On the road

When Damien and I first found out that we were going to be parents, we were both in a state of shock.  Although many of our good friends had been parents for some time or were soon to be parents themselves, we still felt like being parents was something for people, well, our parents' age.  Tuns out, people our parents' age were mostly grandparents.  Then it hit us.  We were ready to be parents and we would be good ones at that.  Shortly thereafter we talked about what kind of parents we wanted to be.  We had all these ideas of how it would be and how we would be.  We made ridiculous statements like "We will never do that" and "We'll never allow that." Of course it is never exactly how you envision it.    There are things that we have had to let go of and other things that we have full-on changed our minds about.  We've been flexible and tried to do our best to learn as we have gone along.  We've asked for help.  We've modeled what we believe to be good-parenting skills.  We've failed at some things and thrived at others.  We have, however, given each and every step of the way our one-hundred percent best.

One thing that we did decide early on and have managed to stick to so far is that we wanted to continue to do things once our new baby came along.  Since Damien and I met, we have loved to go out and do things.  Our first trip together was after dating for only five months.  We flew to San Francisco for two weeks to meet up with Damien's cousin who flew over from Ireland.  And once we were there, we still had to go out and find more things to do.  We lived it up on Haight/Ashbury with my cousin, with drums circles and late nights stooping it.  We drove to Reno for 4 days.  We went to Yosemite.  We also fell in love on that trip.

Since that first trip, we have been on many others together.  Ireland 3 times. The Dominican Republic.  Up and down the East Coast, from Buffalo NY and Jay VT to the Gulf Coast of Florida and many, many stops in between.  Chicago and back, with pit stops at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame.  We've put almost 100 thousand miles on 2 cars that we've owned for 3+ years.  And many more miles on cars before that.  We always feel the need to go, go, go.  I've been fortunate enough to have done my fair share of traveling before I met Damien and even some without him after we started dating.  I lived in Luxembourg and studied there for a month after my junior year of college. I spent the month going there as well.  Germany.  Paris.  Amsterdam.  Bruges.  I spent a week with friends in Spain with a quick trip to Morocco.  I lived in and studied in Mexico for a month.  And I loved every minute of each of those opportunities.

When Max came along, we decided that we would start traveling with him early on.  Our first road trip with him was to our favorite home away from home in VT.  Max was 6 days old.  And it has just continued on from there.  Last summer it was a week at the Rhode Island Beaches.  A trip to Ireland with lots of travels in between.  This year has been much of the same, with one caveat.  Damien was recently laid off from his day job.  It has left us with a lot of time on our hands and obviously a lot of nerves about what the future will bring.  There is stress that comes with finding a job.  But there is also a lot of freedom that comes with not having one.  So, off we have gone.  We've been to Philly, Sesame Place, NY state, NYC and back.  Then off to the White Mountains in NH for an impromptu visit to Storyland.  We've spent time with good friends and more importantly time as a family.  We are itching to get to Nashville and will, at some point, make it happen.  We don't know what the future will bring but in the meantime, we have to keep going.  I am confident that Damien will find a job that makes him happy.  I am confident that there are many more travels and many more experiences for our family.  I am confident that soon enough, we will be on the road again.

We love documenting our trips as well.  We take A LOT of photos.  If you follow either one of us on instagram, then you have seen the iPhone version of many of these shots.  Most of the pictures below were taken by Damien, although I do grab the camera myself once in a while.  Please excuse the quantity of pictures.  They are so special to me and I wanted them all in one place.