any dirty looks. The 5 hour flight to DC next month is going to be interesting. Timing is really key to flying with a baby. Unfortunately it's not always possible to schedule a flight around their nap schedule.

Airport fun!

I was really not looking forward to having a one year old in a hotel room with us but I was really happy with how it all went down. The balcony was a lifesaver because he was happy just being out there looking down (we were on the second floor). He did get antsy a few times and we had to go let him walk the halls but otherwise it was all good. Even though he went to bed early it was totally fine. Marc and I watched a few shows in bed on the ipad with earbuds in and Caiden didn't notice at all. Overall a very successful trip and it has eased my worries about the upcoming ones!

Oh, and just a heads up.  Marc and I are headed to Cabo with a group of friends in a few days. The inlaws are coming to stay with Caiden. Wish us ALL luck!