Your First Trip: The Annual Patten Family Summer Vacation

Dear Izzy,

When you were three weeks old, mommy and daddy decided to take you on your first trip.  We were taking you to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to spend time with daddy's family.  Many people advised us not to do it, saying that you were too young to travel and that it would be too difficult to travel with an infant.  But you know what?  It was a piece of cake.  You're an excellent traveler!  You slept through most of the drive to the Smoky Mountains.  In fact, mommy and daddy had to wake you up just to get you to eat and to change your diapers.   Go Izzy!

Your travel companions, Wallace and Wardell

Our family rented a huge cabin at the Sherwood Forest resort community in Pigeon Forge.  Our cabin was on the tippy tippy top of the mountain, and we had a great view of the Smokies from our back deck.  When we arrived, mommy and daddy were afraid that you would get spoiled by all of your relatives... but, to tell you the truth, it was mommy and daddy who got spoiled on the trip.  Your aunties, your uncles, your cousins, and your grandma all helped to take care of you -- rocking you to sleep, playing with you on the floor, feeding and changing you... It was awesome.  They even babysat you for one night so that mommy and daddy could have a date night.  It was so very nice -- and we talked about you the whole time.




Although we were in the Great Smoky Mountains, you were much too young to participate in many of the mountain activities that were planned like zip lining, tubing, and hiking.  But you still had fun!  You got to go to the aquarium with mommy and daddy where we took you through the underwater view of all the fish.  You slept through most of it, but once you woke up in the underwater tube, you looked genuinely frightened intrigued by the sharks swimming over your head.




You also got to go visit the Titanic museum with grandma and your aunties... but you slept through all of that tour as well.  (You did a lot of sleeping, kid.)  Each of us got to be a passenger on the Titanic on the tour, and, at the end of the tour, we found out whether we lived or died.  Your Aunt Meredith and mommy lived.  Whoo hoo!




It was a wonderful week in the mountains.  The week went by way too fast.  You even turned a month old on the trip (a whole month!).  I can't believe how fast you are growing.  A small part of me can't wait for you to grow up a little more so that you can join in on some of the fun things your older cousins get to do on our family vacations.  But for now, I will savor you as the baby that you are.

Love,

Mommy