Long overdue, I am here to tell you that we survived the 3-1/2 hour trip to and from my parents for the first time! The weekend of June 3, we spent visiting Jameson’s grandparents on my side of the family. We were excited that Jameson would get to see his uncle Tyler again for the first time since his birth, to spend some time with some other cute dogs, and that he would get to see his grandparents and Aunt Holly for a more extended visit (does 2 days count as extended?)

On Friday night, we left around 8 pm. Packing up baby was a lot more work than either of us expected. My parents didn’t have a crib (yet… *hint hint*) so we folded up our pack and play, packed a ton of outfits for Jameson, plus bottles and my pump, his new Jumparoo which was still in a box and super convenient to take for entertainment, and his activity mat. All in all, 3/4 of the car was taken up with Jameson and his stuff, and Brian and I had one little bag. So consumed with getting Jameson ready, I forgot my favorite hair dryer!

Jameson slept through the whole car ride, was up for about an hour when we arrived late, and then went to sleep like a champ. Phew, that was easy!

The biggest reason for our visit was my sister’s high school graduation.

She graduated with some 600-700 kids. (I did not try to count the names in the program). My maiden name begins with a Y as well, so on top of there being a lot of kids, we actually had to wait through that lot of kids before hearing her name called. I would call this a high risk Jameson situation.

But he was a champ. After about an hour of people watching, he fussed and we fed him; then with a little of what I call dad-magic, Jameson was asleep in Brian’s arms for the later half of name calling.

All-in-all, we didn’t have to leave and were able to stay through the whole 2-1/2 hour she-bang. I call that a win!

Here are the stars of the show, graduate and Mr. Jameson

Jameson enjoyed meeting other puppies and exploring his brand-new Jumparoo which has 3 of his favorite toys, I am not sure what to call them other than spinning circle things. AND of course, he loved seeing his grandparents, uncle and aunt.

My parents’ garden exploded with strawberries this year for some reason, and we had about a quart of strawberries to go with two kinds of pasta salad and steak. What a wonderful summer meal!

On Sunday, we had spaghetti lunch (tradition in our house growing up) with family friends, the one who made Jameson’s wonderful baby quilt, custom with the fabric she and my mother picked out.

We also got to spend some time with my old high school friend Katie, her husband Dave, and their son just one week younger than Jameson, Mark. It was wonderful to see another baby so close in age to Jameson. They were cute together, though Jameson was a little cranky after this adventure-filled weekend.

The drive home was a little rougher, since we left earlier, around 6 pm. We were hoping Jameson would go ahead and nap the whole way again, but contrary little man did it in chunks, waking up to cry and play off and on during the whole trip. But we didn’t have any screaming fits or reasons to pull over. Sasha of course was delighted to see us come home though she had a blast at her other grandparents’ house while we were away.

We had a blast, and hopefully we’ll be able to make the trip again soon. Hopefully with a little less stuff. I am pretty sure we packed enough to spend a week there. Which I’m sure my parents would’ve loved, haha.