Our NC Trip- Day 5 & Day 6

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a week since I updated. Get ready for a bunch of Blog posts today, including trip photos, some random thoughts, and new old TV show I just discovered via Instant Netflix!

OK, so to start. Day 5 was fun. It was raining in the morning a ton, so our plans to go to the Arlisle Gardens had to be changed. We went to the Fort Fisher Aquarium instead. Brody LOVED the fish. He would sit on the ledge in front of the glass and just stare at them (and try to catch one every once in a while, hehe).
After the Aquarium it turned out to be a great day. The weather cleared up and we headed downtown to search for Clothes over Bros, and to get some lunch.
We ate at Slice, which will totally be our new pizza place WHEN we move down there. We had an artichoke pizza and it was soooooo good! Then we walked all over town and had dessert at Coastal Cupcakes. YUM! I had a red velvet cupcake and Corey had a cookies and cream one. Brody shared both with us.

Then we went home, packed our suitcases, at a late meal of Wendy's and got ready to leave in the morning. We loved NC. And would recommend Wilmington to anyone looking for a nice vacation spot.

Day 6 - The drive home
We decided to do it in one straight shot, no staying overnight. I drove the first 8.5 hours and Corey took over for the last 9. One shut-down freeway (because of a truck that looked like it had a bite eaten out of it by Godzilla), and 3 detours because of construction later, we arrived home at 2am.

Maybe I already did this on my post about driving out, but here are some tips for long car trips with a baby (our is 10 months old):

- Plan some time for the passenger to sit in back to entertain the little one, but don't forget about your significant other that has the boring task of driving. Each need attention. We did both in front for the first leg of the drive before we had to stop for gas, because Brody always slept that entire time, then we would do one of us in back to feed and entertain Brody while he was awake.

- Bring plenty of interesting car friendly toys. Babies get bored VERY fast when they have to sit in the same spot for hours on end.

- When you stop make sure you take said baby out of the car and get some active time in. Sure it cost us 30+ minutes per each stop, but a happy baby and a baby that gets to stretch and get the blood flowing through their little body, is totally worth it!

- Bring puffs and biter biscuits along for the ride - Brody loves these things and is a good distraction while you are preparing food on the road.

- Water bottles (if you are bottle feeding) and travel sized container of formula. Just enough formula for our trip and in a less bulk container than the normal ones we buy. We would make bottles on the road for when he got hungry to avoid any unnecessary stops.

- Disposable Spoons - Take and Toss is the brand name. Awesome. No cleaning up spoons on vacation! Now if they only made bottles as well!

- And last but not least, THE ONLY TIME we had a fussy baby in the car was when he needed to be changed. So if he got fussy we stopped regardless if we got gas 30 minutes before hand. And always lathered his tush up with tons of butt paste. These two things will help you avoid nasty diaper rash from sitting all day long!!