First Road Trip

In anticipation of our upcoming drive to Hilton Head we decided to take the boys on a practice mini road trip to see how they handled being in the car for an extended period of time. And to be perfectly honest, Will and I also wanted a test run to see exactly how much stuff we needed to pack for these babies and how much we could fit in the car. We chose a little town in northeast Georgia called Helen, which is a replica Bavarian town in the mountains. Each year they host an Oktoberfest and our trip coincided with the opening weekend.

Helping mom fold laundry before we left 

It takes quite a bit longer to pack up a car for a road trip with babies than we anticipated. Will had a target departure time of 11:00 AM. We were pulling out of our driveway at 12:40. Not ideal for a five hour drive into the eastern time zone. We should have had things more organized the night before, but a lot of the items we were packing had to be used in the morning to feed the boys before we left. 

Another rookie mistake we won't be making again- feeding the boys too early. We fed them at their regular time instead of waiting until just before we left to get them fed. They ate before we started packing up the car, so when the packing took us longer than anticipated it meant the boys went quite a bit longer than we intended between feeds. Thankfully all three are good car riders and were total troopers. They slept the majority of the drive which meant we never had to stop and feed them- Something we were hoping to avoid since it would be quite a long pit stop to feed 3 babies. We were willing to if necessary, but lucked out and didn't need to. They started squawking about 45 minutes before we got to Helen so we just pushed through and were able to feed them as soon as we got to our cabin. 

We didn't have the fall weather we were hoping to catch. 80 degree temps meant these adorable vests were just photo props.

We didn't have a big agenda planned for our quick trip. We took the boys out to their first restaurant for lunch one day. We picked a place that had a very large covered outdoor patio and were lucky that it was relatively quiet. We got a few stares wheeling in with two strollers full of babies but they boys were perfect the whole time. Griffin and Cooper slept through the entire lunch and Will got to come out and hang with Mom and Dad while we ate and enjoyed a beer. It was so nice to sit down at a restaurant and enjoy a leisurely lunch!

Wills lunching

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Helen. Several people asked about the boys but for the most  part we went under the radar. One thing that's different when traveling with triplets- you can't just "pop" into a store together for a quick peek at things. Will and I would take turns- one of us would go inside to look at something while the other waited outside with the strollers and then we'd switch and let the other one go in. 

Waiting for Dad outside of a shop

Helen

Helen

All the streets have Bavarian names

The closest we got to the bier hall. They allowed smoking so we kept the boys away from the actual Oktoberfest festivities.

I'm so glad we took a couple days and got out of town. It's funny how the boys' schedule didn't change much- our day still very much revolved around their needs and we had to do the same "chores" at the cabin that we do at home (dishes, pumping, feeding, changing, etc...) But it felt more relaxed to be on vacation with them. The dishes seemed easier, the changes and feedings felt faster and we were able to snuggle with them a bit longer. I'll take it!

Griffin is a great cuddler

I think the trip was a huge success and we're better prepared for what to expect when we leave for the beach in a couple weeks!