Our First Long Trip

On our first long trip, we went to Port Charlotte to see Gary's grandparents on Labor Day weekend. We were so worried about this trip. Was she going to sleep or scream the whole way there and back? We decided that it would be best to leave early Saturday morning. She had started a pattern where she would sleep from like 11:30 and sleep 3 - 4 hours and then she would be back up again to feed and down for another 3-4 hours and continue on this cycle until about noon. So, Madison woke up around 3, we got her fed and packed up and on the road we went. We left Tallahassee at 4am and had to stop at the rest area in Ocala to feed her, then 30-45 minutes later we were back on the road and arrived at Port Charlotte around 10:30am. On the way down, we saw some hot air balloons passing over Tampa (It made us think of our friends in Albuquerque where they have the hot air balloon festival every year in October... maybe they were getting prepared to go to NM). We had a nice visit and Gram and Pa just loved her. The car ride back; however, was not nice. We decided to leave during her 'fussy' period so that when we got home we would be able to sleep. So, we packed up and left Port Charlotte at 9pm Sunday night and headed home. She cried a lot and was just kinda fussy all the way home. But, when we got home at around 2am, she was out like a light. She slept for 6 hours. Even though the ride home was rough, it was worth it. She was going to be fussy anyway, so we thought we might as well ride... plus it kept us awake.