Galavanting to Gilroy

Last fall, as the idea of a second child was starting to set in, my cousin Megan announced that she would be getting married on February 7th.  As Sara and I stared at the Save the Date we also began trying to formulate various plans based on the fact that #2 was due on January 31st.  Among the varying plans:

- Connor was 5 days early, so I bet the next baby will be even earlier.  They'll be 3 weeks old by the time the wedding roles around.  We're Going!!

- There's no way we're driving 5 hours each way to spend a night in a hotel room with a toddler and a newborn.  We'll send a card.

- Mom and baby should stay in LA, but Connor and Dad can make the trip and congratulate Megan and Manny.  Wait, this almost sounds reasonable.  Hmm

For the months leading up to the wedding we vacillated between Option #1 and Option #3.  After Owen was born and the delivery took significantly more out of Sara than Connor's delivery, Option #3 was looking like a clear winner.  We even notified Megan that it would only be the two of us.

Well, as the wedding date inched closer Sara's FOMO (fear of missing out) began to ratchet up, and she started subtly campaigning for the whole family to make the trip.  It started out small, with statements like "I'm feeling a lot better today.  Sitting in the car on the way to Owen's doctor appointment isn't bothering me at all."  On Wednesday, two days before the wedding, it moved all the way to "One night in a hotel room can't be that bad.  We'll be up and back in no time, piece of cake."  After another text to Megan adjusting our family count once again we decided to make the trek.

We left Friday morning at 7am and hit the road on the way to Gilroy, CA.  The drive really couldn't have gone better.  We made a quick stop in Buttonwillow to enjoy all the culinary delights that Denny's had to offer, Owen got a quick snack and then it was back in the car.  We arrived in Gilroy at 12:30pm, with the wedding that evening at 4pm.  Not too shabby.  We all managed to get ourselves dressed, Owen wearing his finest onesie, and headed out to the wedding.

It was great being able to celebrate with Megan and Manny and I am so happy that we were there.  As an only child my cousins were the closest thing I had to siblings and it would have been awful to not be able to celebrate with Megan on such a special day. Owen slept throughout the ceremony and Connor loved playing with his cousins Edy and Shea.

We headed back to the hotel for the night, which Sara and I were both a little nervous about.  It certainly wasn't the best night sleep I've ever had, but it wasn't the worst either.  Owen woke up like a 9 day old baby does, Connor woke up a couple of times when the 9 day old baby woke him up, but all in all I think Sara and I managed to find a few minutes of shut eye.

On Saturday morning we got to spend more time with family before hopping in the car and heading back South on the 5.  The drive went pretty well again....until the last 15 minutes or so.  Connor was super tired after such a big day and didn't have the best night's sleep or naps.  He finally snapped and lost it in the back seat.  Owen decided that looked like quite a bit of fun and decided to join in.  We had crying in stereo.

All in all the trip went as well as we could have expected and we were both so happy to be able to celebrate with family, to introduce everyone to Owen, and to show ourselves that we can still do these things with the newest member of the clan.