The Honeymoon's Over

Oh, jetlag.  Why do you make life so complicated?  It's a lot more difficult when it's not just me who has to recover- it's poor Niall, too.  He woke up really late this morning, took the world's longest nap and then zonked out for the night at 6:30 pm.  Me, on the other hand, I have SOOO much to do I can feel my head spinning and I just know it's going to take another couple days for Niall to get back on track.

Aside from the craziness of today (which I'll have to talk about tomorrow), the wedding/vacation was great.  It was definitely different than the vacations we are used to- even the one we took with Niall several months ago.  For some reason, it was just so much more exhausting.  The flight was incredibly long- 10 hours including the layover- and he's so much more active now, it was tough to keep up.  No plane napping any more- or reading a magazine or listening to an ipod or relaxing in general.

I have to be grateful, though, because he was as good as a traveling family could hope for.  He only cried for maybe 10 minutes total over the course of both trips.  He just wanted to explore.  If it wasn't looking out the window or grabbing at the poor guy next to us, he was crawling all over the dirty disgusting floor.  But I was too tired to fight him on that one.  At one point he got stuck under the seat and we had to really work together to get him out of there.  He also liked picking up the crumbs and playing with them in between his fingers.  I never in a million years would have thought I would allow that.  You learn to choose your battles.

Anyway, Lauren (my stepsister) was beautiful and beaming with happiness, and the setting was even more amazing than I could have imagined.  We were literally right up there on the cliffs with the sun setting right in front of our eyes.

We had some of the most amazing food we've ever had, but I can't say the same for Niall.  He was stuck with the baby food jars which he poo-poo'd the whole time.  Nothin like mom's home cookin ;)

But in the process, the cutest thing happened.  He was making the most horrible grimace, so I thought "I have to get a picture of this!"  When I went to snap a photo, he purposely smiled at the camera.  It was so bizarre.  How could he possibly know that you're supposed to smile at a camera?  So, I tested the theory and snapped another shot.  Same thing!  I did it 5 more times and each one just got cuter and funnier.

The trip was a blast, but it blew by in what felt like 2 days.  We are completely exhausted and it almost felt like half work, half vacation, but we loved the vacation part.  Would I do the whole thing again?  Absolutely, but I would spend the extra money to get a direct flight.  No more wasting an entire day in travel.  And I would definitely allot at least 3 recovery days when I got home ;)