Our friend from college, Amy, got married this weekend in the Outer Banks. When we got the invitation in the mail way back when, Tom and I knew we wanted to attend, but weren't sure if the logistics of travel and lodging would work out. Lucky for us, our friends Nick and Rachel were super generous and offered to share their hotel room with us for the weekend--even though we warned them of the possible hazards of sharing close quarters with a toddler. They are brave people and they insisted they were up for the challenge, so we boarded the dogs at the kennel and headed for the beach on Friday afternoon.
I'll admit--we got off to a rough start. When we arrived at the hotel (which couldn't have been better, by the way), we decided to take Libby for a late night swim at the hotel pool, which she loved. Something she did not love so much was going to bed following her late night swim. We did everything right--we followed our exact same "at home" bedtime routine (down to saying goodnight to various inanimate objects), we kissed her, gave her Bunny, turned out the light and quietly closed the door, standing in the hallway to wait for her to drift off to dreamland. Not so much. She screamed bloody murder. Then we tried getting into bed ourselves, thinking that if she saw us falling asleep, she would get the picture. Wrong again. This time, she stood in her hotel-issue crib looking at us and yelling, "Oh no! Oh no!" over and over. Finally, in desperation, we tried putting her into bed with us (seventeen months old isn't too old to start co-sleeping, is it?). This was also an epic fail. Finally she exhausted herself enough to pass out for a couple hours in the crib, but ultimately ended up sleeping the majority of the night laying horizontally across our bed, so that Tom and I were each confined to a tiny sliver of the edge of the bed. Fortunately, Nick and Rachel were at the rehearsal dinner during this nightmare, so they didn't have to witness it firsthand.
I'm glad to report that the rest of the trip went much more smoothly. We spent much of Saturday morning on the beach (Libby hated the water but loved collecting shells in her bucket), and then headed off to the wedding, which was great. Amy was beautiful, the weather was perfect and the drinks were free--what more could you ask for? Libby loved dancing and got plenty of attention at the reception.
We had originally planned to go home on Sunday, but Nick and Rachel generously insisted they would love to host us one more night, so we stayed. We got to spend another day on the beach (while Libby napped upstairs in our hotel room, monitored by our rigged cell phones) and then enjoyed a pizza dinner and drinks by the fire with friends before hitting the road this morning.
We feel so lucky to have such great friends who made this trip possible for us. Cheers to Amy and Eric, and cheers to Nick and Rachel too--you guys are the best! Now, I'm going to enjoy my Libby-free bed.
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