O-H-I-O

So we drove up to Ohio this past weekend to visit my grandparents.  Kaitlyn has never met either of my grandparents so it was great to visit with them and introduce them to their great-granddaughter.  We had a great time but it was a pretty exhausting trip.

 The drive on Friday wasn't awful, it took about 9 hours with several stops.  Kaitlyn didn't sleep much in the car so we had to give her some opportunities to stretch her legs.

Luckily we didn't ever have to stop for food.  I prepared and packed lots of food to take along so we wouldn't have to spend money and also to avoid eating a bunch of junk on the road.  I will probably do a post on what all I packed because it ended up working out really well, we definitely didn't go hungry.

The drive up was pretty smooth, didn't hit much traffic until the very end.  There was a big Jazz festival going on in Columbus and our hotel was right in the heart of  downtown.  By the time we finally made it to the hotel it was about 1am.  Of course Kaitlyn was wide awake when we got to our room and jumped and played on the bed for about an hour before we finally put her down.

The next morning we headed to grandpa's house for a visit.  Kaitlyn is his first great-grandchild so he was pretty excited to see her.  She was a little scared at first seeing a new face but she definitely warmed up to him by the end.  She also got to meet my Aunt Chris, Uncle Jim, and my cousin Camilla who came by to visit while we were in town.  Of course she was showered by all with lots of awesome gifts and treats.  I think she had a pretty good time.

We left Columbus around 11 and headed to Shelby which is about an hour and a half away.  My grandma lives on a huge farm, it used to be one of my favorite places to visit as a kid. I spent countless summers running around, riding horses and climbing trees on the farm. 

 Kaitlyn had a great time meeting grandma and my aunt Heidi and running around outside.  It was a really nice, mild day so we just sat outside on the porch and talked for awhile.

While I wish we could have stayed longer I'm glad we made the trip.  Though I'm not gonna lie, the drive back was BRUTAL.  Kaitlyn pretty much refused to sleep, I think she was just tired of being strapped down in that car seat for so long.  I can't blame her, I wanted to cry too at some points on that never-ending journey home.  One thing you just have to accept when you have kids is that things just take longer.  I guess you just have to learn to go with the flow!