The One with the Wedding

We took a road trip to Chicago for my best friend's wedding last weekend.

The trip was long and there was an awful lot of driving involved, but it was a great weekend.

On Friday, we had the rehearsal and dinner.  Hubs hadn't arrived yet so it was just my mom, Liam, and I at the hotel at that point.  We decided earlier that day that Liam would stay at the hotel with my mom after seeing everyone at the rehearsal and I would go to the dinner by myself.  I really needed to focus on being the MOH and he really needed a normal, quiet night without a ton of people around.  The dinner was a lot of fun and mommy had her first real drinks since starting IVF last summer.  I forgot to take a picture, but those glasses of Prosecco were delish.

Liam was great for my mom on Friday night and I while I missed him a ton, it was nice to have a night out.

On Saturday morning, L was up bright and early and I headed out to the airport to pick up Hubs, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend.  They slept for most of the morning while I had my hair and makeup done.  My mom walked several miles in the hotel throughout the day with Liam in the stroller to keep him occupied.

Liam looked absolutely adorable in his outfit for the ceremony.

The ceremony had to be held indoors because of some storms earlier in the day.

 

Nic was a trooper that day as the photographer had us schlepping all around the grounds to take pictures.  It was so hot and humid!

The beautiful bride and I.

Liam switched into his seersucker suit for the reception.  He got lots of compliments!  Here are a couple family pictures (it's still so weird to say that!)

 

 The brave bride holding the could-spit-up-at-any-moment baby.

My mom took Liam back to the room after cocktail hour.  They both needed a break from the crowd and the noise.  Hubs and I were able to enjoy ourselves, even though Mommy went up to check on Liam several times!

The wedding was held at the Hyatt Lodge on the McDonalds Campus.  They have a university on the campus where the managers and franchisees train.  Because of that, they served cheeseburgers at the end of the night.  It was the perfect snack!

The happy bride and groom.

We had a great time celebrating with Nicolette and Brian and it was such a fun weekend!

The One with the Road Trip

This post could also be entitled "The One Where I May Be a Little Insane."

My best friend got married last weekend.

I was the Matron of Honor.

In Chicago.

Side note: I live nowhere near Chicago.

Last year, when I found out I was pregnant, the anxiety about this whole trip set in.  How the hell was I going to be in a wedding halfway across the country with a newborn?  During the very early stages of the pregnancy, when there was still a risk of a miscarriage, I had to order my dress.  All I could think about was what if we have to do IVF again and I am very pregnant for this wedding?  Will said dress fit?  If I do have a newborn in June, how will we get out to Chicago?  I was legit stressed out about all of this.

My mom came up with what she thought would be a brilliant solution.

"We will just drive to Chicago," she said.

Here's me..."Uh drive?  You do know that Chicago is in like the middle of the country where all those flat states are, right?"

My mother loves to drive.  She drives back and forth to North Carolina like it's nothing.  And she's made about a bazillion trips up to Rhode Island from Connecticut since Liam was born (which has been a HUGE help I might add).

I don't mind driving either, but this drive seemed a little daunting.

However, we decided it was our best option.  Hubs, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend would fly out for the wedding and my mom, Liam and I would take a week or so to travel the 1000ish miles and back.

Enter the stress about packing all the things.

Do you have any idea what it's like to travel for a week with a baby?

Oh em gee.

I had no less than 700 lists going with everything we would need, piles of clothes and supplies everywhere, and more baby gear packed than one would ever need.  Plus all the things that Hubs and I would need for the wedding (because I certainly wasn't going to trust him to pack and travel with his own suit).  We also had a bunch of my brother and his girlfriend's stuff so they wouldn't have to fly with it.

My car was stuffed.

 Why yes, that is the whale bathtub.  

My baby sleeps for 7-9 hours a night since I started giving him a bath.  No way Mama was effin up that routine just because we were traveling so you bet that thing was coming with us.

You obviously don't need to see out your back window to drive.

And the KitchenAid was for the bride, not for baking along the trip.

My mom sat in the back with L and I drove.  We headed out from RI around 5 am on June 19th with plans to sleep in Erie, PA that night.  The first half of the trip was about 550 miles.

Honestly, Liam could not have been a better passenger.  He slept for long stretches and when he wasn't sleeping, he was a happy baby.  We stopped every 3ish hours to feed him which gave us a nice break from sitting in the car.

When we got to Erie around 2:00 that afternoon, it really didn't feel like we had been in the car for 9 hours.  We all got a good night's sleep and headed out early again the next morning to do the next 450ish to Nicolette's house.

Thursday's drive was also great.  We hit some traffic in Indiana, but again, Liam was awesome in the car.  He definitely got hot and sweaty in his car seat, but was really such a great baby.  We arrived around 1:45 that afternoon (which was really 12:45 central time) and got to visit with Nicolette and her family that night.  I was thoroughly exhausted and had a little meltdown about life in general but some migraine meds and sleep worked wonders.

The rehearsal and wedding were so much fun (I'm going to do a separate post about them) and Liam was a big hit.  

On Monday morning, we got back in the car and made the short trip (couple hundred miles is nothing after two days of 500 miles each!) to Columbus, Ohio where my great aunt lives.  She's a Dominican Sister of Peace so Liam had his first overnight visit to a convent on this trip!  All the nuns loved him and my aunt was just so happy to have us visit.

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early again and started the 800+ mile journey home to RI.  This was by far the "worst" day.  I use that term really loosely because Liam was still great in the car, but it was a lot of driving and I was still pretty exhausted from the wedding festivities.  We also hit some really nasty rain in the Berkshires.  By the time we got home around 7:30 that night, I was pretty cranky.  Hubs wanted nothing more than to show me the new TV all set up (remember it was set up incorrectly still) and all I wanted to do was unpack and go to sleep.  I am also one of those people who needs to get everything unpacked and laundry started as soon as I get home.  Yeah I know I need help.

So the little man is now a cross country traveler.  I think we picked the perfect age to travel that far with him because he really did sleep most of the time.  It was a great trip and it was fun to get to spend that much time with my mom just talking and hanging out.

And, guess who's doing another long car trip with her infant in about 3 weeks?  This crazy chick.  We are going down to Sunset Beach, NC to visit family.  Hopefully we are as successful with this second trip.

And I was not sorry we packed that whale bathtub.