NJ trip - June 21-Jul 1, 2013

We recently returned from a trip visiting family in NJ.  We arrived in NJ super duper late on June 21 (Caitlin didn't go to bed until past 1am EST), and we caught the first flight back home on July 1st at 6am EST (which meant we were up at 3am EST, which is midnight PST!).
We had quite the whirlwind week, where we squeezed in 2 parties and tried to fit in as much family time as we could in between Caitlin's rigid schedule.
Even though we didn't do any sight seeing in New Jersey, I actually preferred it that way.  You can't get to any hotspot destinations in NJ without driving at least 1 hour one-way, and since Caitlin hates car rides and has a limited schedule, I was much happier just hanging out at home. =)   Traveling with a baby makes mama work double-time (Caitlin was super fussy and getting her to sleep was tough), so I was extra tired.  No way I had energy to sight see!  We also discovered that one of Caitlin's favorite activities is playing with a hose in the yard, so when we arrived back in LA, one of the first things we did was order a hose!

Here is a sample of some of the pictures from NJ,

From Somerset, NJ - June 2013

From Somerset, NJ - June 2013

From Somerset, NJ - June 2013

View the rest of the album here:

Somerset, NJ - June 2013

One of the highlights of this trip, was that Caitlin and I got to see fireflies for the first time.  If you didn't know, fireflies do not exist west of the Appalachian mountains, which is why you never see them in CA. Here if a vid of us chasing fireflies:



Oh, and if you were wondering how the flight there and back went, I would say the flight there was tough.
On the flight to NJ, we flew during Caitlin's scheduled nap time.  But instead of napping her usual 1-2 hours, she napped a whopping 20 minutes!!  We spent the remainder of the 5 hour flight trying so hard to entertain her, show her cartoons on the laptop, feed her snacks, give her OJ to drink, let her play with plastic cups and ice.... you name it.  And every time she cried (which was frequent), I would nurse her.  I got to the point where I whipped out my boob so much that I didn't care who saw my boobs, as long as it kept Caitlin quiet. Having the option to nurse her to shut her up was so nice.  Once Caitlin is weaned, flying/traveling will be incredibly hard.

The flight back was GREAT.
We were the last to board the flight and we noticed that the entire row in front of us was empty!  They must have missed their flight since we were the last to board and it was a completely booked flight. Quick-thinking Jeff immediately hopped into the empty row and claimed the seats.  It was so nice to have all 3 seats for the 3 of us (having a lap baby is HARD when having to squeeze into only 2 seats).  Caitlin loved the freedom to roam across the seat, look out the window, stare at people down the aisle... Caitlin barely cried during the flight.  Also, Caitlin napped for an hour on the flight since we were up since 3am that morning, so that was nice too.  We finally arrived back at LAX at 8am, and it felt like we already spent an entire day awake, but the day was just starting!  As we were leaving the plane, several passengers on the plane stopped to tell us how behaved Caitlin was, and that they didn't even know we had a baby during the flight!  One lady even stopped us in the terminal to compliment how well-behaved Caitlin was.
I couldn't be prouder of Caitlin.