Thompson Family Vacation 2010: Gettysburg

I already told you about our camping trip this summer with my family, but I haven't posted yet about our trip with Paul's family to Gettysburg.

Paul's cousin, Rachel and his Mema, flew in from San Francisco. We had not seen them in over a year. Neither of them had met Belle, except through Skype. It was high time! Mema really wanted to see Gettysburg and let's be honest....whatever Mema wants trumps anything else the rest of us wants :-) She has seniority and doesn't get the opportunity to head out to Gettysburg any ol' time.

Considering that the drive to Gettysburg from Grand Rapids was well over 10 hours, Belle did fabulous! Her Aunt Monique and Rachel totally kept her entertained in the car. A basket of new toys and a DVD player helped too! The only real drama was when we were almost there and Belle filled her diaper so terrible that everyone evacuated the van and every door was opened to air it out!


I wasn't able to really see much of Gettysburg. Belle wasn't on board with my idea of trying to push her to miss a nap, although she was very much into the hotel pool! I'm not really much of a history person, so I wasn't heartbroken over it. I was just happy to hang out with the fam and to let Paul see more of the battlefield.


The trip was a unique opportunity to have four generations together. I was so happy that Belle was able to meet Mema. We learned a lot about what it is like to travel with an 11 month old, but all in all I was happy with how Belle did in the car! Thus, it ended our summer travels :-)

Camping and Milestones

I actually wrote this post a week ago and am posting it now. I will have another post up soon about our trip to Gettysburg!

So much has been happening lately, and I feel that I have been behind in updating everyone! The past week or so have been full of milestones for Belle! These are exciting to me, but they are a little bittersweet because it reminds me how quickly everything is going! I was just saving videos we had saved on our camera onto our computer and stumbled across videos of Belle right when she was born. It is amazing how much they can change in 10 months!

Belle's second milestone has been popping her first tooth. I have been waiting and checking her mouth to see a little tooth in there! Well, during our camping trip a tooth finally decided to poke its way through. Now, she is getting another one in! I can't even imagine what she is going to look like with teeth!

The last milestone happened yesterday. When Belle woke up yesterday Paul walked into her room and she was standing up in her crib. She is able to pull herself up and was happy to practice this all day yesterday! Her favorite place is the tv stand...and then knocking down all of my picture frames. Look like I might have to rearrange a few things now.


The last thing I wanted to share was some of the camping pics from last week. I haven't gone camping in AGES. Some of my most favorite memories growing up was camping. I cannot wait to give memories like this to my kids. My entire family was there with all of the kiddos. It was fun, but very busy....well more busy for them :-) Belle loved the water and could sit in the kiddie pool forever.