Vacation to Williamsburg

Just wanted to share a good vacation experience, especially since I asked for advice here prior to going on this family trip to Williamsburg, VA.

We broke the 10 hour drive up by stopping at a friend's house in PA there and back. We tried to hit the road at nap times and the kids did great in the car for each 5 hour leg. We stopped once for diaper changes and eating. They took their bottles by themselves in the car and spent the rest of the time playing and sleeping. We had NO meltdowns in the car.

My kids amaze me...they are so adaptable and slept fine in the pack-n-play together (they never have slept together except when we travel) when we were at our friend's house. During the week in Williamsburg, they had seperate pack-n-plays. We stayed at a time-share condo with my parents, my sister, and her friend. The babies slept in the room with us, which worked out just fine - they slept normally and didn't fuss. The hard part for us was getting used to a different vacation schedule with babies. We are used to go-go-going on vacation. We had to learn to be patient and chill out. It took the first few days to establish a new routine, but we did and it worked great.

We would go to the pool in the morning after breakfast and swim until about 11. Then come home and straight to a nap. My babies normally take 2 naps a day, but we found that keeping them up later by swimming made them take one longer nap in the middle of the day, which worked out great. My family would leave to go to whatever activity we were doing that day and my husband and I would stay at the condo while the babies napped. We read, napped, watched t.v. - very relaxing with no house chores to worry about. Then, when the babies got up we would feed them and take them to where ever my family was until dinner time.

We went to Colonial Williamsburg and walked around. We went to Busch Gardens and Water Country. We took them to a museum that I wanted to go (they were great!) and we took some nice drives on the Colonial Parkway. I have to say...having my parents was such a blessing. They did not mind taking the kids back to the condo in the evening so that my husband and I could enjoy the parks by ourselves. We got out almost every evening because my mother had no problem hanging out while the kids slept. The water park was tough - I would not recommend trying that with one-year-old unless you have several people to help out. Watching them, even in the kiddie pool, was definitely a two-person job!

It was just so nice to be somewhere different, do all these fun things, and realize that we can do it! We are headed to Cape Cod in a few weeks and my mom is coming with us. At first I was not sure about two vacations with my family, but after seeing how much help they were, I am so glad she's joining us again!

Just wanted to share a good vacation experience!

Jessica

 

That's fantastic! I love hearing that travel and vacations with twins can work out well.

 

Glad you had a restful and fun vacation!

 

That's awesome!! It sounds like you had a great time!!

 

Wow, sounds so fun!

I'm impressed with your munchkins -- I think mine would have melted down with all that. Adaptability is not a strong trait in our family, LOL.

 

QUOTE(SnowCraig @ Jul 3 2008, 09:10 AM) [snapback]858324[/snapback]
Just wanted to share a good vacation experience, especially since I asked for advice here prior to going on this family trip to Williamsburg, VA.

We broke the 10 hour drive up by stopping at a friend's house in PA there and back. We tried to hit the road at nap times and the kids did great in the car for each 5 hour leg. We stopped once for diaper changes and eating. They took their bottles by themselves in the car and spent the rest of the time playing and sleeping. We had NO meltdowns in the car.

My kids amaze me...they are so adaptable and slept fine in the pack-n-play together (they never have slept together except when we travel) when we were at our friend's house. During the week in Williamsburg, they had seperate pack-n-plays. We stayed at a time-share condo with my parents, my sister, and her friend. The babies slept in the room with us, which worked out just fine - they slept normally and didn't fuss. The hard part for us was getting used to a different vacation schedule with babies. We are used to go-go-going on vacation. We had to learn to be patient and chill out. It took the first few days to establish a new routine, but we did and it worked great.

We would go to the pool in the morning after breakfast and swim until about 11. Then come home and straight to a nap. My babies normally take 2 naps a day, but we found that keeping them up later by swimming made them take one longer nap in the middle of the day, which worked out great. My family would leave to go to whatever activity we were doing that day and my husband and I would stay at the condo while the babies napped. We read, napped, watched t.v. - very relaxing with no house chores to worry about. Then, when the babies got up we would feed them and take them to where ever my family was until dinner time.

We went to Colonial Williamsburg and walked around. We went to Busch Gardens and Water Country. We took them to a museum that I wanted to go (they were great!) and we took some nice drives on the Colonial Parkway. I have to say...having my parents was such a blessing. They did not mind taking the kids back to the condo in the evening so that my husband and I could enjoy the parks by ourselves. We got out almost every evening because my mother had no problem hanging out while the kids slept. The water park was tough - I would not recommend trying that with one-year-old unless you have several people to help out. Watching them, even in the kiddie pool, was definitely a two-person job!

It was just so nice to be somewhere different, do all these fun things, and realize that we can do it! We are headed to Cape Cod in a few weeks and my mom is coming with us. At first I was not sure about two vacations with my family, but after seeing how much help they were, I am so glad she's joining us again!

Just wanted to share a good vacation experience!

Jessica



You should consider posting a picture (if you have any good ones) of the Virginia trip in our Twins in America wiki [wiki]Twins_in_America[/wiki]

I was just curious as to the origin of your username - I'd probably have to pick humiditycraig if I was going to use the same kind of name for myself...

 

QUOTE(twinstuff @ Jul 4 2008, 09:37 AM) [snapback]859926[/snapback]
I'd probably have to pick humiditycraig if I was going to use the same kind of name for myself...


:rofl:


Sounds like a great trip Jessica!

 

What a wonderful trip...I would love to see a few pics.

I'm so glad the kiddos did well and that you and DH got to spend some time together, sans kids.