It's a... blog!: "It's a... blog!" on Vacation, Part One

This month, the time finally arose that we took our first vacation as a family. Not a day trip to the aquarium, but a real, honest to goodness, vacation. Packing the car almost to the point of bursting. Days spent almost entirely in said car. Crossing multiple state lines. Experiencing all the good and bad things about family trips. The trip had multiple phases, each of which I'll cover separately.

The first leg of the trip was in Clemson. We left on a Thursday morning. Actually, we had intended to leave in the morning. At 10:00, to be exact. Our first lesson learned from this trip came before we had left: it takes a hell of a long time to get packed and ready to go when you have two kids who require constant supervision during the process. Instead of 10:00, we pulled away at 12:45. Despite the large delay in getting started, the trip went pretty well.

Until the last 30 minutes. By that point, the boys were getting tired and hungry. It was dark. Not in-town-dark, with the ambient light that comes with it, but middle-of-nowhere-dark. And we were stuck behind an 18-wheeler on a winding, hilly, two lane road, with no opportunity to pass. Both of them cried for some portion of the 30 minutes (that felt like 30 hours), with Brogan spending the time he wasn't crying by screaming bloody murder.

On Friday, we bombed on our attempt to get a family picture with The Rock. Instead, we had to settle for the Tiger Cub statue outside the IPTAY office. Ayden wasn't exactly cooperative. I'm not sure if he was scared of it, or just being a pain, or both. Regardless, we didn't get any usable pictures with him in it.

Then we went downtown for a bit. Ayden absolutely loved running around Tiger Sports Shop. After spending an inordinate amount of time there, we headed back in the direction of the house we were staying in, stopping for lunch by the lake along the way. After Ayden finished his lunch, our waitress brought out a box of blocks for him to play with. He spent most of the time just pushing the box around the wooden deck, but did stop to stick a few of them together.

You'll notice Ayden is wearing a purple Clemson jersey. It's a #2 jersey, the one currently worn by WR Sammy Watkins. G-Daddy taught Ayden a little chant to go with the jersey: "Sammy, Sammy, Sammy....TOUCHDOWN!" Ayden loves his jersey - actually, he loves all his Clemson clothes now, that's what he has wanted to wear since we got home from the trip - and will randomly bust out the Sammy chant, or a "Go Tigers!" We also taught him to say "Clemson" (his version sounds like "Tlemson," which is really hard to duplicate). As Clemson grads, we couldn't be prouder. The indoctrination has begun.

Anywho, after lunch and naptime back at the house, Ayden spend some time by the lake with his Uncle Ray, whom he had just met.

Saturday, of course, was gameday. And gameday = tailgating. The boys loved tailgating. Ayden got to run around and play with lots of different things and just be a kid, while Brogan got a whole bunch of attention. Allison and I just soaked up the opportunity to see the boys experience something that has been a big part of our lives, both as individuals and a couple, and to spend time with friends we hadn't seen since before Ayden was born.

(more tailgating pictures after the break)

Our first Clemson tailgate.

Ayden and Sawyer had a lot of fun with the various footballs and other items available to throw.

Brogan and Ben had fun, too.

When we weren't in Clemson, Ayden and Brogan played with the toys CeeCee and G-Daddy brought for them. Ayden really enjoyed the little wagon, which he used to pull things around, including Brogan.