Levi's First Vacation - Part I

Over 1 week ago, Dustin, Levi, and I made our trek to Sevierville, TN (just outside Gatlinburg) to have a family vacation with my side if the
family (how do people keep these blogs so current?). It'll probably be a long time before we will be able to all get together like this again given that all three of us girls are married and living in three different locations (and, mostly, my awful work schedule come November).

This was a great trip! It was the first time Levi was able to meet his Aunt Heather and Uncle Greg as well as Aunt Megan and Uncle Ben, Regrettably, I didn't take a picture of Levi with each of them (missed Heather and Ben). The condo was close-quarters, but great to all be together! The short week went by too quickly.


I really wish I had taken a picture of our car and how much junk we had in there! Traveling with a little one was NOT easy! For being so little, he needed so much stuff! Dustin and I tried to be as efficient as possible in trying to keep the "4 hour road trip" as close to that as possible (I think it took us 6 hours). I was pumping milk in the car (covered up, sorry truck drivers!) so that we could give Levi a bottle when we stopped for gas, food, and a diaper change. Levi cooperated for the most part well with this plan, sleeping most of the time in the car without a complaint. Ten minutes away from the place, Levi started crying, likely because it was time to eat again. We were hoping to do a full-feeding once we got there, but we decided to stop to change his diaper, and I could sit in the back with him, holding a bottle for him in the car seat just to pacify him a little bit until we could stop and do the full-feeding. Well, when we stopped, we were in for a treat! I say "we", but it was more Dustin. He put his hand underneath Levi to pull him out from his carseat and found it to be wet . . . Levi had leaked poop ALL over the place! No, not just a little stain on his outfit. It had leaked down into the seat. I want to emphasize into, because it had soaked the infant cushion, into the cracks of the belt, and even down to the carseat base! Just when Dustin thought he had cleaned everything, he would move the belt, and discover more in the crevices! Needless to say, we conveniently decided Levi was just now big enough that we could retire the infant cushion insert!

What's funny, is that as soon as we laid Levi down on seat of the car to change his diaper, he gave me a big stretch and flashed me the biggest smile!

Lucky for you, I took no pictures of this event, but it did necessitate a bath for Levi that night! Here he is in the kitchen sink of the condo:

We thought we'd see what Levi thought about swimming.
Levi's first-ever dip in the pool on his Two Month birthday!

Woaa! It's too cold!

"Get me outta here!"

Cuddly, traumatized, Levi, post-pool.

Us enjoying yummy ice cream in downtown Sevierville.

Levi, meet Aunt Megan!

Grandpa just chatting away with Levi, and Levi loving it.

Levi meeting Uncle Greg!

Swimming, Take Two:
We decided to try the kiddie pool in the evening (versus the morning, what we tried earlier), finding the water to be warmer. A little hesitant, Levi seemed to tolerate this dip more.

"What are you doing, Dad??"

Finally giving in to the pool, I think he started to enjoy it a little!

On my brother-in-law, Ben's, side of the family, his sister and sister-in-law also recently had little boys. All of Ben's family came over for dinner one of the nights to celebrate his birthday, including his nephews. Since they were also so close in age, we had a little photo-shoot with all the babies. Left to right: Wyatt (4.5 months), Harper (5.5 months), and Levi (then, 2 months).

What's cute is that Levi was a little fussy when placed down, and Haper quickly patted him on the head to comfort him. It worked! :-) Levi is nearly just as long as these babies, just lacking in the chub.

Tired Levi trying to lift his head with the big-boys. (He can usually get it higher, but was worn out at this point).

The men enjoyed their Rock Band time on the Nintendo Wii.